Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/
Dear Reader,
I'm on vacation in the Smoky Mountains. My friend, bestselling author David Morrell, has graciously offered to write a guest column for me today.
In 1960, when David was 17 years-old, he became a fan of the classic television series, Route 66. I remember the show, too. It was about two young men in a Corvette traveling the United States in search of America and themselves. David was so impressed by writer Stirling Silliphant's scripts, that he decided to become a writer, too. And David's certainly been busy writing ever since. His latest book Scavenger makes number 29 on his list of titles.
David would love to hear from you and he has signed copies of Scavenger (and a few other "goodies") for two book club readers. To reach David and to enter the drawing, send your email to suzanne@emailbookclub.com
Thanks so much David for writing a guest column.--Suzanne Beecher
Dear Reader,
Last year in May, I got into a terrible habit. My publisher needed the manuscript of my new novel by early August. I was writing six pages a day, which is a lot, but even at that rate, it was obvious that I wouldn't be able to finish in time. Because there are only so many hours in a day, I decided that the solution was to create more days. Sounds impossible? Hardly. I simply extended my work week from five days to seven.
That way, I gained eighteen extra days and delivered the manuscript when the publisher needed it. Unfortunately, I found this schedule so productive that, as other deadlines loomed, I stuck to my seven-day-a-week pattern. Just for a while longer. Just until I caught up to my deadlines.
That's what I promised myself, but by February of the following year, I was still writing seven days a week. I wrote on Thanksgiving morning. I wrote on New Year's morning. (Stephen King once said that he wrote every day, except Christmas and his birthday. He later admitted that this was a lie. He wrote on Christmas and his birthday also.)
An objective observer might say, "This doesn't sound healthy." By February, I came to the same conclusion. I felt tired in body and imagination. But a habit is hard to break, no matter how wearying it might be. I needed something momentous and motivating to get me out of that pattern. But what?
As an action writer, I do a lot of research about the kinds of exciting activities that my characters perform. For a novel about outdoor survival, I once spent thirty days living above timber line in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. For a book about protective agents, I took a course in the defensive/offensive driving that the Secret Service needs to know when escorting VIPs (how to ram barricades and spin a car 180 degrees). I got my scuba diver's license. I learned about firearms.
But there's one thing I always wanted to do and never found time for: to learn how to fly a plane. In February, I telephoned the airport in my home city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I found a flight school. Since then, I've gone to the airport every Saturday morning and sometimes on Tuesday.
I strap myself into a single-propeller Cessna 172. With my instructor next to me, I use a two-way radio to ask the controller for permission to taxi to the runway. At the runway, I ask for permission to take off. I doublecheck for incoming aircraft. I guide the plane to the runway's center line. I apply full throttle and pull back on the yoke when the plane reaches a speed of fifty-five knots.
Up, up, and away. I'll soon take my first solo flight. I hope to have my private pilot's license by the end of the year. Maybe Suzanne would enjoy a ride. At eight thousand feet, the world is vast and beautiful. When I'm controlling an airplane, I don't (and can't) think about anything else. The metaphor of flying is powerful. I literally rise above everything and enter a new universe.
You may have noticed the paradox that, to break a pattern, I established another one. I suppose that's the nature of my personality. But in this case, two patterns somehow interact beautifully. I'm a better writer because I liberate my mind through flying. It's an instructive story, I think. Perhaps you, too, have something you always wanted to do that would help you rise above it all.
David Morrell
To reach David and to enter his book giveaway, send your email to: suzanne@emailbookclub.com
READ THE CLASSICS: The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/25vbsy
Comments