Henry Harrier's Character, Part 17--Moral Outrage

On p. 11. Fenton tells Henry about Ian's death. "What's that to me?" Henry says. Fenton says it's a public relations nightmare. Henry is appalled. He says, "Your own brother's dead, and this is all you can find to say."

Well, that's the Kearney family for you. And that attitude stokes Henry's furnace. Of course it's not enough to get Henry to act. Only his prized student being arrested moves him to action.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 16--Captivating Quality

Henry has a captivating quality about him. This is directly from Orlando Cole. When you're with him you're with 100 years of western musical culture. For someone interested in classical music, you have a window into another time and another place. This will shut once he dies and moves on to his fourth order world.

Take this bit of exposition from Will on p. 10:

We finished dinner just before 7:00 p.m. Conversation had been pleasant. it had been limited to Henry's lecturing me on the proper teaching of the cello. I wouldn't have sat still for such a lecture by an ordinary person. But from Henry? I don't think so. He deserved my attention, no matter how boring the material. I felt almost flattered to be with him. I was sorry when the time came for us to hurry back. It didn't feel then as though he were complicating my life.

I still feel that way: the man deserves being paid attention to because of the "giantness" of him in the evolution of western music.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 15--Keeper

Henry was a keeper of things. He was the only one who kept the recordings of his quartet. Will asked him why. He says, on p. 9, "I don't know that...but I do know it's just about time for the dining room to open."

Henry also wants to keep to himself the reasons. He'll reveal some things but he keeps everything else inside. We begin to wonder what all is he keeping inside?

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 14--Literate

Henry is a very literate person, well grounded in world literature. And eclectic, witness this from p. 9:

I ran my eyes over his bookshelves full of biographies of composers. There were the collected works of Shakespeare, espionage thrillers, and poetry. The collected works of Carl Jung was right there with them.

Smiley I suspect was widely read, Sherlock not so much. He just read in detail things that would be of use to him: cigarette ashes, crime, poisons, etc.

Orlando Cole was an avid reader. He had read a lot despite, maybe because of, not having much formal education beyond high school. I suspect you get that intellectual curiosity when you confront the musical creations of the last 400 years of history.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 13--Humor

Henry was one to use humor in a way to grab attention to himself and change the subject.

At the end of his discussion on p. 9 about Will's not being entirely untalented, he says:

'Did you know the Julliard School has just raised its entrance requirements for violists?'
'No,' [Will] said.
Henry smiled. 'Applicants now must be able to hold the viola accompanied.'

There are a lot of good viola jokes. That's one of them so I thought I'd put one in there. Whether a person has a sense of humor, the kind of humor he or she uses, and how he or she uses it are excellent ways of establishing character.

What about you? What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 12--Faint Praise

Damning with faint praise is one of Henry's habits. Witness this bit of dialogue from p. 9:

Henry asked me about my feeble attempts at viola playing...
I said, 'I practice when I have the chance.'
'You're not entirely untalented,' he said, 'but you have to work at it.'

There you are.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 11--Appreciation of Talent

Moving along on p. 8, Henry and Will have this bit of dialogue about the playing on the CD Henry has turned on:

The first movement ended, and Henry asked me what I thought of her playing.
'Nice,' I said.
Henry frowned. 'Did you not perceive the marvelous facility of the left hand?
The strength in the bow arm? The secure technique and rich tone?'
'It was beautiful.'
'Remarkable is what is is,' he said. 'Even for someone at the highest level.'

Will doesn't want to stick his head out and concedes the floor to Henry.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 10--Feeling caged

This bit from p. 8, describes Henry. He's put on a CD of one of his students for them to listen to. "Henry turned on the music and paced like a lion in a cage waiting for someone to let him out."

My own father-in-law, Orlando Cole, has always had this feeling to me. He was a wonderful player in his prime who always played with more emotion and heart than any other cellists around. His students caught this from him. They could play anything, but this emotion, this passion for the music, that was the hallmark of Orlando Cole. And also a wonderful, feathery, soaring quality to their playing. I think I translated some of this into Henry's character. This idea of a lion trying to get out of a cage seemed like a good metaphor for him

Now that Orlando is 100, he's definitely caged. The passion and intelligence is still there, but his body is failing him. He quit playing, even in private, several years ago. He said, "I just get warmed up and I'm worn out." It takes some doing to play the cello. It's a tremendously physical experience. I suppose playing the base is moreso. Now, he's a car with a robust engine and exhaust system but who's body is rusting away. He's beloved by thousands and has given so much to so many.

What about you? Have you ever felt caged? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 9--Passion and Resentment

On p.7, at the top, Henry's passion and resentment at the Kearney school is obvious: "That bastard put me out like yesterday's garbage and then runs to me when he as a problem." His resentment is released when he hits a constraint keeping him from persuing his passion.

What about you? Have you run up against a constraint keeping you from doing what you want to do? I'd like to know. Post a comment. What else does this tell us about Will?

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 8--Observant

Henry on p. 6 does his Sherlock Holmes thing. Henry says, "'And you should use gloves when you waterproof your deck.'" Will asks him how he does it, Henry says, "'Quite simple, really. I observed your fingers. Most people se, but they do not observe. The fingers of your right hand are just slightly orange. You've gotten most of the water seal off.'"

Note the distinction in Henry's mind between "seeing" and "observing."

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment. What else does this tell us about Will?

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 7--Nimbleness

We remarked before about Henry's almost overbearing quality sometimes in snatching Will's hat from his head although Will wanted to wear it. Well it's the quickness and nimbleness of mind and action that's impressive about him.

As in this speech by Will on p. 6: "He snatched my hat from my head and gave it to me all in one motion. He moved fast, like a cat. His movements were almost a blur they were so fast."

He's expressing his dominance over Will by acting quickly in a way that Will can't defend himself. It's almost like Henry's giving Will his head in his hand.

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment. What else does this tell us about Will?

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 6--Age Acquired Skepticism

Henry has gotten a bit cynical about life in general. If a lot of people are doing something, there must be something wrong with it.

Will says at the bottom of p. 5: "You haven't put up your Christmas decrations yet." Henry responds, "Oh ther's plenty of time for that. People go so overboard.

I feel that way a lot. I'm suffering from it as well.

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment. What else does this tell us about Will?

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 5--Generosity of Spirit

On page 5, Henry shows his generosity in this bit in which Henry talks about the cello he gave away:

A baby grand piano centered the room. Something didn't seem right. 'You buy a new piano?'[Will} said.
Henry chuckled. 'Guess again.'
'Your Strad. I remember now. It was right here, in the middle of the room.'
'Very good,' [Henry] said.
'What happened to it?'
'I gave it to a young Swedish cellist,' he said.
'Your Strad?'
'I still have my Moennig cello.'

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment. What else does this tell us about Will?

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 4--Perception

On p. 5., witness this bit of dialogue:

"Inside,he took my coat. 'Marriage certainly agrees with you.'
'I nodded.'
'You've gained seven and a half pounds since last August.'
He was a shart old guy. I admired that in him from the start.
'Seven, actually,' I said.
'Slightly more, I should think.'"

So we see a little of Will here, a little defensiveness and self-delusion. A minor point, but see what comes later. In writing fiction it's often efficient and effective if you can use the same bit of dialogue to characterize two characters at the same time.

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 3--Age Acquired Cynicism

Henry displays his cynicism with this bit of dialogue:

"[Will] shook his hand. "I'm sorry to be so late."
"Planes are never on time anymore," [Henry] said."

Of course it's an exaggeration that planes are never on time. But there is enough hard evidence of planes being late and so much negative affect associated with putting up with the consequences of that lateness, that when you get away from traveling a lot and there are news items about late planes after a time that's what you associate with air travel, it's a natural tendency in humans to be cynical. And Henry, at 89, suffers from this in spades.

