Wishing all my family, friends and fans the merriest and happiest of holiday seasons! Hold your family close and your nog closer. May you have a New Year filled with good health, prosperity and laughter.
Thank you all for your support of my work this past year!
I was rattling on, to my 82 year old brother, about ‘cc’ing’ my email to a team of people. I stopped…realizing that he had no idea what I was talking about. And then he confirmed by asking, “you mean your private email went to other people? That’s not good.”
It got me to thinking about our urban dictionary and how we use ‘pop’ phrases. I’m no ‘spring chicken’ (a different decade) but I can’t help using today’s vernacular. So with a giggle and an abiding love of words, I thought I’d write a post about it.
CC: ‘I cc’d it to the team.‘ cc: at the bottom of a paper letter or memo meant that the people listed got a copy of the message. Today if I ‘cc’ Joe Smith, it would really mean I made a copy of Joe.
I’m Going to Starbucks: Everyone on the planet knows this phrase means you’re going for a coffee. Continue reading “Pop Culture Expressions”
‘Ashley Bell‘ by Dean Koontz ** A Review 
Every time I begin a new Dean Koontz novel (and I’ve read them all!) a few chapters in I say to myself, ‘this is the best one ever’. And it is. Just a few pages into this story, imagine my delight when a golden retriever, Olaf, appears in Bibi’s life. Why? you might ask?
Dean Koontz and I have had a ‘doggy’ friendship for close to 20 years. Over those years, he and I have coincidentally adopted rescue/service Golden Retrievers.
I’m on my fourth. Dean’s latest is lovely Anna. (for more about this read my interview with Dean).
I challenge any reader to not be totally enchanted by the third…no…the first chapter of Ashley Bell. Dean writes what I call poetry-fiction…prose. Writing about a foggy coastal night: “…those fumes were only slithers of mist seeping through the screen that covered the attic vents. As though the ocean of fog outside possessed curiosity about the contents of the houses currently submerged in it…” The imagery he creates makes me weep, as a writer. The characters draw you in and leave you rooting for them, hoping nothing bad happens, wanting a happy ending for someone besides yourself. Continue reading “Dean Koontz’s newest novel, Ashley Bell * A Review”
Q. Matt, what do you think makes a writer great?
MJ. I’m not sure I can answer this question. Great at what? Pulp, drama, sci-fi, literature, westerns, journaling, ad copy? What age group? For what audience… to what end? I think writing can be a marketable skill that an individual sells in many different types of marketplaces or it can be an intensely personal undertaking. A passionate act that doesn’t need a reader, aside from the originator, to have value. I think, maybe, if someone has a desire to write, and they do, that’s great.
Q. What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?
MJ. First, an intense flurry of writing. Immersion in the developing story. Long daily sessions of virtually unedited writing. Until I hit a wall. Not a barrier or an obstacle. A wall. There’s this sense that the ending is near. Then I mothball it for a while. Do other stuff.
A week or six months later I will print it out, do a full read, and edit what I have. This reacquaints me with the story. Ideas about how to finish start to percolate and I begin looking for a cover artist. I look for someone whose creative strength is visual art. Someone willing to read the manuscript and go with it. I love the collaboration, the surprise, seeing what they pick out from the story for cover art.
I typically hand off a revised draft to my wife at this point for additional editing and then hunker down, finishing it up and polishing the final draft. It helps if I’ve booked a show or festival or other event and have time pressure at this point. Continue reading “Interview with Author, Matt Jorgenson (conclusion)”
I think one of your tools, as a writer, should be a special work space. Do you have an extra room? Even, if its all you have, a large closet will serve. Somewhere you can call you own, a space that will, I promise you, become a creative oasis. Where no one enters except by invitation.
And it can change from day to day. I have interviewed many authors and they write on the beach, a coffee shop, on the train, in a lonely cabin in the mountains.
I’ve always had the luxury of a spare bedroom to call my studio. On my walls I am surrounded by my own water color work, framed letters from my publisher, photos of theatre productions. In one corner is my desk and a comfortable chair. My desktop computer has the place of honor as I do all my writing there. I simply can’t write long hand as I cannot write fast enough when the spirit is on me! I type seventy five words a minute and sometimes that’s too slow. Continue reading “That Magical Space Where You Write…”
Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?
