Robert Dunbar's Blog - Posts Tagged "willy"
still more about my WILLY
This is more of a footnote to my earlier blog than a separate posting. As sensational as the reviews for this book have been, the "reader comments" here at Goodreads have been just as remarkable. Even the few negative remarks are in their own way (oddly) gratifying.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...
WEIRD RELATIONSHIPS
A writer, any writer, has a weird relationship with the critics. No matter how often we insist that we write for ourselves alone, we’re all of us constantly compelled (however surreptitiously) to find out whether the press has validated our talents or not. I’ve never known a writer this wasn’t true of … never known a writer who couldn’t be plunged into the blackest despair by a bad review or who wouldn’t feel elated over a good one. I don’t care how healthy the person’s ego, how centered he or she appears to be. It never fails. Reviews are the mirrors in which we constantly check ourselves. And the Internet only ramps these inclinations up a notch. Make that several notches. Years ago, a writer only heard from the public if someone at a cocktail party happened to recognize you from a television interview. Now everyone – and I mean everyone – has a platform from which to declaim their opinions.
Sometimes this can be a bit daunting.
But I’ve been lucky. Often, the comments from readers have been just as gratifying as the professional critiques, and even the negative remarks have proved oddly satisfying. (I still want “this book is so stupid I can’t even understand it” on a t-shirt.) For instance, the reviews for my novel WILLY have been tremendously stirring. But it’s the reader comments, often quite profound and insightful, that have elicited the strongest emotional responses from me. [Check out the ones at Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10... or at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/WILLY-Robert-Du....] In a world where artists perpetually struggle against terrible odds – almost always for so little in the way of reward – knowing that readers appreciate your work can be all that keeps a writer going.
Luckily, with reviews for WILLY still showing up, the new edition of MARTYRS & MONSTERS is already creating an impact of its own. Not that the collection didn’t do well in its earlier edition – it did, and in spades, with critics apparently vying to outdo each other in the use of superlatives. (Any writer who claims not to love hearing "masterpiece" and "genius" over and over is lying.) But new reviews continue to surface, all of them incredibly positive, and – again – the comments from readers have also been quite moving, often in the most unexpected ways. Take a moment to peruse these – http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66... – and I think you’ll see what I mean. This new edition of MARTYRS & MONSTERS from Uninvited Books restores some mangled text, corrects various copyediting and proofreading errors and adds some new material.
Yes, I’ve been fortunate. And the best relationships are always at least a little weird …
Sometimes this can be a bit daunting.
But I’ve been lucky. Often, the comments from readers have been just as gratifying as the professional critiques, and even the negative remarks have proved oddly satisfying. (I still want “this book is so stupid I can’t even understand it” on a t-shirt.) For instance, the reviews for my novel WILLY have been tremendously stirring. But it’s the reader comments, often quite profound and insightful, that have elicited the strongest emotional responses from me. [Check out the ones at Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10... or at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/WILLY-Robert-Du....] In a world where artists perpetually struggle against terrible odds – almost always for so little in the way of reward – knowing that readers appreciate your work can be all that keeps a writer going.
Luckily, with reviews for WILLY still showing up, the new edition of MARTYRS & MONSTERS is already creating an impact of its own. Not that the collection didn’t do well in its earlier edition – it did, and in spades, with critics apparently vying to outdo each other in the use of superlatives. (Any writer who claims not to love hearing "masterpiece" and "genius" over and over is lying.) But new reviews continue to surface, all of them incredibly positive, and – again – the comments from readers have also been quite moving, often in the most unexpected ways. Take a moment to peruse these – http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66... – and I think you’ll see what I mean. This new edition of MARTYRS & MONSTERS from Uninvited Books restores some mangled text, corrects various copyediting and proofreading errors and adds some new material.
Yes, I’ve been fortunate. And the best relationships are always at least a little weird …
THE ME OF NOW
Writers don’t get to talk about their work much. (Go ahead. Try to interject an anecdote about “character development” or “plot logic” into a conversation. Watch how bored civilians get. And how quickly.) But what else can a writer even talk about? I mean, this is me. This is my life. It’s what I do. If I remove myself from the conversation, I’m left just smiling and nodding.
Fascinating, yes. Uh huh.
Connections are… difficult. You can see people staring at you, but you can’t really see them. You’re really trying to work out that awkward bit of dialogue in chapter fourteen.
Interesting lifestyle choice.