By the way, Orlando Cole, on whom Henry's character is in part based, is 100, so at 89, Henry seems pretty young to me.

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 2--Inability to See Others

It takes Henry a while to see Will. When Henry first opened the door for Will on p. 4, we have the following exchange:

"Henry looked around, then at me, and did a double-take.
He said, frowning, 'Ah, there you are, Will.' He pushed the door open wider. "It took me a while to see you.'"

We'll find out that Henry, though off to a slow start, understands Will very well.

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What Will's Up Against

This first bit of dialogue with on p. 4. is instructive: Will shows the depth of the chasm between them at the start.

'Okay,' I [Will #1] said.
"And bring clothes for any kind of weather," [Henry] said.
"I know all about that," I said.
"I mean it, Will. You never know what it will do when," he said.
By the end of my time with Henry, I would certainly know that, too."

A nifty piece of foreshadowing, if you ask me.

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Henry Harrier's Character, Part 1--Strength

Henry, as I noted early in the history of this blog, is a composite character: part Henri Poirot from Agathe Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, part Sherlock Holmes from Arthur Conan Doyle's many stories I read as a child and then have reread every so often since, Orlando Cole, my 100-year old father-in-law, who was the cellist of the Curtis String Quartet for 50 years, and part George Smiley, from the John LeCare spy series.

Also as I said before, the book owes a lot to the afore-mentioned Agathe Christie mystery and Smiley's People. In fact, literary agent once rejected the manuscript calling it "too Agathe." I guess we know where she was coming from. Apparently, to her "Agathe" was an adjective.

It's clear from his first appearance in the book he is a very strong character. Presumptuous even. On page 4, Will comments, quoting, "My first mistake had been the courtesy call to Henry.

'You'll of course be staying with me while you're in the area,' he said. 'And you'll use my car to get around.'
I said, 'Thanks, but my company's made all the arrangements already.'
'Then they can unmake them.'
'Really, no. It's been take care of.'
'I know it has,' he said. 'By me--.'
'But Hen--.'
'I'll hear nothing more about it.'

You see what Will has to deal with.

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Will's Character, Part 18--Sucker.

Will got played for a sucker, that's for sure. On p. 23 I lay it out: "I was the final piece of their puzzle. The go-between they ordered, the perfect patsy. Ian 'hired' me to help him design and conduct surveys for the Kearney School. That was just a sham of course."

Here's where Will's basic character is pretty much laid out. Now, it's the working out of that character and how much he learns or changes over the course of the story.

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Will's Character, Part 17--Manipulative.

Will #2, on pp. 18-19, portrays Will #1 as a little manipulative. Witness this little bit of dialogue:

"I told her Henry had gone to see Mei Lee, and she flew off the handle again because about Mei Lee getting more attention than she did. She calmed down, and I said we were going over to the Kearney School after he go back. I knew I was a ship sailing into a storm, but I couldn't not tell here. She'd learn about it soon enough anyway.

'Why are you going?'
'To help him,' I said.
After a pause, 'You're going to help him?'
'He asked me to.'
'You said you would.'
'Yes,' I said.
'He asked you to help him, and you said yes.'
'You know yourself how convincing he is.'
'And you didn't talk to me first because,...?
'I'm sorry,' I lied.
'You don't sound sorry,' she said.
I said, 'We promised not to argue over long distance.'

So, Will's kind of weasling out of the responsibility for not talking to Julie about things. Hmmm.

What do you think of this? What are your ideas? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Will's Character, Part 16--Caring?

Will shows his caring side on p. 19. You get the feeling that Will has never had to take care of anyone before. He says:

'Look,' I said, irritated, 'If you're worried he might have a stroke or something, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed.'
'You will tale care of him, won't you?'[Julie talking]
'I'll do my best," I said. This time I really meant it.

Here is Will #2 observing Will#1.

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Will's Character, Part 15--Control? Simplicity? Self-centeredness?

On p. 18, Will and Julie have conversation about Julie's job as an editor. She tells him about all the trashy manuscripts she has to read. I narrate it in the book:

For the life of me, I never knew how she could stand reading all that trash. She ran on about another one, a woman imagining the sex life of Hiawatha, and yet another one that analyzing the mind of a mass murderer who went straight and became the protector of little girls. Like she's the only one in the world with problems?

What does this say about Will? Is he trying to get control back over his life? He values simplicity? Is he just so self-centered he runs out of patience for hearing about her problems?

What do you think about think about this? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Will #2 and Will #1

Here's where the narrator's attitude toward his subject comes in. Call the narrator Will #2, who narrates the story from a distant point in time, and Will #1 who is Will at the time of the telling.

On p. 15, we have the following:

My father-in-law and one of the great living cellists is asking me to help him? Ordinary me? And I'm supposed to say no? Not a chance in hell.

Here's where Harrier's Watson differs from Holmes' Watson. Holmes' Watson never felt intimidated by Holmes. He felt curious, intrigued, perplexed, bewildered, impressed, but never intimidated.

But here's the thing. Was Will#1 really intimidated, or did he have some other motive? What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Will's Character, Part 14--Invisibility

On p. 15, Will shows us his unique ability to become invisible. Henry comments on it after his interview of Fenton Kearney. Here's this interaction between Henry and Will, Henry speaking first:

'Do you know you were very good back there?'
'I was?' I said.
'I almost thought you'd become invisible.'

This idea of invisibility interests me. Joni Mitchell has a song about wishing she had a river so she could sail away. Kind of the same thing. In fact, I have the beginning of a novel about it. Ralph Ellison of course wrote his terrific novel Invisible Man. H.G. Wells wrote his novel, The Invisible Man , and H.F. Saint wrote his very engrossing Memoirs of an Invisible Man, published in 1987. There's also a non-fiction book entitled How to Become Invisible showing how to not show up anywhere so you can't be found. I'm interested, though, in a character who really is invisible. Sort of like Kafka's Gregor, who turns into some big cockroach-like bug in The Metamorphosis, the only short story Kafka ever finished, and one of my all time favorite short stories. These are all interesting stories. I recommend them to you.

Anyway, if you're interested in invisibility, or anything else about this novel, post a comment. I'd like to know.

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Will's Character, Part 13--Susceptible to Suasion

On p. 10, Will is at dinner with Henry. Will is clearly bored by the table talk, but feels almost honored to be with Henry because Henry is famous in the world of classical music, the world which Will has always been attracted to. He says:

I wouldn't have sat still for such a lecture [on the teaching of cello] by an ordinary person. But from Henry? I don't think so. He deserved my attention, nor moatter how boring the material. I felt almost flattered to be with him. I was sorry when the time came to hurry back. It didn't feel then as though he were complicating my life.

So will gets converted by Henry. He is capable of change.

What do you think about this? Do you like Will? I want to know what you think.

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Will's Character, Part 12--Natural Reticence

On page 8, Henry plays a disk by one of his former students. Here's how Will's conversation goes:

The first movement ended, and Henry asked me what I thought of her playing.

'Nice' I said.

Henry frowned. 'Did you not perceive the marvelous facility of the left hand? The strength in the bow arm? The secure technique and rich tone?'

'It was beautiful.'

'Remarkable is what it is,' he said. 'Even for someone at the highet level.'

'How's she doing now?' I said.

Will doesn't seem willing (no pun intended but I'll take it) to offer much of an opinion. Is he intimidated by Henry or is this just a natural reticence on his part? Note he changes the subject pretty fast. That shows that he has some skills to use in his jousting with Henry. Or at least this is the way that later Will portrays his earlier self.

What do you think about this? I'd like to know. Come post a comment.

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Will's Character, Part 11--Honesty

On page 6, Will talks about calling home to talk to Julie, his wife and Henry's daughter:

I dialed home, but I got nothing but our recording machine. I left a message that I was safe and would call back later. I was honest about the calling back part.

