Ask the Author: Stephen Weinstock
Answered Questions (5)
Stephen Weinstock
Dear Irkalla,
You have made my year! Thank you so much for asking about the qaraq! You are one of a very special group of people that I am aware have bravely made it through the first three books of The Reincarnation Chronicles. To put the time and brain energy into the complexities of the books so far, and to want to go further, is a wonderful tribute to your imagination as a reader and a soul. I am so pleased you have enjoyed reading the series.
As for Book Four, now titled The Qaraq and the Unfathomable Journeys, I confess that it has been a very difficult time moving forward. A year ago the book was written, edited, in the midst of a final draft when I hit a crisis. Was the series too arcane and complex to develop a readership? I paused to re-think the series and restructure Book Four in relation to Five and Six, its sister volumes. As I went back to redo the final draft of Book Four, the coronavirus struck, my musical work in dance education became all-consuming overnight, and my family decided to move our household. For the first time in years I stopped writing on a daily basis.
"Stop whining! I just wanna read the next book!" I hear you thinking (ha!), and I wish I could satisfy your interest soon. As many positive souls looking at the world right now believe that what is happening is a purgative or revolution that will lead to a more evolved future, I believe that my writing upheaval and life changes are leading to a day soon when I will plunge back in and write Books Four, Five, and Six in semi-rapid succession. I better because there are 11 books in the series and I'm pushing 70!
So your note was such a blessing of hope to me, a message of motivation to figure out how to return to our soul-traveling friends in the qaraq. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and feel free to respond with any other questions you might have. I'd be happy to provide some teases about what's coming in Book Four, and what the Akashic Records will reveal about the qaraq's history. Be well!
Steve Weinstock
You have made my year! Thank you so much for asking about the qaraq! You are one of a very special group of people that I am aware have bravely made it through the first three books of The Reincarnation Chronicles. To put the time and brain energy into the complexities of the books so far, and to want to go further, is a wonderful tribute to your imagination as a reader and a soul. I am so pleased you have enjoyed reading the series.
As for Book Four, now titled The Qaraq and the Unfathomable Journeys, I confess that it has been a very difficult time moving forward. A year ago the book was written, edited, in the midst of a final draft when I hit a crisis. Was the series too arcane and complex to develop a readership? I paused to re-think the series and restructure Book Four in relation to Five and Six, its sister volumes. As I went back to redo the final draft of Book Four, the coronavirus struck, my musical work in dance education became all-consuming overnight, and my family decided to move our household. For the first time in years I stopped writing on a daily basis.
"Stop whining! I just wanna read the next book!" I hear you thinking (ha!), and I wish I could satisfy your interest soon. As many positive souls looking at the world right now believe that what is happening is a purgative or revolution that will lead to a more evolved future, I believe that my writing upheaval and life changes are leading to a day soon when I will plunge back in and write Books Four, Five, and Six in semi-rapid succession. I better because there are 11 books in the series and I'm pushing 70!
So your note was such a blessing of hope to me, a message of motivation to figure out how to return to our soul-traveling friends in the qaraq. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and feel free to respond with any other questions you might have. I'd be happy to provide some teases about what's coming in Book Four, and what the Akashic Records will reveal about the qaraq's history. Be well!
Steve Weinstock
Stephen Weinstock
By the way, if you read these last four answers backwards as they're presented here, you get a mini-tour through the first four books of 1001: The Reincarnation Chronicles.
Currently I am writing the first draft of Book 4 of the series. In terms of the 1001 chapters of the books, I am on Chapter 267. You know, the one about the carnivorous heterotroph. Compared to Book 3, when I suffered writer's block, or Vale as I like to call it (see the last answer), Book 4 is a piece of cake.
Of its 99 chapters, Book 4 contains two 32-chapter long frame tales. The first one is about the qaraq, or group of souls recalling their past lives, when they were the first life forms on Earth. I wrote these tales on vacation in Scotland five years ago. The second large frame tale, about the qaraq during the Exploration Era in the 1500s, I sketched in my first year of writing the series. So I have drafts of two thirds of the book already and it's moving FAST. Yay!
Currently I am writing the first draft of Book 4 of the series. In terms of the 1001 chapters of the books, I am on Chapter 267. You know, the one about the carnivorous heterotroph. Compared to Book 3, when I suffered writer's block, or Vale as I like to call it (see the last answer), Book 4 is a piece of cake.
Of its 99 chapters, Book 4 contains two 32-chapter long frame tales. The first one is about the qaraq, or group of souls recalling their past lives, when they were the first life forms on Earth. I wrote these tales on vacation in Scotland five years ago. The second large frame tale, about the qaraq during the Exploration Era in the 1500s, I sketched in my first year of writing the series. So I have drafts of two thirds of the book already and it's moving FAST. Yay!
Stephen Weinstock
I've been writing for over a decade, but luckily have only had one bout of writer's block in that time, a serious one, but from which I learned a lot. I was writing Book 3 of 1001: The Reincarnation Chronicles, which delves deeply into the history of Islamic fiction. There is a central section of the book where the qaraq, the group of souls remembering the past lives they have shared through time, recalls two dozen lifetimes in Medieval days, when they were compiling a special version of the Arabian Nights. It's full of court intrigue, Islamic Empire history, and literary conundrums. That is, it's a very dense section.
