Author. Writer. Editor. Fool.
This was given to me by Stephen Segal of the awesome Weird Tales and I had to share it. If you’ve ever submitted a story or manuscript to a publisher or magazine, you want to read It Came From The Slush Pile. Trust me. Just read it. It’s funny as hell, but you’ll learn something, too. The only gimmick worth having is good writing.
Jim McDevitt, my co-author on A Year of Hitchcock, occasionally posts to the Hitchcock Wiki’s message board. One of the other posters there is now taking a journey through Hitchcock’s career just as we did. Even better, he is using our book as a guide. How great is that? It’s wonderfully gratifying to know that your work is being read, used and enjoyed by someone. It’s even BETTER to know that you’ve inspired them to take the same journey. Check out his viewing and reading experience in this thread.
Even as I type this people are reading my first book. And the fact is, not everyone will like it. That’s okay. It’s not a big deal. (Besides, I can always blame Jim for the parts people don’t like, right Jim? Right?) As I continue to work and write, and as people continue to read what I’ve written, I hope I don’t fall prey to launching into defensive rants against my readers. It seems sort of counter-productive, no? Not only are you not changing anyone’s mind, you’re just coming across like a jerk. It would be like a best-selling author lashing out against Amazon reviewers. Why do this? Please, Eric, never do this. (That’s me talking to myself.)
Jim and I are working on the follow-up to A Year of Hitchcock. We can’t say much about it at the moment other than that it’s in progress and is also an Alfred Hitchcock book. A full book proposal is written — if you recall my How I Got Published posts you recall what they are — and the book is outlined. We are currently in the research stage and expect to begin writing the first chapter in the days ahead. This one is going to be focused on a specific topic, an in-depth look at an aspect of Hitchcock’s films we find particularly compelling. The idea sprang directly from the commentary in A Year of Hitchcock. So, watch this spot, check our website, and…
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Sometimes you have to take something you’ve created and stomp it to pieces in order to make it work. Earlier this week I began writing a novel I’ve dabbled with on and off for years. I’ve made a few aborted attempts to write it, but other things have always gotten in the way. It has remained incomplete, sort of taunting me from my files. I like the story and world of the novel. I’ve always intended to finish it. So now I’m doing exactly that. At the moment, I have eight chapters completed out of a projected 30 to 40. Thing is, those chapters are crap. Oh, the story they tell is a good story, but the writing? The writing is garbage. See, those chapters…
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