Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Ah, the joys of libraries...

I just saved myself $15 and having to deal with waiting for a DVD to come in because I checked the branch of the library that's behind my apartment building, and they have a copy of the show I wanted to see. God knows what condition it's in, but if it's free to watch, why not check it out? So I am, tomorrow. I put it on hold and will pick it up after I finish with the doctor.

I'm at that age where my warrantee has expired, so I'm getting my knee checked by an orthopedic surgeon in hopes it's nothing serious...just water on the knee. Which is handled by sticking a needle into me and siphoning it out. Not what I'm looking forward to. But it needs doing. My right knee just feels all wrong, at the moment.

Anyway, I just cut 50 pages out of what I'd written for Underground Guy, and I made the veiled threat against Devlin more blunt -- help us get to this man or we put you in jail forever. Which will make things more complex between Devlin and Tawfi, when they do connect.

What's nice about this is, by pushing to be harsher and speak the truth of things more deliberately, without softening the words, I'm seeing how to make APoS a more honest book, as well. Brendan is surrounded by people who lie to themselves and others, albeit not deliberately. And he is damaged by it in many ways, because he only wants to be left alone to live his life.

I'm pushing a simpler, more direct style in UG as practice for Brendan's...not so much for his own manner of speaking but that of Colm and Eamonn and Father Jack and even his Uncle Sean and cousin, Scott. I'm trying to find all the spots where I use artifice instead of honesty to tell my stories, and it's hard because I'm prone to using what I call qualifiers in my sentences...plus I like to use easy words to enter into sentences, when being told in first person. That has to stop, as well.

Maybe I should reread For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Hemingway; he used an artificial style to speak truth...

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