A Click Away: Where the Good Stuff Is

We go to people’s websites and blogs following a link from somewhere else. Usually we don’t so much read an article, post, or essay as we absorb it. I have to tell myself to slow down ten times a day when I’m visiting content online. “Slow down, dude. Pay attention. What else is there connected to this site? Read the article. Don’t just link away from it on the first promising reference. Relax!”

There’s interesting stuff at almost any blogger’s site. Certainly there’s a treasure trove of archived information and articles at all the online magazines and professional websites you go to daily. The good stuff is often just a click away. I was recently at one of my favorite author’s sites because I referred to his work in this blog post. Anthony Doerr really is one of the best writers of fiction in America today. Over the years, I’ve read most of his Morning Call posts, but I forgot he did reviews of interesting science books for The Boston Globe. And there was the link. I clicked on it and got an eye-full. It is such a pleasure to read Anthony’s words and observations. If you’re an intelligent person of any kind, you need to check out his reviews. If you’re a writer, this is the guy to learn from.

In my case, I ain’t no Anthony Doerr but I often post pretty interesting excerpts from my fiction in the Work-in Progress section of this website. You can find an excerpt from the beginning of my novel Beautiful Morning Blues in WIP section right now (should be at the top of the pile through to mid-September). This novel kicks off a trilogy of sorts about love, sex, marriage, and the meaning of life here in good old 21st century Philadelphia. The trilogy is called Ex:Urbia. The second book, That Thing Beyond Love, will be ready to go by spring of 2014. I am working on the third in the series, Dawn of the Summertons, which I hope will be ready before Christmas next year. This schedule may change, since I am looking for an agent and/or a publisher. But I’m not afraid to self-publish. You’ll get a more honest read and a product that is as raw as life actually is.

So, go check out my work-in-progress. There’s a lot of weird stuff in there. Drop me a line about what you’ve read. Tell me I’m full of shit or really full of myself (same thing?).

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