OK- sorry- it was clearly freaking interference and the stupid Cowboys should not have got a break from the stupid ref and the Lions should have won the game and gone on to meet the Packers next week.

OK- that is off my chest and I can get on with life. It is sunny and delightful at the farm- I swept the pine needles off the deck now that things have dried off but the temperatures are stating to plummet. That is why I need to get organized and get on the road. Snow is coming tomorrow, and I need to be back up north and prepare to hunker down. I am edging toward saying the hell with it and relocating to Culpeper County for the long haul, but the time is not quite yet.

I took the long end-of-the-holiday weekend to generally screw off and do small things. Contemplation was good, reading was better which is why this turned out the way it did. My best pal brought up the annual resolution- we are going to make a list of important books and read them and learn and comment together on them. It is an admirable thing, but as usual we have not quite got to the rubber-and-road thing, and I started on a wonderful novel called ‘A Feast for Thieves” by a fellow named Marcus Brotherton.

I didn’t recognize the title right away- I assumed someone told me it was good or something- there are dozens of books like that on the Kindle, and most of them have only been sampled. I started this one and was hooked immediately. I got through the first bank robbery before I realized that Rowdy Slater was one of the most engaging rascals I have run across lately, and the time and place- 1946, West Texas- were absolutely plausible and authentic.

Rowdy was the most incorrigible paratrooper in the 101st Airborne, and quite good at fighting and killing Germans. So, the book grabbed me and I didn’t do much else for the next day or two. I mention the title to my pal, and it didn’t ring a bell. Then I realized why I had bought the book to begin with.

Van Dyke knows that I am a compulsive writer, and he reads a site called “The Art of Manliness.” One of the links he sent me was and article written by Macrus Brotherton. He described, in excruciating detail, the heartbreak of writing the first novel. I figure I am beyond that, since I actually made a handful of dollars on my first book, years ago, but this was so compelling I will summarize his key points. He also references Elmore “Dutch” Leonard, and how he did it, so it must be right.

The full article is worth a read: it is at:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/11/06/writing-a-commercially-published-novel/

But for easy reference, here are his key points:

The “5 insanely difficult yet necessary steps” to writing a commercially-published novel:

1. Commit to an unsustainable schedule.
You won’t find the time.
You must create the time.

2. Woo a literary agent.
Once your book is finished and has been polished to a shine, you will need to woo a literary agent, who will represent your book to publishing houses.

3. Write a second novel when your first one fails.
I wrote a second novel in 2005 and showed it to yet another agent. (I had my 4th agent by then, as the previous one had gone out of business.) This agent liked the dialogue and pacing but said the plot was a disaster. He recommended shelving it and starting over again.

4. Voraciously study the novel-writing technique books — and preferably do this first.
If you’re smart, then you will do this step first. But if you already think you’re a good writer, like I did when I first started writing professionally, then you will write a bunch of books that you throw away first. Then, when all those fail, out of necessity you will go back and read the how-to books.

5. Decide if you want to keep going.
When you were a kid, maybe you dreamed of becoming an astronaut or playing in the NBA. For a lot of years, you headed that direction. You tried hard, sacrificed, and gave it your all, but you’re still not living your dream today. What do you do? Do you keep going or give up?

Points to ponder, though I sighed and realized I don’t have a choice in the matter. This is what I do, and for good or for ill, will continue as long as I live. With luck, one of these days I will have the time to so something creative in the morning, and something a little more mechanical in the afternoon, such as compiling the material I generate into something that makes sense, which I cheerfully acknowledge it doesn’t a lot of the time. But whether I ever get to that, I will press on. At the end of the article, I was rooting for Brotherton to bring home a blockbuster.

He mentioned at the end of the article that his debut novel was titled Feast For Thieves. As a gesture of solidarity to a comrade in the endless and frustrating struggle against blank screens, I clicked on it at the Kindle store and promptly forgot about it. Until Saturday, that is.

Loosely inspired by a true story, the book is about Rowdy’s attempt at redemption, and along the way he fights every man in the tough little town of Cut Eye, Texas. And it has DUKW’s in it- the amazing amphibious jeep- and not one, but two of them. AND a most interesting application for a surplus German anti-aircraft gun, the legendary 88mm model that scared the bejesus out of anyone who encountered the business end of one.

The account of Rowdy’s first sermon is priceless. I could almost taste the exceptional grub at the local café. And there is even a romantic angle that is pretty neat. I am not going to go on- the characters are a raffish, hardscrabble bunch, and it is a rollicking read.

Publisher’s Weekly gave Feast for Thieves a thumbs up. So did one of the top features writers at O (the Oprah Magazine). So did the writer-in-residence at Oxford University. So have more than 90 reviewers on Amazon so far.

I’m proud to say I am now one of them. Give it a read- if Rowdy Slater ever comes back in a series, I am going to buy them and savor all his adventures. Marcus Brotherton is a born story-teller. It’s the sort of novel that men and women, teens and adults, Republicans and Democrats can enjoy.

Brotherton has written extensively about the men who fought in WW2- oral interviews, sort of like the long series I did with Mac Showers (which is going to be a book, I swear, if I can follow the insanely difficult steps), but this is his first foray into fiction. That he sets it when the Greatest Generation is still just 26 years old gives it great appeal. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and highly recommend it.

Next up? My son has been telling me about The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Andermeer, and I just got it in the new combined one-volume compilation. I started it right about the satisfying end of Feast for Thieves. I will be telling you more about it as we go along.

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicosoctra.com
Twitter: @jayare303