Tag Archives: writing

Breaking Radio Silence Redux

It’s been over two years since I’ve talked about my books on the radio, and I’ve written a few hundred thousand words since then, but the long national nightmare is finally over.

Tune into KOOP FM 91.7 (or online at koop.org) at 6 pm CST on Wednesday 1/28/2015 to hear me discussing Postcards from Fred and Open Season on the program Writing on the Air.

To hold you over, here are some highlights from the 2009 show.

Breaking Radio Silence

It’s been over two years since I’ve talked about my books on the radio, and I’ve written a few hundred thousand words since then, but the long national nightmare is finally over.

Tune into KOOP FM 91.7 (or online at koop.org) at 6 pm CST on Wednesday 1/28/2015 to hear me discussing Postcards from Fred and Open Season on the program Writing on the Air.

To hold you over, here are some highlights from the 2012 show.

A reader who gets it, except for . . .

I have sometimes described the Fred books as a seduction of language, you get swept up in the writing, but when you get to the end, you realize that nothing much really happened.

Imagine how gratified I was when I read this review of Welcome to Fred on Amazon by J. Bitney. Here’s an excerpt:

“I cannot really “get into” a book which has such a light plot and then does not really resolve in any way. I would have given it a “3”, but anyone who can write as beautifully as the author deserves better than that. I kept reading just because I enjoyed the author’s way with words and the clever turns of phrase, but what I kept waiting for did not occur; nothing happened.”

Of course, there really is a plot, however evanescent, and a resolution, however vestigial, but I think J captured the essence of what I set out to do in the Fred books.

I say that she gets it “except for” because if a story captivates you, there’s no need to ding it because it’s not plot-heavy.

Of course, if you insist on a more plot-forward story, you can always check out my other books, which bring more plot to the table while retaining the style.

Strange Vacation gathers in the offing

We have a cover design. We have the back jacket copy. Can April Fool’s Day be far behind?

Want to get sneak peeks at new books, freebies, and an email when a new book is available? Sign up for the email newsletter. Because next comes a Hensley book. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

Berford Oswald Wiggins vows to take his best friend on a killer vacation. And a Wiggins always keeps his word.
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Berf loves Jake like a brother, but not like a brother-in-law. After all, he wouldn’t wish his sister on anyone, least of all Jake. When Berf’s warning falls on deaf ears, he falls back on The Code and serves as Jake’s best man.

The ill-fated marriage scarcely lasts two hours before going south, and Berf decides he and Jake should do the same. But the trip is far from an idyllic escape.

A series of bizarre accidents gets Berf to thinking of Spider, an extreme sports freak who recommended this special Cancún deal. Did Spider ever come back from his Caribbean vacation?

And when a fellow traveler drops dead out of a clear blue sky, Berf suspects they might not be going home next week. Or ever.

The novelist as a sports star

Sometimes, late at night on the deck, I will write a particularly tasty passage and wish I had somebody to read it to right then. I’ll even read it back to myself out loud and say, “Now that’s some good writing, right there. Top shelf!”

Blake Atwood reminded me of this Monty Python sketch, one of my favorites.

I have often reflected on how weird it is for some professions to not only be done as thousands or millions of people watch (sports, music, acting) but even weirder that some are subjected to endless analysis and discussion.

Consider the pre-game/post-game shows for football and other sports. These things occur before/after every single game for the entire season, hours and hours spent dissecting every player and play, their past performance, their future prospects. The only other profession that comes close is the politician.

Imagine if we did the same thing for musicians. What if every stop on a rock star’s tour was televised, with instant replays of especially tasty passages, and post-concert analysis of the bands performance were dissected and analyzed, compared to the last ten concerts, and compared to stats and abilities of the other national rock stars in their conference or league?

This video spoofs that kind of thing for novelists.