Thursday, October 9, 2014

The Worlds Authors Live In


I remember years ago when working in the business world and raising a family. I had numerous roles to play including a businessperson, husband and father, Now that I’ve retired into writing, I still retain a number of those roles, but have added a number of new dimensions—the writing worlds I live in.

To effective write a novel, I have to immerse myself in the story. This entails putting myself into the role of the protagonist, feeling what he’s feeling, seeing, hearing and smelling his environment, in other words, living in that world. Writing has been therapeutic for me, giving me a chance to capture the ideas swirling around in my head. Although I didn’t start writing until I was fifty-six years old, I had a lifetime of ideas ready to get onto paper or into a computer.

What are some of the worlds I’m living in right now? First thing in the morning I work on my new manuscript. At the moment it’s a sequel to my paranormal geezer-lit mystery, The Back Wing. This new one is called The Front Wing and takes place in a retirement home where this is a front wing with normal but snobby people and a back wing with friendly but extraordinary residents. In the afternoon I’m working on two revision projects, making rewrites to a manuscript called Court Trouble, a mystery novel that involves the game of platform tennis, a sport I play. Then I’m also editing the biography I’m writing of a World War II veteran, titled, The Greatest Chicken Thief in All of Europe. So every day, I’m in these three worlds as well as my real life world. Keeps me busy.

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