So Will, telling the story from a future time says pretty clearly that he didn't feel safe and that he wasn't always honest. Is this a correct assessment? What is he unsafe?

Any ideas? If so, come post a comment. I'd like to hear them.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of my writing and publishing and for all my professional activities. For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Will's Character, Part 10--Nosiness

On p. 6:

I picked up a piece of paper from the piano. I read it over, sensing an intense interest from Henry. [I wish I had laid this out more clearly.] It was a fax from Fenton Kearney, the managing trustee of the Kearney School.

Remember this zstory occurs before e-mail was so widely used as now, so faxes had more prominence than now. That Will picks up a letter clearly written to Henry and reads it is really minding other people's business. Is a nosiness stemming from the need to protect himself? I don't think I would be so nosy.

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Will's Character, Part 9--His Hat

On page 6, Henry takes Will's hat off: "He snatched my hat from my head and gave it to me all in one motion."

The story goes:

"I like hats," I said. I had about a dozen of them at home." [I do, too.]
"Whatever for?" [I love this phrase. Only people older than me say it.]
"I guess I just like them," I said. "I just don't feel comfortable without one on my head."

It turns out Henry doesn't like men wearing hats unless it's cold outside. Will wears his hat everywhere. It's part of him. He takes it off only on concession to convention. When Henry snatches it from his hat it's like tearing his heart out.

Now, when Henry asks Will why he likes hats, albeit in a challenging phrase, Will becomes defensive and doesn't give a reason. He just says because he does. Is he being secretive here or is it that he just has not thought out the reasons for liking hats? Maybe both.

Myself, I always wear a hat. I have several regular ones. Which one I wear depends upon the season of the year and the weather. When the Phillies won the World Series, I wore my Phillies hat for a few days. If you ask me about it, I'll tell you about my history of hat wearing.

What do you think about men in hats? Post a comment. I'd like to know.

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Will's Character, Part 8--Doesn't give up things easily

On p. 5, Will says: "I couldn't imagine Henry without that Strad. I'd be devastated in his place. It would feel like giving away a part of myself. Henry said it needed to be heard. He wasn't performing any more, and I could see the logic. But still it didn't feel right."

Will doesn't give up things easily. Or away easily. Giving himself away is what he's struggling eitwith throughout the story. Also, he lets his feelings govern his action as well as his intellect.

Notice also, that he notices disturbances in the patterns of things. He sees that the Strad is gone. Henry has given it away or separated thimself from him. That bothers Will. He doesn't like to see absences. He likes the world orderly.

What do you think about this? Does it interest you? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

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Will's Character, Part 7: Not Being Seen

Will, divulges more about himself on p. 5:

The view of Philadelphia from his [Henry's] apartment scared me all over again. You could see almost the whole damn city. I always felt I was going to fall when I looked out. I didn't understand how anyone could live in such plain view.

Will doesn't like to be seen. But, like from the old Monty Python sketch in which people attempt to "not be seen" to avoid being blown up, "We may not be able to see you, but we can hear you."

Interested in this? I'd like to know what you think. Post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of my writing. For my thoughts on entrepreneurship, check www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate practice go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com

Will's Character, Part 6: PTSD?

Also on page 4, Will comments on a door opening: "I jumped at the door opening. It sounded too much like a jail cell door opening." Now we have come to know of it as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition which affects us when we have experienced a traumatic event in the past. Abuse, war, violent attacts, or just about anything. Something very troubling to an individual seen over television could bring this on.

If a door opening reminds Will of a jail door opening, what has Will gone through in the past?

What do you think? Do you have a little PTSD? Post a comment. I'd like to know.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship supplies the life's blood for my writing. For my entrepreneurial ideas go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas practicing entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

What Will Values, Part 5: Simplicity

On p. 4, Will says: "The last thing I wanted to do was stay with Henry. It complicated things." He doesn't like things making his life too complex-values simplicity.

What do you think about this? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of my writing. For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

What Will Values, Part 4: Being Strong

On page 4, Will remembers his conversation with Henry. Henry came on very strong and Will, while trying to stand up to him, wilts under the pressure of Henry's personality. So here we have arrived at a key point: the narrator's complicity in characterization.

Will comes over as a kind of wimp. But, the narrator of the story, Will at a later point in time, has something to say about this. He doesn't want Will to look too strong because the narrator (later Will) wants to show how much he's improved since the time the story takes place. Complicated, huh.

Are you interested in all of this? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of that activity. For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman.blogspot.com and for my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

What Will Values, Part 3: Maintaining Freedom of Action

For will, on p. 4, the last thing he'd wanted to do was stay with Henry: "The last thing I'd wanted was to stay with Henry. It complicated things."

Here Will shows the importance to him of maintaining his freedom of action. Staying with Henry made that more difficult. Henry was both around him all the time and very perceptive, hard to put things over on. My strategy was to build in this room to roam vs restrictions on freedom to the story as an underlying thread.

Are you interested in this? I'd like to know what you think. Come post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of all my professional activities. For my ideas on entrepreneurship, see www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Foreshadowing

I foreshadow Will a bit in the first few pages. Foreshadowing can be an effective tool early in the story, but can be overdone. You want to pull your reader through the story, but not hit him or her over the head with it or give too much away too soon. Do that and you'll turn off some readers.

Laurel Yourke, in Take Your Characters to Dinner (Lanham, MD: American University Press, 2000), on p. 200, defines foreshadowing as "a hint or series of clues suggesting or foretelling what will occur later." So do it, but slightly, like putting salt on meat. A little makes the meat taste good; too much of it does not and may be harmful to you if you're sensitive to sodium.

Does this interest you? I'd like to know. So post a comment.

I see writing as an entrepreneurial activity. For my ideas on entrepreneurship go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

What Will Values, Part 2: Effectiveness

On page 3, when Will is about to knock on Henry's door, he takes his keys out. I do this too, it's just habit. But Will says, "Looking back on it, I don't know why I had my keys out anyway. None of them worked anything in Philadelphia." A little foreshadowing here? Are we saying that Will sees himself as ineffective? Does he wish he were more effective as a person? Or is he telling us that he used to be habit-bound.

What do you think? Post a comment. I'd like to know.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. My ideas on writing are informed by entrepreneurship. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

What Will Values, Part 1: Keeping a Low Profile

Readers find out about the characters through leakage. Little by little as the story unfolds. It's best to let the characters reveal themselves through their dialogue, response to challenges, and in their dealings with others.

Right at the beginning, on p. 3, Will comments on how bright the Christmas lights are:

I'd never before noticed how gaudy outside Christmas lights were. I had nothing against outdoor Christmas lights--but so many. And it hurt your eyes. It amazed me how much some people liked to attract attention to themselves.

So will doesn't like to attract attention to himself. He prefers to keep a low profile, as they say. Stay tuned for more.

Does this interest you? Post a comment. I'd like to know.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. My ideas on writing are informed by my ideas on entrepreneurship. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com

Power and Education

It's clear that teachers have immense power over their students. Maybe not so much now, but it's still so. And when students are in such a rarified atmosphere as a Kearny School, the teacher's power is magnified. After all, the teacher is the portal to a whole career in music.

On p. 197, Henry spews forth a litany of problems at the school. He wants them corrected as a part of the solution to the murder or there will be consequences for the school. This is clearly not the idea Fenton had when he "employed" Henry in the first place. But it's what Henry wants. And Fenton had better do it.

What do you think about Henry's solution? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. That activity is informed by my ideas on entrepreneurship. For that, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Home

What is home? Will definitely feels he's home with Julie, but it's problematic for him at the time of the action.

