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Try Again

Sometimes you just feel stranded. A ship stuck in the shale on the beach, slowly decaying. Your pilot house gets pilfered; your planking comes undone. You are no longer a ship at sea. You are no longer doing what you are meant to be doing. You have lost your way and you have washed up on some shore for someone to take a black and white photograph of. You feel ignoble. Ashamed, perhaps. Lost for sure. Lost. Lost and stuck. Lost and stranded. But someone comes along and picks you up and you try again. You try to regain your humble nobility. You try to regain what you are - what you've lost along the way. You try again to regain that something that kept you from running ashore all those times before. And maybe you will find it and maybe you won't.

But you try again.

Because what else is there to do?

Fly Fishing is a Lot Like Writing

I've been doing a good amount of fly fishing this summer.  It's a good way for me to get out of the house and think about things, both writing-wise and life-wise.  This past year hasn't been a piece of cake so I'm doing more searching than I've done in the past.  And that's not a bad thing, mind you.  A little soul searching is good for a fella.  But we won't get into that right now.

What I've found while wandering the stream is that fly fishing is a lot like writing.  You have to be patient.  You have to be still.  You have to present the fly in a precise way.  You have to read the water correctly to know where the prize might be hiding.  And there are tight spots with overhead trees and snags in the river - danger lurks everywhere for a guy whipping 20 feet of line over his head.  And if you do all that, you have to have a fish that is willing to come up and take your fly.  You can do it all correctly.  You can do it all just as Mike taught you.  And the damn fish won't take the fly.

See what I mean?  Fly fishing is a lot like writing.

The Best Thriller Writer You've Never Heard Of

I don't normally plug other authors on the blog but I felt compelled after reading Gregg's latest, Trust No One.  As the great reviewer David Montgomery said in his review, Gregg might be the best thriller writer you've never heard of.  Let's see if we can change that - what do you say?  Buy the book.  Thank me later.

And Borders has a nice interview with Gregg and his mentor, Robert Crais.  It gives you good insight into how Gregg works.

Agents are human too

Yeah, I'm a sucker for a good poop story.  And it's always good to remember, that agents (and writers) are human with all the faults and foibles (that's a writerly word) that come with being human.  Barbara Poole is a hero in my book for giving us this reminder.