Friday, December 2, 2011

Back from the dead . . .

     Needless to say, this blog has spent the better part of two months lying by the wayside, conspicuously silent on the Egyptian and Tunisian elections, the end of the Libyan Civil War, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's re-election in Liberia, and so forth.
     Rather than dwell on the causes behind the lapse, I'll focus instead on what I've accomplished in the blackout:

     1. Responding to feedback from readers and literary agents, I performed a number of much-needed revisions to Companions of the Garden, rewriting Chapter 2, where the energy dragged, and where the initial dialogue between Dig and Abida had an academic quality that felt forced and unrealistic. I also axed my self-indulgent attempts to be Faulkner via the drunken rant at the climax of the chapter, going instead for sustained realism. It was the same philosophy I used for my other big re-write: Chapter 22, another rant that turned off most of the people who read it. The overwhelming majority of the text reveals itself through simple, direct language, which I've now extended to the trouble spots. The product? A much better novel, with more room yet for growth!

     2. I wrote a short story. Entitled (for the moment) "First Prophet," it offers a feminist re-imagining of the tale of Eve. Readers will be getting back to me shortly with thoughts. I'm excited to see what comes out of it!

      All glowing aside, though, neither endeavor needed to preclude the existence of the blog, nor will they do so going forward.
      As with the publishing process itself, my philosophy on this project is not to get back on the horse until I've found a better way of riding the darn thing. To that end, I'll be looking at ways to spice up the blog, with the aim of making it more engaging, more interactive, and more conducive to exploring the text itself.
      More on this soon.
      Thanks, as always, for the support.

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