Toby Israel, in Some Place Like Home (John Wiley and Son, 2003, p. vi) says:

Each of us has a treasure chest of memories and impresions of places we have lived that includes both past homes and large scale environments (villages, towns, cities, etc.). I believe in the importance of uncovering these riches to reveal how our past environmental experiences laid the foundation for our present and future choices.

Israel believes that our present feelings about our living spaces (and by extension our partners) are determined largely by feelings about "home" that were hard-wired into us as children.

Home is more than a building. It's a cluster of emotions and feelings and memories of people and places and things. So what Will is feeling has been determined to an extent by what he experienced as a youth. What was that do you think?

Any ideas? I'd like to know, so post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity, informed by my ideas on entrepreneurship. For these, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Going home

On p. 195, Will says: "The sun held long and fast all the way back. We retraced the route we'd taken the day before." The question, is did they really? They'd learned a lot and experienced new things during the time since they'd driven out to Lancaster.

This brings up the larger question of whether we can ever any of us retrace our route? We change day to day and our route changes as well. That's something that will keep people writing fiction forever.

What do you think about this? Post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. I talk about entrepreneurship in my entrepreneurship blog, www.hatman2.blogspot.com and about entrepreneurial real estate in www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Memory

This story is being told using a 1st person retrospective point of view (POV). Will is narrating his story from the vantage point of the future. That brings the intimacy of 1st person point of view with the opportunity of allowing that person to have learned things he or she didn't know at the time the action took place. It brings the reader into the story in a more intimate fashion while freeing the narrator from some of the most Draconian limitations of 1st person. It also provides for the use of dramatic irony.

My second most favorite POV is 3rd person limited. Knowledge of the world is limited to what the character has perceived or learned, but it's told from the 3rd person. This separation of the character's voice from the narrator's voice lends tension which makes the story telling much more interesting.

Anyway, Will's telling the story at a time much advanced from the time of the action. Is his memory correct? We all have memories. Yet, each time we bring up a given memory we massage it a bit, which alters it. We don't know if what we remember happened as we remember it yet we can't get outside of it to "what really happened." In the words of Joni Mitchell: "We're trapped on a carosel of time." Maybe nothing really happens, and our memories come from some other source. But if so, what would that be?

Will's vantage point differs from ours. Maybe he has access to perfect memory.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Memorizing Music

When soloists perform with an orchestra, they customarily memorize their music. A friend of mine once asked me once, "Why do they do that anyway?" The answer is that it's easier to work on a piece when you've memorized it. And when you've memorized it, you own it. You can just play it anytime and anywhere you have your ax. It's great.

Young minds can memorize music easily. When you get old like me, you have to pull something out before you put in something new.

Comments anyone? What do you think? I'd like to know. Come post a comment.

Writing for me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Getting lost in the music

Sandy, on p. 191, found herself forgetting her music during a performance. She had her own reasons for this, but it's a problem for performers who, under the pressure of a performance, gets lost. I remember during one graduation recital, a violist was half-way through Hindemuth piece (which I didn't like) and stopped the performance. She got the music and finished. At least one other in the audience didn't like it either. He yelled out, "Oh, come on, just get through it." Pretty unnerving for the performer. I asked Landy what he tod his students to do when they forget, and he said, "just to do the best they can."

The truth is, ever performer forgets sometimes. Even the great ones. The experienced musicians have ways of faking through it.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Words like "then."

When we're telling a story, we tend to want to say, "He dropped the ball. Then he picked it up." This is kind of a lame example, but I think you get the idea. Better, to my way of thinking is to say, "He dropped the ball and picked it up." The point being here that if you use neutral connectors of ideas, you let the reader imagine the connections between the two events. Worse would have been, "He picked up the ball because he had dropped it." That doesn't give the reader anything to do, which is bad. When I start a book, I don't want the author to tell me everything. I want to have some fun figuring things out on my own.

You see, to me stories are a partnership between me and my reader. My job is to lay it out there and the reader's job is to imagine the story based on what I write. I have to make it readable, they have to have to re-imagine the story for them based on their own filters. That's the deal I propose when I ask a potential reader to buy my book.

What do you think? Is this the deal you sign on for when you start a book? Post a comment. I'd like to know what you think.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Characters springing to life

Do characterist spring to life in your head? Two did this morning. I woke up with them meeting at a newspaper kiosk on Broad Street in Philadelphia. Each was buying a copy of the wall street journal. She's an office administrator at a real estate company. He's a copier salesman. I think they're going to do something together. When do I have the time to write this story.

What do you think? Post a comment. And download a copy of this book from this site.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com.blog.

Counterfactual thinking

In writing my entrepreneurship blog, I posted an entry on black swans. One of the links was to counterfactual thinking, something as a washed-up old historian has interested me in some time. What if the founding fathers had been able to text, email, work on the web? Silly stuff, but it gets us writing fiction.

Here's what Wikipedia says about counterfactual thinking:

It seeks to explore history and historical incidents by means of extrapolating a timeline in which certain key historical events did not happen or had an outcome which was different from that which did in fact occur.

The purpose of this exercise is to ascertain the relative importance of the event, incident or person the counterfactual hypothesis is negating. For instance, to the counterfactual claim "What would have happened had Hitler drunk coffee instead of tea on the afternoon he committed suicide?", the timeline would have remained unchanged — Hitler in all likelihood still would have committed suicide on April 30, 1945, regardless of what he had to drink that afternoon. However, to the counterfactual "What would have happened had Hitler died in the July, 1944, assassination attempt?", all sorts of possibilities become readily apparent, starting with the reasonable assumption that the Nazi generals would have in all likelihood sued for peace, bringing an early end to World War II. Thus, the counterfactual brings into sharp relief the importance of Hitler as an individual and how his personal fate shaped the course of the War and, ultimately, of world history

The article was actually about counterfactual history, but counterfactual history is produced by counterfactual thinking. For example, what would have have Ian done if he hadn't connected up with Richard the night Ian died? Read the whole Wikipedia article. It's interesting.

What do you think about this? Post a comment.

Writing for me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Similes and Metaphors

According to Dictionary.com, a metaphor is: "A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in 'A mighty fortress is our God.'" It's a comparison between two things without using "like" or "as." If the quote had said, "Our God is like a mighty fortress," it would have been a simile, but not really as powerful is it?

We all have metaphors for our lives. They offer ways of understanding us. In the most recent campaign, John McCain was the fighter pilot, flying around dropping bombs on people. Obama was the organizer, defining his community (the country) then working to bring them all together for the common good.

Your characters have metaphors too. When developing a character, try to figure out what metaphor best characterizes that person and work with that. Is he a badger? Is he Mother Teresa? Is she an explorer? What? It also helps us think about our lives.

What do you think about this? Post a comment. And download a copy of my book.

Writing to me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

We are the Beneficiaries of our Literary Inheritance

Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the wonderful intellectual universe we inhabit. Just in American Literature we go back to DeFoe and Benjamin Franklin, and some of the 17th century American writers and poets.

When we look at world history, we go back even farther. And modern fiction is from all over the worlds. What an overwhelming rich world of ideas and images and stories we have to play with.

We can't even read all the stuff that comes out because while we are reading one book, countless others are being published. Each of them encapsulates a world free for us to dip into at our pleasure. People have told stories, sometimes at their peril, and we are the beneficiaries of that.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment. And download a copy of my book from this blog.

Writing to me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

What is to be Done? and the Reader

I guess what I want from my writing is to give readers a chance to confront a new set of characters and not the unique, but the unexpected, story that allows him or her to think about issues in their lives in a different way. To give the reader a ride that they wouldn't necessarily have taken otherwise. Or, with apologies to Rober Frost, a road less travelled by.

