Writing

I could write a book, on writing a book. In fact, I think that may be my opening line if I ever actually speak publicly about my novel. I ask myself IF I really want to publish and WHY. Most people say, "for money." That's never been my motivation. Maybe if I was hungrier and desperate I would swallow my pride and conform to more traditional methods. Let some NY editor, or Chicago-born AP stylist, tear it apart and restructure it as the next blockbuster bestseller.

No, I simply want to tell the story. It's a story that will not leave me alone, that I haven't been able to walk away from and one that must be told. It may not have a blockbuster ending, and I may take too many liberties with viewpoint, but if I don't release it, get it out there -- told-- I will never rest or move on in life.

A Kindred Spirit (my novel) is myth-based fiction, a journey. My heroine, Niki, does indeed venture forth from the common day world of Ottumwa into a realm of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are encountered and victory is hers. She does help release the earth-bound spirits and in doing so has the basis for her own Peace Treatise. It's a quest for meaning, purpose and to learn "what's really real."

That is where Phil comes in. Even though some of my friends still say it's about Phil, and Philip K. Dick is a central figure, the real story is about finding purpose and meaning in life. That was Phil's Mission, that was what drove Bishop James Pike to his so-called heretical search in the desert and that's what motivates Nicole J. Perceval (aka Niki.)

I always wrote it using Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" model and later Chris Vogler's bible "The Writer's Journey." But calling it a mythological journey seems too heavy for a lot of folk, so I've been saying, "It's a metaphysical mystery, a ghost story with a mission" or things like that.

So, yes, I will publish it. I have to. But, next to quitting smoking, this process has been the hardest damn trip imaginable, fraught with more danger than Niki's journey. Writing itself is hard, but editing and publishing -- that is pure demonic hell.
"We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want." -- old Taoist saying