I figured, maybe if I gave all my readers a heads up all at once…
Okay then. At this point, I’m desperately and completely consumed by “Tremble.” No, it’s not a drug. Not exactly. It’s the working title for my new novel. And it is of course killing me. After the last one, I thought I’d write something, you know, easy. Lots of action. An actual monster. Basic situation: a gang of characters barricaded in an old dark house, just trying to survive the night. Hell, just trying to survive. Then I got this really clever idea. Really really clever. I know, I thought to myself, I’ll make them all trash characters. You know? The sort that get disposed of early in a horror movie? Yes, that’s the way to go.
I must be out of my mind. Was I concentrating on unlikable characters to keep myself from becoming too close with these persons? Why did it never occur to me that – hey – these are my people? Suddenly, I am totally involved in their struggle.
Like I said, it’s killing me. It’s also taking me a lot longer to write than it should. There are a few reasons. I started a major editing assignment. Then I let myself get talked into writing a short story that floated off on a tangent… and then another tangent… and then…
And then there’s THE PINES and THE SHORE, two-thirds of my trilogy. For years, they’ve been comfortably ensconced at 47North (with the final part of the series at long last appearing at Uninvited Books). This didn’t seem to bother any of the editors at 47North, but it was sort of driving me a little crazy. There’s a reason I’m bringing this up now. After just a few months of my nagging them, they’ve agreed to release the books. So here I am, finally (finally!) consumed with rewriting and editing and working on the layout and cover (to match THE STREETS). Will they eventually be sold as a boxed trilogy set? It could happen. Will there be signed hardback collector copies? There’s an awful lot of work involved in this.
(Oh, and by the way, my novel THE STREETS is currently available for reviewing at Netgalley. It’s free, but if you’re not a member you’ll need to create a profile. The link for my book is here: https://www.netgalley.com/widget/open...)
A whole new website for Uninvited Books is also being developed. I’m excited.
That’s pretty much it with me, though it feels a lot busier. Oh, wait, the first foreign language version of one of my books is approaching as well. My novel WILLY is being released by Good Kill Edizioni (Rome), the editor of which called it “awesome.”
All right then. I’m pleased.
Back to work.
Fascinating, yes. Uh huh.
Connections are… difficult. You can see people staring at you, but you can’t really see them. You’re really trying to work out that awkward bit of dialogue in chapter fourteen.
Interesting lifestyle choice.
I figured, maybe if I gave all my readers a heads up all at once…
Okay then. At this point, I’m desperately and completely consumed by “Tremble.” No, it’s not a drug. Not exactly. It’s the working title for my new novel. And it is of course killing me. After the last one, I thought I’d write something, you know, easy. Lots of action. An actual monster. Basic situation: a gang of characters barricaded in an old dark house, just trying to survive the night. Hell, just trying to survive. Then I got this really clever idea. Really really clever. I know, I thought to myself, I’ll make them all trash characters. You know? The sort that get disposed of early in a horror movie? Yes, that’s the way to go.
I must be out of my mind. Was I concentrating on unlikable characters to keep myself from becoming too close with these persons? Why did it never occur to me that – hey – these are my people? Suddenly, I am totally involved in their struggle.
Like I said, it’s killing me. It’s also taking me a lot longer to write than it should. There are a few reasons. I started a major editing assignment. Then I let myself get talked into writing a short story that floated off on a tangent… and then another tangent… and then…
And then there’s THE PINES and THE SHORE, two-thirds of my trilogy. For years, they’ve been comfortably ensconced at 47North (with the final part of the series at long last appearing at Uninvited Books). This didn’t seem to bother any of the editors at 47North, but it was sort of driving me a little crazy. There’s a reason I’m bringing this up now. After just a few months of my nagging them, they’ve agreed to release the books. So here I am, finally (finally!) consumed with rewriting and editing and working on the layout and cover (to match THE STREETS). Will they eventually be sold as a boxed trilogy set? It could happen. Will there be signed hardback collector copies? There’s an awful lot of work involved in this.
(Oh, and by the way, my novel THE STREETS is currently available for reviewing at Netgalley. It’s free, but if you’re not a member you’ll need to create a profile. The link for my book is here: https://www.netgalley.com/widget/open...)
A whole new website for Uninvited Books is also being developed. I’m excited.
That’s pretty much it with me, though it feels a lot busier. Oh, wait, the first foreign language version of one of my books is approaching as well. My novel WILLY is being released by Good Kill Edizioni (Rome), the editor of which called it “awesome.”
All right then. I’m pleased.
Back to work.
