Tuesday Kuykendall

Sunset on the roof in Seattle, photo by Author

My first draft of this month’s post was something of a screed full of nasty words because the world is going crazy, I had a horrible dream, and I have an unwanted birthday this month. But once I finished the draft, I felt better because writing is a superpower. So I deleted it, except for one new word– I love new words:

Vitiate

1: to make faulty or defective: Impair

… the comic impact is vitiated by obvious haste …—William Styron

2: to debase in moral or aesthetic status

a mind vitiated by prejudice

3: to make ineffective

fraud vitiates a contract.

I found it in a NYT article. The last one I’m going to read for a while. I need to turn all that off so better words can step in; like neighborhood, friends, family, the juicy, sweet, tart flavor of an orange, the rustic smell of my dog after a play in the rain, black crows gathering against the backdrop of the sunset on the bones of trees. Crimson sunsets, velvety wings, indigo eyes, vivid, radiant, misty, eerie, and mysterious worlds. These are the words I want in my head right now.

Writing is the great escape. I recommend it. And if you’re not a writer, that’s OK; you can still escape into books. Pick good ones. Please. Pick books that force you to your dictionary (or Google, I don’t care). The best barricade against slop and misinformation is good information. There’s something about a vast vocabulary that does something to your brain, a good something, the opposite of what the shit-show we see today does. (My recommendation: read or re-read “Hail Mary” by Andy Weir before the movie comes out – soooo good).

Who knows, maybe someday a few of you will pick mine. (I dislike emojis, or I would add a smiley face).

Despite the lunacy, I’m doing a lot of positive writing. I joined an online writing—thingy—I don’t know what to call it. It’s not a class in the traditional sense, on or off-line. But there is a lot of learning coupled with developmental editing. And it’s been wonderful. I’m afraid to jinx it by claiming it’s worth every penny, but it might be. I’ve spent a proper education’s worth of money this past year, and it’s about time it starts to pay off.

I now have three complete novels, books of more than 60,000 words that have beginnings, middles, ends, plots, characters, descriptions, places, situations, and drama. I’m boggled. They are starting to weigh me down though. I want to get the final polish completed and send them out into the world to succeed or fail on their own merit. I have a final step for two of them before that’s possible (the third is still in draft stages). That last line-by-line thing they call a “Copy Edit” (you should hear the voice of Don LaFontaine). But ironically, it’s the most expensive part.

I’m not sure why that’s ironic. I guess because there are so many ways to get separated from your money when creating a book, and the most important one is the hardest and most expensive and often last, so, after you’ve spent all your money.

There’s the editorial assessment, the developmental editing, line or copyediting, proofreading, fact-checking. Add to all that the art required for a killer cover and book formatting, and soon I’m squinting at my bank account, hoping for a miracle. (OK, it’s not that bad … yet).

If I had an agent who sold my book to one of the “Big Five Publishers” (again, Don), then they would cover all of that. Although I would still be on the hook for marketing. Which is what these monthly newsletters are all about, or so I’m told by the Reddit pundits and podcasters who are the supposed “experts” (Bart Simpson’s voice).

I have a hazy strategy that includes my webpage, the newsletter, bookmarks I created on Canva and sprinkled all over my neighborhood, and a Kickstarter campaign that I keep promising to start but haven’t managed the “Kick” part.

The chorus I hear in my head is asking me why I’m doing this to myself. Why write? You’re retired Tuesday; do grandma things, crochet more, volunteer at the library. Writing is hard, and who cares if anyone reads it?

I don’t have a good answer. An idea will clutch my imagination, like a dragon from another dimension accidentally creates a worm hole in his lab and finds his way here, to Seattle, to a condo on 45th Street and a scientist soon to age out of her career who will help him get home.

Or imagining a woman and her granddaughter as two of the last twelve humans alive orbiting in a space station and waiting to die, what would that look and sound like? And 120000 words later, I’m still not sure, but I managed one possible scenario.

It would have been impossible not to write them. It doesn’t take much from inital inception for the characters to begin to ferment in my mind, they push to get out. And once their story is on the page, they insist others should read about them, or they won’t be real enough. So that is my quest. To give all these demanding characters who’ve shown up in my head, life before they drive me crazy.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you! I waffled about self-publishing, but I think it’s the right path for me, at least at this moment so I am going to do a Kickstarter. I have artists lined up, and I have giveaways like exclusive bookmarks, and pre-sales for my book. Tell your friends? A lot of those Reddit guys/gals insist that if I self-publish, it’s fine to forgo hiring an editor. I’ve read several indie books this year, and even the very good ones would have benefited from solid editing. I don’t want to be one of them, where a decent book gets side-railed by a “they’re” that should have been a “there.” That’s what my Kickstarter is for—raising the money for copyediting. I will not get rich off this endeavor, but I hope to come out of it with all my marbles.

If you haven’t already subscribed, please do so below. And feel free to peruse my blog and leave comments.

Note: “Hail Mary” is an affiliate Bookshop link and if you buy from them, I’ll get a few cents.