Fifteen Down, Ten to Go!

After a time of personal labor approaching the gestation period of some greater mammals, I have finally finished the first complete draft of “Hi!”, my latest story explicitly written for Love&Darkness. To reiterate: L&D will have about 24 pieces in it, and while some of the various stories and poems I come up with as a result of college-related prompts and random whims may be swapped out for earlier stories that were, in retrospect, thematically inappropriate or just not up to snuff, rest assured that that number will not go down, nor be inflated with sub-par content.

Keep in mind, though, that “first complete draft” still means there’s work to be done. Of course, I’ll be giving all my stories and poems an additional series of edits before their inclusion in the book, but in this particular case… well, it’s one of the longest stories I’ve ever written, and perhaps uncoincidentally, it’s also the least confident I’ve been in a completed draft. Some plot threads feel a little “lingering” to me, and I can’t shake the feeling that a couple scenes are simultaneously drawn-out and insubstantial… I suppose this doesn’t mean much to you, seeing as this is one of the ones I want to keep exclusive to the book (of course, close acquaintances will be giving me feedback, though), but there’s some grievances a man has just got to air.

November 11, 2011
Categories: Love&Darkness, Love&Darkness, Stories . . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

Trying Somethin’ New

Owing to the relatively small size of my previous “first draft” ad, I’ve created this full-scale one I’ll be trying out over the next few days. Not that I’m not proud of what I came up with before, but for the sake of people just knowing who I am, something a little more eye-catching and less ink-consuming seems ideal. By all means, print ’em out and stick ’em up wherever you are–remember, I’m trying to do this for a living!

(it should be 8.5 x 11, but that’s no guarantee with file conversion being what it is)

November 2, 2011
Categories: Books, Love&Darkness . Tags: , . Author: Trevor . Comments: Leave a comment

Spreading the Word

So I’m about a week and-a-half into my residence in the… interesting city of Seattle. It’s liberating (well, liberal, at least), but I’m rapidly missing a lot of things I used to take for granted back at the old homestead. Still, there’s one undeniable bright side: With this shift from small-town living comes a much broader set of opportunities to get the word out about my writing!

To that end, I’ve come up with a promotional “card” of sorts for Love&Darkness,  which you can view below… (lo-fi version–sorry, but the original wouldn’t upload)

 

What’ll I do with it? Well, to be honest, I’m still working on that. Aesthetically, I couldn’t really fit my website and Twitter page (yes, I have one now! @TrevorNWhite) on the front, so the first set of four I made as a test run have them written on the back in pen–so that kind of suggests a lean towards passing them out. Then again, every light post and utility pole on my block is plastered in utterly obtuse stickers, so I suppose vague marketing is fine as well. Besides, I don’t want to end up like the half-a-dozen people I try to avoid making eye contact with on the street, selling trial offers of this or begging for that. In any case, there’s a variety of writing-related clubs, literary journals, and art houses with scheduled readings in the neighborhood, so I’ll be employing those as best I can.

October 14, 2011
Categories: Love&Darkness . Tags: , . Author: Trevor . Comments: 2 Comments

The LD on L&D

Happy September, all! As is generally the case, I’m in no mood for a graceful opening segue, so I’ll just cut to the chase: It occurred to me a little while ago that while I may have mentioned it in passing, I haven’t actually given out much information about my next book, and that would be as good a way as any to pad out this blog between now and its eventual release.

So, let’s start with the name: It’s going to be called Love&Darkness (stylized as one word), and it’s another short story collection. The name alludes to the fact that, while there are still the lighthearted and “Twilight Zone-y” tales you saw in Distortions, a disproportionate amount will concern courtship, romance, and the brokenhearted. Additionally, though there’ll be at least as many “actual” stories as in its successor, about half of the book will be composed of poetry, with both elements deliberately arranged in thematic patterns. Right now, it’s about half-finished—I won’t say exactly how many pieces will be in it, because even though I have a precise number in mind, it might fluctuate later. I’ll say this, though: It’ll be at least twice as long as Distortions, and include reprints of all the stories posted on this site, plus most of the poems. A few weeks ago, I finished my most recent story “Were” (as in “werewolf”), and I’m currently at work on the next one, “Hi!”

Unfortunately, my attempt to quicken my writing schedule by establishing goals has had little to no effect, as I’ve thrice missed a self-imposed deadline. But since I’m a firm believer that if you don’t have a good reason to procrastinate, you might as well thoroughly explain your bad one, I’ll tell you a couple of the factors behind why I’m dragging my feet this time:

 

  1. I bought a used copy of Uncharted at PAX, and since my PS3’s (basically new) hard drive got corrupted again a few days ago, I feel a fair sense of urgency to complete it. However, things aren’t going too well so far, as it’s proven to be considerably more difficult than the sequel (or at least more repetitive) which does it no favors as a “cinematic” game. In fact, scratch the niceties—it’s demonstrably worse just for the insane difficulty of what I assume/hope is the final level, so the distraction it presents probably won’t go away, so much as be replaced by me (re)playing Fallout 3.
  2. While the mysterious nausea I so grieved about in a previous post has been considerably quelled by regular medication (although I still feel a more pronounced hunger during the night and morning than I remember from the first nineteen years of my life), a new foe has approached: Perpetual headaches! For the last week or two, I’ve been battling a pain that is irritating at best and a facsimile of Harry Potter eating ice cream too fast when he runs into Voldemort at worst. Since it sticks mostly to the area square above and around the nose, severe upper nasal congestion is the likeliest candidate, although allergies and summer-related dehydration are potential constituents as well. My paranoia about physical health being what it is, the doctor’s appointment I partook of the other day did little to ease my mind, although I’m taking his advice and popping some generic allergy meds for another seven days to see what happens. I guess my point is, it’s hard to sit and think in front of a glowing screen when it feels like little elves are hitting your sinus cavity with toffee hammers.
  3. The internet. Always the internet. If my primary residence wasn’t in the middle of the woods, where the bills for hooking up a satellite connection might as well have an “infinity” symbol on them, I probably wouldn’t even be able to type my own name without alternating between Facebook and Wikipedia every twenty seconds.

…And that’s all I’ve got to say for now, really. I Photoshopped together an idea I have for the cover, which I’ll give to Mr. Duquette in the near future so he can work his magic with a canvas and/computer. I’ll be moving up to Seatttle in about a month for my first quarter at University of Washington—it certainly won’t get any easier to write up there, but I won’t rest until you can read Love&Darkness as it stands in my mind right now!

September 2, 2011
Categories: Books, Love&Darkness, Uncategorized . Tags: , , , . Author: Trevor . Comments: 2 Comments

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