What do you think about that? I'd like to know, so post a comment. And Christmas is coming. Download this book for free or order a copy.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial actifity. For my entrepreneuship blog, click on www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate on www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

More on What is to be Done

Henry has solved the murder and knows what happened. Now the question for him is what should he do? Without going into details, does he go to the police? Does he do nothing? Does he handle it privately? Hercule Poirot, in Murder on the Orient Express, does not go to the authorities. He concludes that it's impossible to prove any one person did it and besides, the victim got the justice denied him. I drew on Christie's inspiration for a lot of this book.

What do you think about this? I'd like to know. Post a comment! And Christmas is coming. Order a book from this blog for a friend or loved one or have them come to this blog to order one for a family member.

Writing for me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estage go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

What is to be done?

In one of the LeCarre novels, a character, or maybe the narrator, says, "What is to be done?" This is prime ethical quandry we meet every day. What do we do? Do we go out to discover the new world, or do we settle for some leftovers out of the refrigerator. Should we do nothing if we can only do a little?

A Sesame Street board game I played with my kids 30 years ago showed Cookie Monster with a dilemma; (1) Take an arduous trek in search of everlasting joy and peace or (2), Eat a cookie. He chose the cookie. Someone

said, "But Cookie monster, you will not have everlasting joy and peace."
He replied: "Yes, but I did get one fantastic cookie.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment. And Christmas is coming, so
order a book right off this blog.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Selling books on consignment

I put my book on consignment at the only local bookstore that will do it. They've started selling from there. Just a trickle for now, but hopefully whoever bought it will like it and will tell their friends to buy it and the trickle will be a flood.

Whenever we try to sell books we should try to maximize what we call network externalities, that is stimulating word of mouth. It's the way it's sold anyway. It's just that mainline publishers have more resources to put into it.

I'm hoping I can get to break-even by the end of next year, but I'm not holding my breath. After all, Ken Follett didn't get a best seller until his third one, and John LeCarre didn't get noticed until The Spy That Came In From The Cold which was, I think, his second or third. Did you know that Elmore Leonard got rejected 40 times before he got published.

So it takes a while sometimes. We have to be in it for the long haul.

What do you think? I'd like to know. And Christmas is coming. Order a copy of this book off this blog or go to www.amazon.com. It would make a good present for someone who loves classical music and murder mysteries.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, to go www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Creating Characters

How do I find characters? They come out of my life. Sometimes a story comes to me. I write down in all the specificity I can muster at the time. Then, I write down what characters I need. For example, if it's going to be a murder mystery, I need victim, a perpetrator, someone to investigate maybe, and a crime scene. As they say in crime dramas, find out who the victim is, how the victim was killed, and you'll go far to finding out who the killer was.

Sooner or later, you'll need a supporting cast: friends, parents maybe, children, brothers and sisters, etc. Then I fill out a questionnaire on each character. In depth: name, age, gender, income, occupation, their brothers or sisters, children, parents, favorite movie, favorite food, favorite song, type of car they drive, etc. Then I start to write and things come to me as I do it.

What do you think about this? Post a comment. And buy a copy of the book for friends or relatives for Christmas. You can download the book from this blog, or you can order one from Amazon.com.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.blog/com.

Getting story ideas

I went to a concert at the Curtis Institute, the model for the Kearney music school. Some kids did absolutely the best possible performance of Mendelssohn's String Quartet #2.

During intermission, I went down to the men's room. There was hard bass case down there in the hallway. It's about 8 feet tall and could easily hide a body. Aha. So for some as yet undetermined reason, somebody kills one of the students and stuffs him in the base case and it sits there. My wife says, wouldn't they smell it? I said, not if he put the body in a bag and sealed it up and then got the case out of there. Hmmm. I'll have to let that one percolate. Who was the victim. Why did he or she get killed? Who was the killer? How did it happen? When did it occur? How did the killer get the case out of there before the body smelled? I smell another musical mystery coming out of me.

What do you think? Post a comment.

Writing to me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Poetry and Fiction Writing

I've been going back over a mess of poems I wrote 15 years ago. The paper they're printed on probably stacks up to my knee, so there are a lot. I've been tossing most of them. They're either doggerel or self-involved. There are some good ones in there, and I'm keeping them.

I think poetry is good exercise for fiction writing. They're all about compression. A whole world can be subsumed in a little phrase, i.e. "Fog comes in on little cat's feet," or something like that from Sandburg's poem. In that 7-word line you can see a whole scene. I can spend an hour on a poem and not get it right.

Not all fiction writers are good poets, nor poets great novel writers. I don't think Hemingway was all that great. My favorites are Langston Hughes, Frost, Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Sandburg, and many more. These were not novel writers. My favorite novel writers: Richard Russo, Hemingway, Tony Morrison, Elmore Leonard. I don't know if Elmore Leonard ever wrote any poetry.

What do you think? Who are your favorite poets? And what about the intersection of poetry and fiction writing? Post a comment. And Christmas is coming. You can order a copy of my book from this blog and have Amazon.com send it for you. Or you can download this book for free.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog to to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Network Effects of Book Sales

I don't write to sell books. I write so people can have an experience which leaves them a little different than before. Nonetheless, sales are important to me as (1) money into my account (Who doesn't like that?) and (2) validation that people are actually reading my stuff. And maybe if they like it they'll tell other people about it and I'll get more readers.

For me M = RN, where M stands for the size of the market for my book, R stands for the total number of readers, and N stands for some multiplier. That is, for every R readers, my market expands N times. The more people who read this one, the more will read the next one.

What do you think about this? I'm interested to know. Post a comment. And Christmas is coming up, click on Amazon.com and order my book for a friend or relative.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, click on hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, on www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Three parts of stories

Alice said that telling a story is easy. You start at the beginning. Then go right through to the end and then stop.

Generally I think of stories in three parts: the beginning, the middle, and the end. If you think of a 300-page novel, the first part would run from pp. 1-99, the second from p. 100-199, and the third part from p. 200 to 300, about. Generally the first part of the story introduces the characters, starts the story, begins to get intriguing and so forth. The middle section is the most challenging. Often stories drag here. You have about 1 page to interest a reader. I try to start out with the actual event that whoever's solving it has to solve. The only purpose of that first page is to hook the reader. Then, introduce something new at the beginning of the second part. You have to rehook them. I try to have lots of things happen and I try to decrease the length of the paragraphs and the sentences to move people along faster. The last part should be moving straight downhill to the end. Alice said telling stories was easy. You start at the beginning and go right through to the end and then you stop. Were it that simple.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Come and post a comment.

Writing to me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealesstate.com/blog.

Recovered Memory

While I was researching this book, I read a very moving story of a young pianist who had developed the annoying habit of forgetting her music during performances. This is every artist's nightmare, whether an actor who forgets his lines during a performance, or a painter who forgets the idea he had behind a painting. Every musician has gotten lost in the middle of a concert, but it was so troubling to this pianist she quit performing. She found that she had been abused as a child and this was causing her problem. She eventually got beyond it and went back to conertizing, but I thought I would build it into the story.

What do you think? I want to know. Come and post a comment. Christmas is coming, so order a copy of the book right from this blog.

Writing is an entrepreneurial activity for me. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Henry's Optimism

Henry Harrier is an incurable optimist. Like Landy Cole, one of his inspirations, everything will be "fine."

On p. 174, they have gone to Lancaster, PA. Julie says, "I just hope they have a 9-1-1 system here. Henry pats her on the arm and says, "Stop worrying about me. I'm fine."

Landy is always fine, and at 100, I'd say he's doing fine for his age. And when people ask him about things, he says, "It'll be fine."

Christmas is coming. Order a copy of my book for a friend or loved one. You can download it for free or buy it through amazon.com.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Henry

Agents? Who Needs Literary Agents?

