Tag Archives: Jeffrey Penn May

Why I Stopped Revising My First Novel

Over a 35-years span, Roobala Take Me Home was rewritten, revised, reworked, and partly re-imagined so many times that I’ve lost count. Despite my best efforts to stay current and true to my ever developing self, Roobala Take Me Home inevitably, like all novels, turned into a historical document. Even “historical” novels are rooted in the imagination of the writer looking back. A historian from 1980 looking back at 1900 has a different perspective than … Continue reading

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Untitled and Unpublished – Marketing Basement Manuscripts

While cleaning out the basement, I found an unpublished and untitled manuscript, read the first page, and instantaneously launched into revision. But then I stopped and flipped through the 300-plus pages. Did I really want to do this to myself? Again! Wasn’t it just a few months ago when I had exhausted myself revising my last ms, a 30-year effort, Roobala Take Me Home, which lays dormant (again) while I try to figure out what … Continue reading

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Book Review Bluntness

Recently, I read a blog, “Like the author… but” by Sharon Wildwind, in which she discusses the awkwardness of responding to a “friend’s book,” a technical writer who decided to try fiction. The book was “boring.” But Wildwind is reluctant to tell the truth. How to respond? A common dilemma. We’ve all received book recommendations or gifts, but couldn’t get past the first few pages. An online acquaintance suggested I try reading Ayn Rand and … Continue reading

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At What Age

At what age do you prefer sleep to wakefulness, prefer the dream— climbing the clouds atop a faraway mountain— To the step by step slog legs too heavy to move air too thin to breathe the dream a painful reality. At what age does the body prefer the mind asleep?   Share on Facebook

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“Dry Fly” of the St. Louis Ozarks

There’s no “matching the hatch” when I fly-fish clear Ozark streams near St. Louis, Missouri.  While I am interested in insects, bugs, and so on, I’m more interested in catching smallmouth on my fly rod.  I also enjoy seeing snakes slither acorss the water’s surface.  So I’m often asked the common question, “What are you using for bait?”  No worms, no stinkbait, or mechanical gagets, but simply “poppers.”  My first choice is a yellow popper, followed by … Continue reading

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The Panic and Pain of Mind-Body Dualism

In the opening scene of the classic semi-autobiographical comic novel Three Men In Boat, the writer Jerome K. Jerome is looking for a hay fever treatment when he casually begins reading about other diseases. By the time he’s finished, he concludes that he has every disease on the list. “I had walked into that reading-room a happy healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.” He goes to his doctor, an “old chum” who gives … Continue reading

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Are We All Great Writers?

Warning: I’m going to act as if I were younger and full of braggadocio like most of you young writers who boast about your voice, your muse, your “work” and fearlessly market like crazy because you are full of yourselves, as I was. What a handicap age and experience is beyond the obvious! It’s a cliché of course but as we age we increasingly understand that we know very little. While young, we understand, theoretically, … Continue reading

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Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction — Character

Establish Characterization Reveal Character Change character for good or bad If you become enamored with your plot twists and turns, you risk creating characters “beyond belief.” Your character can be a Terminator or a talking Sunfish and still be believable if their actions make sense. If our meek sunfish suddenly acts like a shark only to serve a plot twist, then Mr. Sunfish is no longer believable. On the other hand, if Mr. Sunfish has … Continue reading

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Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction — Plot

Note: “Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction” – blog posts derived from my popular “Finding Your Fiction” workshop in association with St. Louis Writers Workshop and St. Louis Writers Guild. Completed guide will be available as an ebook, likely on Smashwords. (Feedback, incisive or otherwise, welcome.) Section I Choosing plot over character is dangerous. Plot is presented here first mainly because it might be “easier” to comprehend. On the other hand, characters … Continue reading

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Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction – Introduction

Note: “Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction” – blog posts derived from my popular “Finding Your Fiction” workshop in association with St. Louis Writers Workshop and St. Louis Writers Guild. Completed guide will be available as an ebook, likely on Smashwords. (Feedback, incisive or otherwise, welcome.) Introduction You are a writer. You have been writing most of your life, writing term papers, developing business proposals, composing letters, email, and Facebook posts. But … Continue reading

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