Between novels, what's a guy to do?

Friday, April 13, 2007


He writes stories.

Novels take a lot of thought, a lot of time, and tend to take up a lot of room in my life and my head. For the last couple of years, Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician has been the center of my creative life, and even though it's yet to make its way to a bookstore near you (that won't happen until July), I've already let it go. Sure I worry about it, a little bit . . . but for the most part I've had to move on to something else.

That's where short stories come in. Short stories, because they take a lot less time to write than a full-fledged novel, allow you to experiment and explore, without the risk involved in writing a novel. By risk I mean: what happens if the novel you're writing turns out to suck? That's serious and semi-devestating (I know, believe me). But a story (for me, anyway) can take a couple of days to a couple of weeks, and because I'm not betting the farm on it I can write something -- oh, I don't know -- daring. Or not. Maybe something that's slight, a diversion, for fun. Whatever, I'm glad I don't just write novels.

Some of my stories will be out there about the same time MSATNM comes out. Ninth Letter, Land Grant College Review, and Salt Hill will all be publishing stories of mine this summer. An in-flight magazine will be publishing a piece I wrote about one special summer in my life. And (close to my heart) I've been working on a children's book with an Italian illustrator. The book is called Elynora, and we're taking the weirdly fun tack of submitting to Italian publishers first. Sort of like O Grand Rosenfeld!Oh. And I've started another novel. Go figure.

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posted by Daniel Wallace at 8:07 AM 4 comments

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