Michael Cogdill's Blog - Posts Tagged "novel"
This Just In ... She-Rain
The first physical copies of She-Rain just arrived. Ten plus years of work distill into those pages. As its creator, I am in awe of my good fortune -- especially to have worked with my wife, Jill, to bring the final book into being.
In The Jerk, Steve Martin's character, Navin Johnson, finds his name published in the phone book as says, "...I'm in print! Things are going to start happening for me now!" Then a wild-eyed maniac sniper started shooting at him off a hill. But Navin more than survived. The naive stooge thrived! May I become so fortunate.
To publish is to ask for the smokin'-hot rounds of critics. I'm braced. Working in television will do that for you. But I'm blessed already with the light of lavish praise on this southern story. Readers have called it beautiful. Poetic. They've said it changed them for the better, and that they're longing for more. To all of you who've embraced pieces of She-Rain even before you could buy it, THANK YOU!! And stay tuned. I'm a writer who believes every reader -- on some level -- becomes family. I want to hear from all of you. How you are. And how you've liked living for a while in the entire world according to -- She-Rain.
National debut coming March 31. Launch parties in the Carolinas before then. As we say in the South, even occasionally on TV, "come on, y'all. Come on in!"
In The Jerk, Steve Martin's character, Navin Johnson, finds his name published in the phone book as says, "...I'm in print! Things are going to start happening for me now!" Then a wild-eyed maniac sniper started shooting at him off a hill. But Navin more than survived. The naive stooge thrived! May I become so fortunate.
To publish is to ask for the smokin'-hot rounds of critics. I'm braced. Working in television will do that for you. But I'm blessed already with the light of lavish praise on this southern story. Readers have called it beautiful. Poetic. They've said it changed them for the better, and that they're longing for more. To all of you who've embraced pieces of She-Rain even before you could buy it, THANK YOU!! And stay tuned. I'm a writer who believes every reader -- on some level -- becomes family. I want to hear from all of you. How you are. And how you've liked living for a while in the entire world according to -- She-Rain.
National debut coming March 31. Launch parties in the Carolinas before then. As we say in the South, even occasionally on TV, "come on, y'all. Come on in!"
Throwing A Bash For The Written Word...
...and here's the pool in which we'll all have this party:
http://michaelcogdill.wordpress.com/
Friends on Goodreads, I welcome your comments there on books that have deeply moved you, those that have failed, and how you feel about the seismic change going on in publishing now. Whether it's Jonathan Franzen, Pat Conroy or Charlotte Bronte you want to talk about, your comments are waved in on all writers and every literary front.
My thanks to so many who have embraced She-Rain with passion, grace, and stunning reviews. I hope I live up to all of you with the new novel, For The Love of Honeysuckle Road. Stay tuned. Excerpts coming there on the blog.
On that blog I'm also soon to run a 55 Fiction expo. To all who've practiced this addictive art of writing a story in 55 words or fewer, welcome to the fun. To all who haven't, give a try. There are few excercises more apt to make each of us a better writer, compelling every word to fight for its life.
Warmest peace to all!
m
http://michaelcogdill.wordpress.com/
Friends on Goodreads, I welcome your comments there on books that have deeply moved you, those that have failed, and how you feel about the seismic change going on in publishing now. Whether it's Jonathan Franzen, Pat Conroy or Charlotte Bronte you want to talk about, your comments are waved in on all writers and every literary front.
My thanks to so many who have embraced She-Rain with passion, grace, and stunning reviews. I hope I live up to all of you with the new novel, For The Love of Honeysuckle Road. Stay tuned. Excerpts coming there on the blog.
On that blog I'm also soon to run a 55 Fiction expo. To all who've practiced this addictive art of writing a story in 55 words or fewer, welcome to the fun. To all who haven't, give a try. There are few excercises more apt to make each of us a better writer, compelling every word to fight for its life.
