Checkin 'In...

I don't get over here often enough, some of you who check my blog now and then have noticed that. It isnt for lack of desire, this damn day job gets in the way, like it gets in the way of all of my fun. But I'll work on that. Some of my recent posts have been about current political topics. That's what's in the news and it's what affects our lives. And a lot of people are very passionate about that subject. It's a shame because the leadership of this country and politics in general is a sad state of affairs at present. I don't care what the libtards say, that idiot in the white house is doing a terrible job.

But I need to get off politics because this is a blog about writing and books. Current politics, I mean. If you're writing a thriller it's hard not to involve politics in some way. My first novel had a political current in it. And the one I'm working on now does as well. The difference is mine are made up, they are pure fiction. I got the ideas from real events but it's all made up. I wish all that was going on now like the national debt going into the stratosphere was fiction. Damn, there I go again. Who knows, maybe my next novel will be about an inept president, boy, I could do a number with that subject...
A huge part of writing is coming up with ideas. You can't come up with good ideas by anal extraction alone. Dont get me wrong, there's a lot of good ideas that have come from anal extractions, but there has to be other sources. (Probably better sources...) You need inspiration, and you get that from people you meet, places you go, things going on around you, things going on in the world. You take that idea and mix it up with a good batch of imagination and viola! You are on you're way to spinning a good story.

What's strange though is this inspiration. It seems to come and go. Sometimes the ideas are flowing like a rain-swollen hill-country river. Others times it's more like a bone-dry West-Texas creekbed in August. Lately, my imagination has more resembled the creekbed. I envy the professional writers, the guys who get up about say, seven or eight, have some coffee for an hour or so then mosey into their office (the one in their house...) and sit down to write. Ahh, yes. If only I could do that. I'm not quite there yet but that day is coming. But when you have to get up at four, drive across town and work for nine hours, drive back across town, it's hard to crank out best-sellers. But we all have to start somewhere. And agents won't even talk to you until you have a best-seller under your belt. You can write a great novel but unless you can sell it, not many people are going to know it's great. I wrote one but I don't know much about marketing. Even if I did, I don't have the time to do it. John Grisham said, "Writing books is the easy part, selling them is the hard part." So very true.

In a few years though I'm going to have the time to work on the part I dont know much about. Or at least find someone to do it for me. And, I'm going to crank out some more best-sellers, too.