A literary agent, whose blog I subscribe to, and whose name I shall not mention, asked how much responsibility should be placed on an agent when a book doesn't sell. People had various opinions, and of course this agent had what they call today a "highly nuanced" response. The fact of the matter is if writers would take their own future in their own hands, you wouldn't need the agent in the first place, and the question would be moot.

What do you think? Post a comment. And Christmas is coming. You can order a copy right off my blog here or go to Amazon.com.

Writing for me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate is to www.yourstopforrealestate.con/blog.

Dreams and Solving Mysteries

Sherlock Holmes used to smoke tobacco to solve problems. It could be a 3-pipe problem, which meant he had to think longer. Some problems are solved in dreams. I sometimes wake up with the solution to a problem I'd been wrestling for a while. In reinventing my entrepreneurship course. I had literally an "aha" moment in which I got the solution.

On page 164, Henry realizes the solution to the murder of Ian in a dream. Then he shows his stubbornness in leaving the hospital AMA (against medical advice). And against Julie's wishes, too.

Are you interested in this? Post a comment. Remember, the book might make a good present for your friend or family member who appreciates classical music and good mysteries. You can order it right off the blog here.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Mainstream publishing is dead

Mainstream publishing is dead. I declare it right now. Mainstream publishing is dead. Democratization of the means of production and distribution have killed it.

Mainstream publishers have not disappeared. There will always be those who desire to reap profit off the labors of writers who just want people to read what they write. If I were a literary agent, I would start polishing up my resume. Or get with it and start a print-on-demand company of my own. Which is better, continuing to swim upstream or jumping in a lifeboat and going with the flow?

What do you think? Post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Henry and George Smiley

On p. 163, Henry goes to see a woman who he used to work with him that can confirm a crucial detail. He solved the puzzle in his dreams, and he just needs one more piece. I remember a section in Smiley's People Smiley, played in a wonderfully understated way by Alec Guinness, goes to visit an old co-worker who had a steel trap for a mind. She's a little daft, but she still remembers things and is able to supply crucial information. I drew inspiration from this terrific scene in the book dramatized in the terriffic BBC production.

We can often draw energy when two characters are combined in this way. And if our readers are literate, they will note the similarity of our characters with those in the stories in which those characters live and further resonance is achieved.

If you want a nice Christmas gift for a friend or relative, try downloading this from the site, or go to amazon.com and buy it with one click. And I'm interested in what you have to say. Come and post a comment.

Writing to me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my entrepreneurial real estate blog go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Wordspy.com and Neologism

Neologisms are words that are used commonly but has not yet made it into the dictionary. They tell you what's new on the block. Most of them are silly, but some, like the word "cleanout", are very useful in communicating. A "cleanout" is the act of taking everything out of a house and hauling it away. If a house is part of an estate sale, this has to happen because the buyers have to get it empty except for what has been listed in the contract.

Neologisms give the writer ideas for new stories. Maybe you did a cleanout and found something, like a dead body. Maybe your identity was stolen because whoever did the cleanout got some records of yours. Maybe you run a company that does cleanouts and when you arrive to find the house already cleaned out, something happens. Maybe the buyers agreed to take the house without a cleanout, then weird things happen that eventually are traced to the stuff in the house that wasn't cleaned out. See the story possibilities? You could have a character who speaks only in neologisms. Done with restraint, that one culd be really funny. Wordspy.com is an excellent source of these new words.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment. And remember Christmas is coming, so if you want a good book for a friend or loved one, order one right from here, or download it for free.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Edited Honesty

On p. 156 Will tells Julie "everything." Julie is, of course, Henry's daughter, and she's a little of a composite of my two wives and someone else. "Everything" isn't everything, as he holds back his involvement with the guys that ran him off the road and tried to kill him and almost killed Henry in the process. So Will edits what he tells people. Are we like that?

What do you think? Post a comment. And Christmas isn't far off. Download a copy for free or order a copy from amazon.com right from this blog.

For me, writing is entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Vision and Character

On pp. 148-9, Henry describes a dream he had.

"Neither of us said anything for a few minutes. Then, I said, "Wow. Quite a vision."

Henry said, "If I could just understand--.

I shrugged and said, "I'm not much of a vision guy."

This is another example of Leakage, where an aspect of a character kind of emerges bit by bit. And knowing this, you can tell why Will acts as he does.

What do you think? I want to know, so post a comment. And Christmas is almost here. If you have a loved one or friend who lives classical music and murder mysteries, get them a copoy.

Writing is an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship informs my writing. Go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com for my entrepreneurship course and to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog for entrepreneurial real estate.

The Author's Presence in the Work

No matter what we do, a good writer will be present in the story. The better the writer, the more present he or she will be, but you'll have a tougher time locating him.

I met someone last night who is reading my book. She says she feels like she knows me from Will's character. At first I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but as I thought about it more and more, it was gratifying because it means that I'm able to create for at least this one reader, who lives in Seattle, an entertaining experience presence and a strong voice.

A strong voice is necessary for keeping people reading and enjoying your book. And that's what I'm aiming for: a partnership between me and the reader. I put the time in up front to produce a readable and entertaining book. The reader agrees to buy it, enjoy it, and tell others about it.

What do you think? Post a comment. And Christmas is coming, so if you have a friend or relative interested in getting a present for Christmas, there you go.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Jung, Characterization, and Story Telling

On pp. 148-9 Henry describes a Jungian dream. When I was writing this I read a lot of Jung, whose discussion of archetypes I thought had great promise for advancing my ability to tell a story by fleshing out a character more deeply. Jung shows us how seemingly banal events can give us great insight into the inner life of a character. For example, Jung tells of a client who was walking across a field and saw a red barn. Seeing that red barn unlocked for the client many memories to which the client had previously had no access. In this way, we can use cues to show readers many things about a character than tell the reader about the character.

If you're interested in this, go look at Jung's work. He broke with Freud over the interpretation of dreams. Freud thought dreams were clues to something else. Jung saw them as things important in themselves. Maybe they were both right. If you have an opinion on this, post a comment. And Christmas is coming, order a copy off this website.

Writing for me is an entrepreneurial activity. If you're interested in my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Choosing a Title

Choosing a title for your book is tough. It's as much a marketing decision as anything else. Many people will, on the basis of the title alone, decide to look (or not to look) at the book, solely on the basis of the title. But the title you choose also reveals the way you think of your story. The folks at Book Surge didn't like my title. They said it sounded like a medical treatise or something. I kept it that way because it's descriptive of the book. Maybe I should get rid of the word "case." What do you think?

The title I chose harks back to Arthur Conan Doyle's story: "A Case of Identity". Doye's stories don't usually begin with the word "case" but they were definitely presented that way. I saw a list once of famous books and the authors' original titles. The differences are quite substantial, and funny, as though For Whom the Bell Tolls had originally being titled The Time Pillar Took Out the Garbage(Not really the original title.)

If you're interested in this post a comment. I'd like to know what you think.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Buying my book

A friend of mine wrote me that she got her local library to purchase a copy. That's great, because it gets the book in the hands of more people. You hope one of them gets very excited about my work and tells lots of people. They buy it and on and on. It's called "Network Externality," this word-of-mouth marketing. It's also called viral marketing and customer evangelizing.

Remember, Christmas is coming up. Buy a copy for a friend or loved one and work your gift list down. And I want to hear what you say, so post a comment.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com.blog

Speaker Attribution

Who says what to whom is key for keeping the reader reading. If the reader can't figure out who's saying what to whom, he or she will get discouraged and go do something else like take out the garbage or clean the basement. It's not like there's a dearth of other books to read or other media to pay attention to these days. The reader's attention is a valuable asset all writers are trying to get.