Initially I don’t think of them as characters. It’s kind of like arranging furniture. I need something tall here, wide there, elegant there. I often just plop them in for the energy they lend to the development of the story. When I’m unable to sit at my laptop and write I will often sketch out backstories for some of the characters with pen and paper based on what seems reasonable according to how they act/function in the story and then weave those details back in later.
Q. What inspired your story/stories?
I suppose most of my stories are inspired by a frustration with the status quo and comfort zones. Particularly when there is needless pain or discomfort. A little orderliness and predictability can be nice, sure. What breaks my heart is watching and listening to people take a rote approach to life that’s making them miserable. Whether it’s their job, their relationship, their sexuality, drug of choice, inherited system of morality, or favorite hockey team… hanging on to some inherited or cultural obligation that blocks a person off from experiencing all that’s great with the world as they tick closer to death is truly tragic. Continue reading “More with Matt Jorgenson, Writer (part three)”
Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?
As far as I can tell I have three basic modes; burn, churn, and incubate. I’m good at writing thousands of words per day when I’m off and running on a new project. I’ll work 3-5 hours per day when I’m burning. I start early because I have to make time for family obligations during the day. And, when I’m burning, I will stay up as late as it takes to hit whatever daily word count I’ve set for myself. Staying up late makes the next day HARD which is why I try to start early. It also kicks the creative process in gear and it’s easier to drop a few hundred words here and there if my creativity is already up and running, just idling patiently as I do dishes or help a kid with homework.
Incubation is a mode I inhabit either between projects or when I’m letting a project with some serious meat on it “cook” for a bit. I do very little project oriented writing when I’m in this mode. I’ll draft clever bits for social media or play with words in my journal just to keep a handle on my craft. However, when I’m incubating I become a voracious consumer of content and information produced by others. I’ll binge watch Netflix, re-watch favorite movies, read both fiction and non-fiction books, listen to dozens of podcasts while out walking the dog, find new situations to get involved in, go on adventures. Modify my meditation routines. Clean the house. Host parties. Continue reading “Interview with author, Matt Jorgenson (part two)”
Matt Jorgenson – the author of Extraordinary Ostriches, Possible Particles and the Bifurcated Homunculus, The Hermaphroditic Shaman and the Missing Bottle of Ketchup, and Coagulation – A Clot of Stories. The titles alone should intrigue any reader but what really fascinated this blogger was that Matt has hung canvas on his wall, at home, so visitors can express their artistic bent while there.
Q. Matt, where do you write?
MJ. I do the bulk of my writing at home with my laptop. There’s a chair in the den/dining room I use when settling in for a long session. There’s a pub table in the kitchen I switch to when I’m on a roll and family obligations need to be juggled. It’s good to switch back and forth between the two as it’s easy to stand up and work at the pub table. I do little isometric exercises to stave off the aches and pains of prolonged sitting and get my blood pumping. When traveling or trying to break through a tough plot point I will break out a legal pad and a pen and write long hand. Cars, hotels, the basements of extended family members, and bars are some of my favorite places for this approach.
Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write?
MJ. Big glass of ice water. Hot coffee. Wordless music, typically EDM or House. Since I tend to write fast-paced, intense stories I find that a high level of beats-per-minute in the ambient music Continue reading “An Interview with Author, Matt Jorgenson”
Congratulations, this is just a quick note to let you know that your poem, Remembered Love is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup.com home page this week. Thanks again and congratulations.
Sincerely, PoetrySoup.com
Remembered Love ©
Ashes waft over the meadow
a jet stream of sorrow,
beckoning the widow to the
edge, down to the river.
Contented epoch, at the
creek where the wolves run,
he lived and laughed.
We watched the bright blue
stars foxtrot across the milky
way, a midnight indigo quilt
shivering with light.
Mountain men whose Continue reading “A Story Set To Silent Music”
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Julia London in October and Matt Jorgenson later this winter. Coming in December! My review of a new release by Dean Koontz, Ashley Bell.
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{Charcoal rendering and poetry by T.Sugarek}
