2018 May in Review, June in Preview

Last week I attended a video release party for a local rap artist named Purple Queen. It was held at a little dive bar near my home that has recently put a stage in the back room and is showcasing local musicians. Everyone who came out to the party was friends, contributors to the project, and other local rappers showing their support.

Her new song is called “Giants” and the hook says, “How you root impacts how you grow.” (Watch the video here.)

It reminded me a lot of my experience at KGB Bar in the East Village two years ago when I flew out to New York for one day just to hear a short story I wrote read by an actor there for the online publication Liars’ League NYC. The local support was strong. Other New York City writers showed up just to connect and cheer on other writers.

I loved that feeling and didn’t realize until Purple Queen’s release last week that I was missing that in my literary life. And the thing is, the Twin Cities have plenty of these types of events for writers just like myself. It really renewed my interest in finding that community—those roots—here where I live and using it to help me grow as an artist.

In May I:

  • Wrote: About 3000 words between two new short stories
  • Read: The Hangman by Louise Penny and started The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
  • Met with a lawyer friend of mine to go over funeral law and insurance fraud to help solidify one of my mystery character’s backstory
  • Realized I had no clue about another mystery character’s backstory so I’ve started doing the character development exercises from the book The 90 Day Novel by Alan Watt
  • Shopped an unpublished story around to two paying markets; got rejected from both
  • Applied to the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Program

In June I hope to continue shopping at least two short stories for publication, read another couple of mysteries, and begin re-outlining my mystery with the insight I hope to gain from these character development exercises. May saw me come out of my winter slump. In June I hope to be up and running fully!

2018 April in review, May in preview

When I’m feeling uninspired, I like to pick up books on writing. I find the little nuggets of wisdom, most of which I’ve heard many times over in the plethora of classes I’ve taken at the Loft Literary Center, to be comforting. And, just like a well-timed fortune cookie, sometimes what I’m reading happens to just align with where my mind is and something “clicks.”

That happened this month when I was reading over a well used (and angrily annotated by a student I could only imagine was forced to read at gunpoint) version of John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction.

To paraphrase, his first chapter was focused on the first two steps of writing. Number one was get the basics of grammar and punctuation down. Number two was to pick a genre.

That’s it. Pick a genre and read it and write it.

And it was the “read it” part that stupidly dumfounded me.

Here I have been struggling to complete this mystery novel, and I have still never been as inspired as when I read Megan Abbott’s You Will Know Me. That book set me on a whole new course with my own. It got me thinking of twists and red herrings in a new way and it motivated me to make my work in progress better.

My writing goals for May, along with some editing and new short story writing, include finding more mystery novels to read to be inspired and motivated to work on my own. And, with the weather getting better and better, I’m already looking forward to an afternoon walk to the lake to read with the setting sun on my face!

Happy writing and reading to everyone this month!