Warmest peace to all!
m
Gettin' Some Action Between The Covers Of A Novel
F. Scott Fitzgerald, scribbling in the working notes for his novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, said, “Action is character.”
I’ve long cleaved to this wisdom, as if Fitzgerald’s statement formed a guiding set of reins, setting my course as a writer trying to entertain on two levels: The action of the tale has to keep a reader longing for the next word, of course, but the words themselves ought to glimmer with a life all their own. They should form a sound that moves the reader’s soul. The words alone should have breath and a voice. It’s not an easy reach.
This little passage of She-Rain is a quick look at what I’m talking about, at least in my opinion. Let me hear yours.
"The day came on so cold the air felt breakable. The coldest day even the grayest heads could recall, talking of it for weeks. A pack of us had piled onto Pap’s mule wagon, the children smothered in quilts and shivers and a show of good faith. We were party to the goodbye.
Everything outside shone silvery white, all the trees wrapped and crackling in the shimmer of frozen January rain atop a snow. Cloth wrapped about the faces kept the ride quiet under the low winter noise. It seemed every branch, twig and roadside weed crunched against the lightest wind. A feel of frailty came off it, yet I loved the blank white. The way it made that trip to town feel as new as Christmas morning the day we hauled Frank to the Marshal Depot. Pap was paying his way."
Reading should be transformative. Writers ought to take you somewhere, causing the dust of a dirt road or the cold of a place and time to settle onto you. When we succeed at this, you, as a quiet reader, live out loud the truth of the people in the tale. You have a chance to touch, to hear, and to know them. By the transport of words, readers discover deeper parts of themselves. They find a new and familiar world at once. To read well is to travel well. But more than travel, readers – in the hands of a caring writer – arrive in a story from which they don’t want to turn away.
Some writers decry description. They uphold only the leanest truth telling, figuring the reader’s imagination will do the rest. It’s not a terrible idea, though one that often underachieves what a writer is called to do. Fitzgerald’s genius still holds true – action is character. And in a world of well-chosen words, action -- and readers -- find a fine place to dwell.
I’ve long cleaved to this wisdom, as if Fitzgerald’s statement formed a guiding set of reins, setting my course as a writer trying to entertain on two levels: The action of the tale has to keep a reader longing for the next word, of course, but the words themselves ought to glimmer with a life all their own. They should form a sound that moves the reader’s soul. The words alone should have breath and a voice. It’s not an easy reach.
This little passage of She-Rain is a quick look at what I’m talking about, at least in my opinion. Let me hear yours.
"The day came on so cold the air felt breakable. The coldest day even the grayest heads could recall, talking of it for weeks. A pack of us had piled onto Pap’s mule wagon, the children smothered in quilts and shivers and a show of good faith. We were party to the goodbye.
Everything outside shone silvery white, all the trees wrapped and crackling in the shimmer of frozen January rain atop a snow. Cloth wrapped about the faces kept the ride quiet under the low winter noise. It seemed every branch, twig and roadside weed crunched against the lightest wind. A feel of frailty came off it, yet I loved the blank white. The way it made that trip to town feel as new as Christmas morning the day we hauled Frank to the Marshal Depot. Pap was paying his way."
Reading should be transformative. Writers ought to take you somewhere, causing the dust of a dirt road or the cold of a place and time to settle onto you. When we succeed at this, you, as a quiet reader, live out loud the truth of the people in the tale. You have a chance to touch, to hear, and to know them. By the transport of words, readers discover deeper parts of themselves. They find a new and familiar world at once. To read well is to travel well. But more than travel, readers – in the hands of a caring writer – arrive in a story from which they don’t want to turn away.
Some writers decry description. They uphold only the leanest truth telling, figuring the reader’s imagination will do the rest. It’s not a terrible idea, though one that often underachieves what a writer is called to do. Fitzgerald’s genius still holds true – action is character. And in a world of well-chosen words, action -- and readers -- find a fine place to dwell.
