Where to Start…
Having never written a blog before , I find myself wondering what a reader might want to hear or learn from reading this. I put myself in your shoes and then realize I would rather be me. Not that you are a bad person or anything but I am very comfortable in my own skin. So this first one is going to be about when I really (or finally) decided to be a writer and how I went about writing my first book, Shiva’s Eye.
I had been in the construction/restoration business for over two decades and got laid off a week before Christmas. Merry F’ing Christmas to me, right? Throughout my life I have tried to re-invent myself every now and then and it was about time for a change anyway. I sat around feeling sorry for myself through the holiday. I’m sure my wife was a little tired of the moping about the house. Finally, she asked, “What do you really want to do?”
There was no hesitation. I didn’t even have to think about it. I just needed someone to ask it. I replied, “Write a book.” Instead of asking if I had been smoking crack, she said “Then do it.”
I had toyed with outlines and concepts throughout my life but had never sat my ass down and done the deed. Now I had the time. Now I had no excuses and for the love of Pete, I had said it out loud… to another person. It was like I had been double dog dared. So this is how I sat about doing just that.
For the last two plus decades I had lived a routine. Get up at an ungodly hour and start work at 6 A.M. Put in a 10 to 12 hour day screaming and yelling at subcontractors or insurance adjusters (they are the worst!). Then go home and try to be a pleasant person again. Most evenings I would go to my office and practice songs for whichever band I was currently in. A subject for another blog entry someday, perhaps. I have always believed in the concept of Yin/Yang. The notion that balance is key to everything. I did something I hated all day so I had to do something I enjoyed when I got off. The point is that I was like a machine. Day in and Day out.
Now I was going to be a writer. How? The same way I had done everything else in my life. A thousand miles an hour and never looking back. I got up every morning, made a giant cup of coffee, sat down at my desk and regurgitated the book that had been trying to get out for most of my life. It wasn’t as hard as I had imagined and if I had known that, I may have started many, many, many years earlier. I have always been excellent with a keyboard, sometimes topping a hundred words a minute. I was trying to impress the girl who sat next to me in typing class while in high school and had gotten very good at it. I had gotten the girl too, but that is a story for another day or blog entry. Maybe this blog thing isn’t as hard as I thought. But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yes the process.
Everyday I cranked out words upon words. On three occasions I hit 10,000 words in one day. My dog didn’t quite understand. I was home. Why wasn’t I playing fetch non stop? I was focused. I was like a laser. The main story line of Shiva’s Eye had come to me a long time ago in a dream and I had been smart enough to write it down. Over the years I had gotten the bug on occasion, pulling out a notepad and furthering the story. So when it was time to puke it up onto a page all I had to do was stick my finger down the throat of my mind and there it was.
Three months went by and Bob’s your uncle. “Shiva’s Eye” 400 pages of blood sweat and tears… actually none of those things had happened, but it sounds good. I was and am proud of myself. I sat my mind to it and made it happen… now what?