Today’s blog post will be reviewing the book Wuthering Heights. The article is written by Kriti Rana from the website Not So Random Ramblings. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847) is a tale of tragedy and revenge. Heathcliff, one of the prime characters of the novel, lies at the center of the tragedy and is the […]
I have managed to get some critical progress done on Shadows and Stars today. I have a few major plot holes in my first draft. My goal over the weekend was to fill them and add a significant amount of words (though still keeping the work concise) to the text.
I forget what I did Friday evening. If I recall correctly, I work on finding book reviewers in library journals. Libraries buy a lot books. I became familiar with the process of submitting a book to a library journal for review and what the major journals are.
On Saturday, I mailed off a copy of Nocturne… for review. I ran some errands. I was stymied in coming up with ideas for Shadows and Stars. I got a few words written, but couldn’t get the creative juices flowing all that well. I fell asleep on the sofa.
On Sunday, I woke up on the sofa about 6:00 a.m. I went to bed, but had an idea, though not relation to Shadows and Stars. I had been thinking about Nocturne and that I still have a few poems laying here here and probably some at home in Kentucky. On the spur of the moment, I decided to create another volume of poetry. I decided to call it Remnants (of a Life). I would put in it some of my early unpublished poems that I could find here, and maybe some prose shorts, and maybe some stuff from my things in storage in Kentucky. Eventually, I decided not to use the prose. I went through a few dozen spiral-bound notebooks dating from way back, some dating back to the 90’s, and pulled out a few unpublished poems. I started typing those into a draft. I decided to put together a collection of 365 poems of varying lengths, though I would have to write most of them. I chose 365 so that the book would be relatively thick and because 365 is the number of days in a year, the basic cycle of human existence. That consumed the morning. I did find about half a dozen poems that I decided to include in another edition of Nocturne. I will also gather whatever poems I can find in Kentucky that are suitable and include them in that edition also. All that took up the morning. The poems will be primarily observations on life. Some will be on past relationships.
Other than that, I stayed home, but still had problems with the creative juices with regards to Shadows and Stars. I got a few words written though. I spent a lot of time staring into space. I went over a lot of my past notes on Shadows and Stars trying to see if I had had a suitable idea in the past that I could use.
Today, I spent at home. I went over my notes again. I came up with ideas to fill two of the major holes. I did not type up text, per se. I typed up some rough ideas of the plot for those two sections, refined those, and typed them up. That made me feel real good. Now, I can write those two sections and have my details covered. I am now checking for other plot holes and I took care of a few small ones today. I think I can make some decent progress this month. I have been trying to overcome these plot holes for a couple months anyhow.
The end is in sight. Thank God.
I would write more, but it’s late, and I have to go to work in the morning.
Don’t forget to comment, like, and follow.
Hasta luego.
The following works are now available at my Amazon page: amazon.com/author/philslattery.
Shadows and Stars is my first, full-fledged novel. It is a science-fiction tale about a scientist who invents a portal and transports to an alien world where he becomes caught up in a revolution. I am finishing the first draft. The final draft will probably not require many changes. At approximately 135,000 words, it will be about 300 pages in 6 x9 format. This is how I visualize the cover currently.
Every year, PEN America releases an anthology of the best short stories written by first time published writers. This year, a dozen writers were selected from a wide-ranging array of literary journals – both in print and online. They were judged and selected by Tracy O’Neill, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, and Deb Olin Unferth. I asked seven […]
via Meet seven writers collected in the Pen America Best Debut Short Stories 2020 anthology — debutiful
The following works are now available at my Amazon page: amazon.com/author/philslattery.
Shadows and Stars is my first, full-fledged novel. It is a science-fiction tale about a scientist who invents a portal and transports to an alien world where he becomes caught up in a revolution. I am finishing the first draft. The final draft will probably not require many changes. At approximately 135,000 words, it will be about 300 pages in 6 x9 format. This is how I visualize the cover currently.
Cinefx’s focus is, naturally, on movies vs. writing. However, I have seen this video at least three to four times and it is one of the best analyses of what dialogue is. Watching this for the first time was enlightening.
I learn a lot about how to write from studying movies. After all, movies are just another form of storytelling. While writing a novel does not involve concerns like camera angle or stagecraft or background, there are commonalities with film such as dialogue, character development, and plot.
Besides, I simply love movies. I have probably seen a lot more movies than I have read books. I love the experience of going into a theatre and being focused on an immense screen reacting to the scenes in unison with the rest of the audience. Unfortunately, I have not been able to make it to the movies much over the last few years and Coronavirus has not helped matters. I haven’t been to the movies at all since well before the Coronavirus pandemic began.
Streaming movies on your home TV is just not the same experience as watching them in a theater. Even if you have a screen that is fifty feet across and a completely dark room. Odds are you won’t have the same size audience. Imagine going to a football game and you are the only fan in the bleachers. It’s not the same experience as when the bleachers are filled. Humans are social animals. While we often appreciate solitude, being in the company of others is our natural state.
