After posting the last installment of The Nature Preserve, I poured myself an enormous bourbon. Then another. I couldn't find my phone and fell asleep on the couch. In the days that followed this liquor-induced stupor, I felt a little like Gulliver must have felt after coming home from one of his long voyages. (Lilliput? Laputa? Glubbdubdrib?) I was disorientated. I felt discouraged. And it was difficult to know exactly what to do with myself. The incessant twice-weekly deadlines had come to an end for one thing. I no longer needed to draw pictures of emaciated naked stragglers lurching into pollution-enhanced sunsets. Swan’s life, always on the brink, was no longer in my hands.
Dear Mr. Bix, Thank you for a summary of your writing experience. I worried it was going to be a "how I made the sausage" exercise. Fortunately, it wasn't. Just like the novel, I really enjoyed it. It was especially important to learn about your mentor, Louise Atcheson and her workshop.
I don't think you are done with this character or story. However, you won't know until you've gone on to complete other projects and take a look back. You don't have to worry about resorting to deus ex machina. You have already mastered it. The scene with Ottala's emergence from her Gut Wedding experiment would leave the ancient Greek playwriters in awe. Nothing could be more "preposterous". Unfortunately, the ending to The Nature Preserve is not preposterous, it might even be probable.
I read a lot, but mostly non-fiction. This is the first fiction novel I've read completely in decades. You can feel a measure of success based on this alone. The illustrations kept my attention, and the weekly installment plan kept me in suspense.
It is difficult to measure one's success in the Arts whether it be writing, music, graphics or even architecture. Sometimes a great work is too far ahead of its time. Sometimes it leads to a piece of work that truly nails it. I say carry on and do good works, Mr. Bix!
Well, I just spent way too much time on Thomas Swan Sign Company's website, thank you very much! The literary agent world must be populated by old white guys with Coke-bottleI-lenses and zero imagination. More importantly, I don't know which journey is more epic, Swan's or your writing of this novel. The notion of creating a story of this scope from a 30-minute freewriting session is staggering. I wonder if you still have the headline from your Louise Atcheson session that prompted it. Thanks for this postscript. It's very illuminating. Now, pick up that pen and get busy!
Dear Mr. Bix, Thank you for a summary of your writing experience. I worried it was going to be a "how I made the sausage" exercise. Fortunately, it wasn't. Just like the novel, I really enjoyed it. It was especially important to learn about your mentor, Louise Atcheson and her workshop.
I don't think you are done with this character or story. However, you won't know until you've gone on to complete other projects and take a look back. You don't have to worry about resorting to deus ex machina. You have already mastered it. The scene with Ottala's emergence from her Gut Wedding experiment would leave the ancient Greek playwriters in awe. Nothing could be more "preposterous". Unfortunately, the ending to The Nature Preserve is not preposterous, it might even be probable.
I read a lot, but mostly non-fiction. This is the first fiction novel I've read completely in decades. You can feel a measure of success based on this alone. The illustrations kept my attention, and the weekly installment plan kept me in suspense.
It is difficult to measure one's success in the Arts whether it be writing, music, graphics or even architecture. Sometimes a great work is too far ahead of its time. Sometimes it leads to a piece of work that truly nails it. I say carry on and do good works, Mr. Bix!
Sincerely, Mark D
Well, I just spent way too much time on Thomas Swan Sign Company's website, thank you very much! The literary agent world must be populated by old white guys with Coke-bottleI-lenses and zero imagination. More importantly, I don't know which journey is more epic, Swan's or your writing of this novel. The notion of creating a story of this scope from a 30-minute freewriting session is staggering. I wonder if you still have the headline from your Louise Atcheson session that prompted it. Thanks for this postscript. It's very illuminating. Now, pick up that pen and get busy!
I see now where you went wrong: Gnomes changed to fairies.