My dependable writing process (see the previous answer) started moving slower, and then every page came out with more difficulty, and finally I was writing only one sentence a day. The density of the section had trapped me like a fisherman's net. I struggled with it for several months until I suspected something more was going on.
The best description of writer's block I came across was from Anne Lamott's wonderful Bird by Bird. She says that it is simply a time when the artist is depleted, there's no more gas in the unconscious, and there is nothing to do but recharge. This means resting (I had been working super-hard at my day job, too, but had the summer off), enjoying nature or self-nurturing things (I was on vacation in Amherst), and continuing to write, but in simple, non-goal-oriented ways (I found a copy of the Artist's Way Journal in a used bookstore and started journaling every morning).
That fall, when the Journal process was nearly complete, I was ready to write chapters again, started slowly, and was up to speed soon after. The hardest part of the whole experience was not knowing what was up at the beginning. But if I hit that place again, as I probably will, I'll recognize it and know what to do. I've also become a bit mindful of not pushing too hard and depleting myself (a bit). Maybe this knowledge alone will keep me healthy.
My dependable writing process (see the previous answer) started moving slower, and then every page came out with more difficulty, and finally I was writing only one sentence a day. The density of the section had trapped me like a fisherman's net. I struggled with it for several months until I suspected something more was going on.
The best description of writer's block I came across was from Anne Lamott's wonderful Bird by Bird. She says that it is simply a time when the artist is depleted, there's no more gas in the unconscious, and there is nothing to do but recharge. This means resting (I had been working super-hard at my day job, too, but had the summer off), enjoying nature or self-nurturing things (I was on vacation in Amherst), and continuing to write, but in simple, non-goal-oriented ways (I found a copy of the Artist's Way Journal in a used bookstore and started journaling every morning).
That fall, when the Journal process was nearly complete, I was ready to write chapters again, started slowly, and was up to speed soon after. The hardest part of the whole experience was not knowing what was up at the beginning. But if I hit that place again, as I probably will, I'll recognize it and know what to do. I've also become a bit mindful of not pushing too hard and depleting myself (a bit). Maybe this knowledge alone will keep me healthy.
Stephen Weinstock
By the time I starting writing Book Two of 1001: The Reincarnation Chronicles, I had developed a daily writing process. I find that inspiration is that thing that comes unexpectedly, in the form of an idea. It's usually after a good night's sleep where I go to bed with a problem, or while I'm waking up in the shower. But not during writing time. So I needed a foolproof process to get the words out every day.
There are 11 hidden structures in 1001, and each one occurs in every chapter. So I developed a form that supplies info for each structure, as well as basics for plot and character. I fill out the form as I begin each chapter, then put the contents in an order as it occurs in the chapter's narrative. This gives me my outline, but by the time I'm finishing this outline I've solved most of the problems in the chapter, found two or three things I'm excited about, and have highlighted the main action, theme, or spine of the chapter. Then I write it up, bit by bit.
This work is not the inspired, flowing kind of writing process one hopes for as a long-haired, Romantic artist. But it is fast, efficient, and has its inspired moments. Since I have to write 1001 chapters before my next life, I need a dependable, forward-moving way of working, rather than just waiting to be inspired.
There are 11 hidden structures in 1001, and each one occurs in every chapter. So I developed a form that supplies info for each structure, as well as basics for plot and character. I fill out the form as I begin each chapter, then put the contents in an order as it occurs in the chapter's narrative. This gives me my outline, but by the time I'm finishing this outline I've solved most of the problems in the chapter, found two or three things I'm excited about, and have highlighted the main action, theme, or spine of the chapter. Then I write it up, bit by bit.
This work is not the inspired, flowing kind of writing process one hopes for as a long-haired, Romantic artist. But it is fast, efficient, and has its inspired moments. Since I have to write 1001 chapters before my next life, I need a dependable, forward-moving way of working, rather than just waiting to be inspired.
Stephen Weinstock
I thought I'd like reading a book about a group of people remembering bits of their past lives, and then piecing together a giant puzzle of their karmic history. Each past life story one of them told could be a different type -- sci fi, fantasy, romance, history etc. At the time I worked as a composer for theater and dance, so my life was full and I never thought of writing it.
On a Tuesday during my mid-life crisis, driving down to Princeton to play a modern dance class, I had an epiphany about the model for the book: The Thousand and One Nights, where every new tale Scheherazade tells the King is different: romance, history, dirty joke etc. My book could be a series that contains 1001 chapters, each with a past life story. Book One, The Qaraq, starts with the group coming together, and questioning whether their past life memories are the real thing.
On a Tuesday during my mid-life crisis, driving down to Princeton to play a modern dance class, I had an epiphany about the model for the book: The Thousand and One Nights, where every new tale Scheherazade tells the King is different: romance, history, dirty joke etc. My book could be a series that contains 1001 chapters, each with a past life story. Book One, The Qaraq, starts with the group coming together, and questioning whether their past life memories are the real thing.
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Jul 20, 2020 02:11PM · flag