I get tired of writing "he said" and "she said" all the time. I prefer stripped dialogue where just the dialogue is presented less the references to who spoke. That works well as long as there are just two people, the context is clear, or the dialog doesn't go on too long. Toni Morrison used to confuse the hell out of me by running on so long I couldn't remember who the characters were, even. Cormac McCarthy sometimes leaves me totally at sea. He doesn't even use quotation marks which makes me have to figure out what's narrative and what'd dialogue. But these writers are so wonderful, I forgive them this.

My rule is no more than 3 lines of stripped dialogue on a row without a "said" or some other form of speaker attribution. Of course, maybe I'm easily confused.

What do you think? Post a comment. And since Christmas is coming, buy a copy of this mystery for a friend or loved one.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial experience. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Writing Partnership

Writing involves a partnership with the reader and the writer. The deal is this, if you read my book, you will participate in the creation of the story by imagining it into reality. A book is just ink on paper. It has power when it resonates with readers and they imagine it into life.

What do you think? Post a comment. And Christmas is coming; you can order a copy of the book right from here.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activityFor my entrepreneurship blog, read www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Persona

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, describes a "Persona" as a "second self":

Criticism of poetry and fiction refer to a "second self" created by the author and through whom the narrative is related. Importantly, attributes and attitudes associated with the persona are understood to be separate from authorial intentions, per se, though there may in fact be some overlap between the two.

It is this persona through which all dialogue, narrative, and exposition are filtered. It's the voice of the writer. It's where narrative drive comes from. It determines word choices. It is, in short, everything.

What do you think? I'm interested in your opinion. Post a comment. Also, Christmas is right around the bend. Why not a good mystery for your friends and loved ones. You can order it for them right off this blog.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship course, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Traffic as a Metaphor

I heard a radio psychiatrist say that frustrations from traffic are really manifestations with one's frustrations with not getting ahead fast enough in life. I decided to used this to help flesh out Will's character.

On p. 149, Henry is riding with Will:

I must have been sighing loudly because Henry leaned forward.

"What's the matter," he asked me.

"This traffic. I just want to go faster than it's letting me."

He nodded and leaned back. "Just bear with it, and you'll get there," he said.

Ever feel frustrated stuck in traffic? Maybe it's just your overall frustration with how your life is going.

What do you think? Post a comment.

Writing is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com.blog

Recall Tape

On p. 145, Henry goes to pay his respect to James's wife. James had gone out earlier in the day and had been killed mysteriously. Brian, James's son, is with her and lets Henry and Will into the house. James's wife is still in shock and talks to Henry as though he was James coming back from his walk. She narrates the entire sequence of events from when James got a call, what he said, and so forth. Is what she's telling him helpful to Henry's investigation? And should Will be nervous?

I'm interested in what you think. If this grabs you, post a comment. Christmas is coming up. You can order a copy of the book for your friends loved ones right from this blog.

Writing to me is an entrepreneurial activity. If you want to see my entrepreneurship course, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate practice, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Paranoia

Paranoia involves an unreasonable fear of something. On p. 144, Will and Henry are going out to visit James' wife. James was killed. A car follows them. Will is uncomfortable about it.

Here's a snippet of dialogue:

"Probably nothing," said Henry.

Yeah, just being paranoid," I [Will] said

Henry cocked his head. "What have you got to be paranoid about?"

I shrugged. "Same reason we're in a hotel I guess." Henry nodded.

Here Will deflects the direction of the conversation away from a subject he's uncomfortable talking about. Henry seems satisfied, but is he? What is he thinking? Because we only have him from Will's perspective, we have to guess. My guess is that he isn't.

What do you think? I'm interested in your opinion. If this resonates with you, post a comment. Christmas is coming: go order a copy for a friend or loved one.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Dialogue and Good Writing

Dialogue is one of the three aspects of a story. Dialogue is useful for bringing intimacy to the reader and building character. It can also be used to move plot, but many writers make dialogue do too much. Often they get into long discussions of this or that. Often this information can be better conveyed through narrative.

I'm interested in what you think. If you have something to say, post a comment. Remember that Christmas is not far away. Need a present? You can order this right off this blog.

Publishing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my real estate blog, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com

The Front Cover

The folks at Booksurge.com tell me I have to have artwork on the cover or the book won't sell. I chose to go with a nice blue. The other side of the coin is that artwork can turn off a potential reader. In marketing these days, we need to be counterintuitive. Like Jerry told George on the popular sitcom Seinfeld, "Think what you would do, then do the opposite."

I've seen the Kearney mystery reposing on consignment in Robbins Books, and it definitely stands out on the mystery shelf, because it has no artwork. An unmarked police car would stand out if it were among only marked police cars.

Does this resonate with you? If so, let me know. Post a comment. And remember, Christmas in coming. Think about this book for a friend or loved one who loves mysteries.

Publishing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

More on "in scene" in The River Runs Through It

Robert Redford's film, A River Runs Through It is about one of the most beautiful and poetic films I can remember seeing, except perhaps for King of Hearts. Toward the end of Redford's film the story telling makes a choice between presenting conflict in scene or not in scene. Brad Pitt's character, Norman MacLean's troubled and reckless younger brother, who had accumulated so many enemies that one or more of them would eventually kill him, is beaten to death with the butt of a gun.

The film could have shown the beating in scene with blood spatters and scrunched up faces, etc. If the Coen Brothers had made the film, it might have gone that route. Instead the film presented the death as information Norman gives to his parents, dramatizing their shock and sorrow over it, without dialogue, but narrated by Redford's voice. It might have had more impact had they shown the beating, but the screenplay went a different route. Was it better? Those watching the film have to decide.

Are you interested in writing? If this grabs you, post a comment. And Christmas is coming--order a copy of the Case of the Kearney Music School Murders for a friend or loved one who loves mysteries or classical music or both.

Publishing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

In Scene and Story Telling

In deciding how to tell a story, the writer has to decide whether to present material "in scene" or not. In scene means that you re-enact the conflict right in front of the reader. Off-scene happens where the reader just learns about it.

Laurel Yourke defines a scene as "a visceral enactment of characters in conflict, creating movement rather than inactivity, and suggesting the illusion of a motion picture rather than a photograph or a summary." See p. 202 of Laurel's book, Take Your Characters to Dinner (Lanham, NY: University Press of America, 2000). The writer needs to have the best stuff in scene.

And Christmas is coming. For a friend or family member who is or knows a mystery or classical music lover, order a copy right from this blog. And if what I say grabs you, post a comment.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Pipe Smoking and Problem Solving

On p. 123 Henry smokes a pipe when he works on a problem. This is a clear throwback to Sherlock Holmes who rated problems according to the number of pipes full of tobacco he had to smoke to figure them out. Henry didn't always have to smoke to figure things out, but this time he does.

If what I say resonates with you, post a comment. And Christmas is coming up. If you need a present for someone who loves murder mysteries or classical music or both, order this one right from here.

Writing is an entrepreneurial process. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Orlando Cole's 100th Birthday

Orlando Cole, the model for Henry Harrier, just had a celebration at the Curtis Institute in his honor. The man has trained 3 generations of American professional cellists. They populate virtually every American symphony orchestra as well as European, and Lynn Harrel, who's had a very successful solo career, was his student.

He was a founding member of the Curtis String Quartet which lasted for 50 years and was the first American trained string quartet to tour Europe. I played with him informally in family chamber groups for a few years before he, unhappy with his declining physical skills, decided to stop playing in public. When asked about his decision, he'd say, "By the time I got warmed up, I'd be worn out."

At the celebration, two of his students played Gian Carlo Menoti's Suite for Two Cellos and Piano. You may remember Menoti. They used to televise Amahl and the Night Visitors every Christmas when I was a boy. Thankfully they gave up on it after a few years.

There was a reception afterward, and then Deb and I went out to dinner with him and Deb's brother and sister-in-law who had driven down from New York City for the occasion.