Movies are an interesting form of storytelling. It must be, without a doubt, challenging to tell a good story in less than two hours. If you own any audiobooks, check the play time on them. Unabridged audiobooks of novels last anywhere from seven to thirteen hours or more. This is undoubtedly why a lot of movies are based on short stories or novellas or plays. A really long play might last three hours. Even if someone tries to condense a novel like Roots or Don Quixote into a TV miniseries, the miniseries will still not be able to cover all the nuances of the novel, though a lot of the novel’s nuances may be covered by the actors’ performance and the scenery which can be shown vs. being described.
These are some of the reasons I love to watch Cinefix on YouTube. It really helps me with my art of storytelling. I see things from a different perspective.
One way to look at this is that when you read a story, you probably visualize the events in that story just as you would see them in a movie. Both deal with the images that form in your mind as you experience a story. While with a novel, you have to imagine how the events are depicted, with a movie you eliminate this step and the events are depicted for you–hopefully in accordance with how the underlying novel or play was written. Filmmakers are notorious for changing endings trying to improve the storyline or to develop their own art.
By the way, when you compare the cost of going to a movie that will last for two hours vs. the cost of buying a novel that will keep you entertained for ten, you can see the novel is the better deal economically.
But I digress.
Anyway, let me know your thoughts.
Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.
Hasta luego.
Reddit is one of the most popular social media sites in the world because it provides a platform for almost anyone to talk about almost anything. There are subreddits for nearly every mainstream or niche hobby a person could think of—so yes, there are many, many great subreddits for book-lovers. Whatever book related advice, discussion, […]
via Top 5 Subreddits for Book-lovers — The Spellbinding Shelf
I have spent a long time writing a short story entitled “The Interrogation of General Tsak” and I finished it today. I can take a quick breather before I get back to Shadows and Stars.
This is the story of a self-centered Air Force colonel who is interrogating a captured,princiled alien general after a failed invasion of Earth at the end of a decade-long war. It is 5,813 words in length.
As I wrote this off and on over the last several months, I kept discovering more and more nuances that I had to answer in order to avoid any plot holes. I really hate to leave any plot holes in a serious story. It makes me appear careless and unprofessional. I have finally worked them all out and the story is now intricately woven together like a weaver finch’s nest. I hope it holds together as well.
I had intended to spend the day working on Shadows and Stars, but over the last few days, I have had an inexplicable drive to finish this story and to cover all the minute details. I have spent the day doing that and running a few errands. I feel this is a story that will fall apart if something is overlooked.
I have submitted the story to The Dark magazine. I should hear from them soon.
One of the errands I ran today was to mail a copy of Nocturne to American Book Review. Hopefully, I will get a good review from them. Wish me well.
I spent a lot of yesterday researching getting my books carried by libraries. In order to be carried by a major library, a book needs good reviews in a respected journal. Unfortunately, I have been trying to find reviewers on Amazon and Goodreads and on various websites. I have also learned that libraries also prefer to purchase books from Ingram Spark or another wholesaler rather than directly from a website such as Amazon.
This is another reason I need to pursue publishing the print versions of my works with Ingram-Spark. I have started the process with A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror. So far, I like the process more than I like the Amazon process. I have more control over how my final work will appear among other things. I will probably publish Nocturne with them next.
So now I am trying to find ways to be reviewed in a journal respected by major libraries. I am finding out that there several of these. Of course, each has a different submittal process. I will take it a step at a time as usual.
Major libraries also like to carry books that are in the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, for a self-published book to be carried in the Library of Congress, it must be submitted unpublished. I will have to give this a shot with my next self-published book, which may be another collection of my horror shorts. It might be another poetry book if I can find more of my poems from the 80’s-90’s.
Let me know your thoughts and suggestions.
Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.
Hasta luego.
I have uploaded two more recordings of my interviews with Traci Hales-Vass for her Write-On Four Corners program on KSJE public radio to accompany the one I already have up. Both last about half an hour (with no commercials). Neither has any video. They are only audio. They are in tiny print on the right hand bar below the first video/interview I had with KSJE. Unfortunately, I am not sufficiently skilled in WordPress to change the size of the font. They are between the Top Posts and Pages link and my Tweets.
The interview below it is from May 24, 2017. We discuss the creation of the Farmington Writer’s Circle and the upcoming Meet and Greet to introduce local authors to their readers. We also discussed my latest collection of short stories “The Scent and Other Stories”, which is available at Amazon.
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and comment.
Hasta Luego.
The following works are now available at my Amazon page: amazon.com/author/philslattery.
Shadows and Stars is my first, full-fledged novel. It is a science-fiction tale about a scientist who invents a portal and transports to an alien world where he becomes caught up in a revolution. I am finishing the first draft. The final draft will probably not require many changes. At approximately 135,000 words, it will be about 300 pages in 6 x9 format. This is how I visualize the cover currently.
Title – Edge of Extinction – aka The Brink (2020) Director – Andrew Gilbert (Infected) Cast – Luke Hobson, Georgie Smibert, Chris Kaye Plot – 15 years after the devastation of World War 3, a group of survivors must fend for their lives on a daily basis as they battle the elements, the lands and […]
via Film Review – Edge of Extinction (2020) — Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 