SECOND DRAFT

I posted only once during the month of October because I was working frantically on the second draft of Godtalk. It went well. I not only tightened the prose, but added and changed things that did not even exist in the first draft.

As I read and worked, I was more pleased with the novel than I remembered being and some parts caused me to laugh out loud or choke up, respectively, as if I was not the one who put those scenes to paper.

When I finished, I handed a copy over to another teacher in the English Department, who graciously offers (always) to read my stuff. She came in the next day with the mansucript box under her arm. I thought there was some problem with what I'd given her. As it happens, she read the first chapter before leaving school and said she "got hooked" and read it straight through (all 208 pages!) in one night! I found that very flattering, as well as a good sign. She even marked it up as she read.

My wife also started the book last night. She has been great about line editing the chapters as she reads them. It's all been such a big help. I think it's going well and everyone seems pleased. But there's still a lot of work to do.

Somewhere along the line, I managed to send my story "The Attendance Office" to the Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition. It would be nice if something came of that. I also sent out "Tales of the Virgin Mary" to three markets at once--which is something of a no-no. But I got two back within a couple weeks. The Threepenny Review rejection slip said they didn't read during the Fall months (I didn't see that on their website, I guess) and Agni (one of the big guns) sent a slip that said at the end "This is not our customary rejection slip," and "please consider submitting again." I took that as a good sign.

But, for now, my focus is Godtalk.

I've already started a list of ideas for draft number three.

WHAT'S UP, G?

In an incident reminiscent of my experience with Killer Swell, I read a movie review in the newspaper over the weekend that told of a hip hop update of Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. I've already done extensive background work (character biographies, six page plot treatment, and almost all of chapter 1) on my own updated version of Gatsby.

Fortunately, the differences are significant, since I wasn't sure it was even legal to update a copyrighted story without permission, so I made the basic architecture of the story the same, but all of the details and events are radically altered. For example, this movie, entitled simply G, is a hip hop story that takes place in the Hamptons and involves a music executive named Summer G. The review said there was no recreating of the identity or secret crime that funded the Gatsby character's dreams. That is, actually, quite different than mine.

In my version, the novel is set on the West Coast, in Los Angeles, in the movie business. The Tom Buchanan character is a movie producer married to the love of my Gatsby character's life. My Gatsby owns a nightclub in Hollwyood (hence, the "wild" parties) and is reconnected with his lost love when the Daisy character's cousin moves to L.A. to become an actor and moves into "Gatsby's" guest cottage. I thought that all seemed quite plausible. In addition, to echo the prohibition themes that fueled Gatsby's wealth, my character will be a kingpin in the 80s drug culture, amassing his fortune through sales of large volumes of cocaine.

To keep it interesting (and throw people off the scent of Gatsby), I was going to throw in a stalker.

After the young adult novel, I was planning to either write a series of young adult mysteries or continue with the Gatsby novel.

Either way, I will "beat on, (a) boat. . .against the current. . ."