Christmas is coming pretty soon. Got a family member or friend who likes mysteries or classical music, have them order a copy right from this blog.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. If you like what I say, post a comment. Or, subscribe to my blog and have entries sent to you every day. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Self-editing and Entrepreneurial Writing

We writers who publish through print-on-demand publishing have to become good self-editors. Or they have to employ an editor. Self-editing is not something I do well. I can edit other people's stuff, but not my own.

I'm fortunate to have a good friend who's both good and a friend and edits my stuff for free because she likes me and she likes to edit. Still, though, I see little typos and stuff that none of us has caught. I won't tell you where they are, though. You might not see them.

If this grabs you, post a comment. And Christmas is coming. If you have a friend or loved-one who has someone on their list a person who loves murder mysteries and/or classical music, order a copy from this blog.

Writing for me is an entrepreneurial process. For my entrepreneurship course, go to hatman2.blogspot.com. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Credibility, Word Choice, Pronounciation, and Spelling

Word choice, spelling, and pronounciation in writing are all about credibility. The words you use and how you pronouce them and spell the, is very important in communicating who you are. For example, our president, George II, pronounces the word "nuclear", as if it were "nucular." I typed a college term paper for a friend who spelled nuclear, nucular, 104 times in 15 pages. Sarah Palin also pronounces nuclear nucular. And she says she got her knowledge through books. Hmm. Mabye she just doesn't read the right books.

In writing, if you have somebody who's supposed to be a garage mechanic talking like a MIT mathematician, you lose credibility with the reader.

If what I say interests you, post a comment. And Christmas is coming. If you have a friend or loved one who loves mystery, order a copy. You can do it right here.

Writing for me is an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial activity, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Dystopic, Anti-Utopia

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia,

Dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia, kakotopia, cackotopia, or anti-utopia) is the vision of a society that is the opposite of utopia. A dystopian society is a state in which the conditions of life are miserable, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease, and/or pollution. Some academic circles distinguish between anti-utopia and dystopia. As in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopia does not pretend to be utopian, while an anti-utopia appears to be utopian or was intended to be so, but a fatal flaw or other factor has destroyed or twisted the intended utopian world or concept.

The Kearney school is kind of anti-utopic because it was founded to train young classical musicians in the art of performance and pursuit of ideals, yet it's fallen short of its goal. I suppose every progressive enterprise has its dystopic elements.

If you're interested in these concepts, read the entire Wikipedia article and follow its references and its links.

I'm flirting writing an anti-utopic mystery for my next one. Because our general assumption is that society will continue to improve and that we are in fact capable of making our lives better through our own efforts, dystopias challenge us to think about our society differently.

If this interests you, post a comment.

Christmas is coming. If you know of a friend or loved one who enjoys mysteries or classical music, order him one right through this blog.

Writing to me is entrepreneurial. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Getting the reader through the middle

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Alice said that writing was easy. You just began a the beginning and then just pushed right through to the end. Alice was a pretty smart girl. The middles are the hard part. Stories often drag. To combat this natural tendencies for stories to slow down a third of the way through, the writer can employ a couple of tactics. First, he can introduce a new sub-plot, though it has to be one that deepens the main story line without distracting the reader. Or, the writer can shorten the sentences, paragraphs, and chapters to move the reader through. Still, it's a daunting process. My approach was to introduce new material about the students, which is a form of subplot.

If you find you have something to say, post a comment. Christmas is coming. If you have a loved one or friend who enjoys mysteries or classical music, order him a copy through this website.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. To read my entrepreneurship course, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com.blog.

Problems with Point of View

Between p. 107 and 117 I put in there the results of a taping session. Henry is off interviewing faculty while Will is working on the checks. Why did Henry structure the investigation that way. Did he want to investigate Will a little? I don't know. Anyway, Henry upon return plays the tapes of his interviews, in which he has uncovered a lot of people with motive to kill Ian. This device gets crucial information I need in there that I can't except by having Will go with him. I suppose he could have rigged up a wire, but this is not Henry's style. So, the tapes allow me to get information in there that Will doesn't know and allows me to have the two discuss it.

Christmas is coming. Have a friend or relative order a copy right from here.

Writing for me is entrepreneurial. If you feel one way or another about the book, post a comment. For my entrepreneurship course go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Characterizing of the police

Sherlock Holmes never thought much of the capabilities of the police. A couple them were okay. From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia: "Holmes comes to recognize the different merits of individual detectives, such as Inspector Gregory's efficiency in investigation or Lestrade's tenacity and courage." But Holmes didn't bestow admiration lightly, and usually only after the detective had recognized Holmes' superiority. Anyway, on pp 105-106 Henry's apartment has been broken into. The police, as usual, get it wrong. But what what were the breaker inners looking for?

Christmas is coming. If you know anyone who would just love a good mystery, send them this book. And if what I say grabs you, post a comment.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship course, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com. For my entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com.

Compression

Compression is a key to effective story-telling. Get rid of useless, redundant, words. Useless, redundant words slow the reader down and undermine narrative drive. You should compress your prose and keep only words that move story along. Hemingway said that one word out of place could ruin an entire novel. I don't know about that, but you get the point, I'm sure.

If you're interested in this or anything I've written post a comment. And Christmas is coming. If you know a friend who likes good mysteries or classical music, order it for them. They'll love you for it.

Writing is to me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship course, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Getting Reader Feedback

A persistent problem is finding the right people to read our stuff. If we pick people who like us already, there's a risk they won't give us honest feedback. Yet those who do not know us are not likely to want to read what we write. The best solution is to hire a professional. They are most likely to be disinterested and have experience to boot. But we have to pay them.

Christmas is coming up. If a friend or loved one likes a good mystery or classical music or both, send him or her this book as a gift.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. If you're interested in something I say, post a comment. For my entrepreneurship course, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com.

Length and Pacing

Short sentences, paragraphs, and chapters move the reader along more quickly. Long sentences, paragraphs, and chapters slows the reader down. Scientists have found that the reader reads, his or her brain reenacts the scenes you write. Writing "John got up from the wicker chair in which he was sitting, ambled slowly over to the door, opened it carefully, went all the way down the hall to his bedroom, opened, so it wouldn't squeak, the top drawer of his five-drawer dresser, found a blue sweater from among the red, yellow, and white ones, and put it on," really slows the reader down. Writing "John put on a blue sweater from the bedroom" moves the reader right along. Sometimes you want to slow things down, other times not. Secret is, using chapters of various lengths helps your story. Whatever you do be conscious of the impact of length on pacing.

If something about this grabs you, post a comment. And Christmas is coming up. If you know a friend or loved one who likes to read mysteries, send them a copy for Christmas.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blotspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Final Revisions

Revising is not writing. Only writing is writing. But revising is polishing. It's going to be what people read. It's just as important as writing, maybe more important, but certainly more nerve-wracking than writing because the bar is raised. No more saying to yourself, "I'll clean that up next time." This is it. The way you leave it is the way people will read it. You want to hold on as long as possible, not to see your baby go out to face the real world. You'll have people reading it saying, "This book really sucks." If that's not scary, I don't know what is.

If something I say resonates with you, post a comment. And Christmas is coming. If you have a friend or loved one who likes good mysterys, order them a book. You can do it right from here.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship course, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

Contrast and Character

Contrasts are good in writing. They highlight both things being contrasted. On p. 105 Will discovers Henry's apartment has been broken into. The marketing represented for the apartment complex is there wringing her hands. The contrast of her demeanor with Will's characterizes Will a little bit. Remember, characterize, characterize, characterize.

If you find anything I say interesting, post a comment. I revel in responses. Remember Christmas is coming. If you have someone who loves mystery novels, order one for them. You can do it right from here.

Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship course go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog