Why did you title your blog “A Platypus in the Library”?
Years ago my eldest daughter gave me a 6” high Gund Platypus, which is still sitting on my desk. When I was working on a name for this blog I knew I wanted it to be different. It also had to say something about me. That’s when I noticed the stuffed platypus. The platypus is one of the oddest living species. It looks like it was assembled from spare parts.
“We need a body here.”
“Let’s see, I have a one otter body leftover”
“That will do, how about a tail?
“Just a beaver left”
“Okay, not bad. What do you have for a muzzle or nose?
“You’re not going to like it.”
“What?!”
“A large duck’s bill is all we have”
“Okay we’ll make it work.”
The platypus is such a hodgepodge that when the first stuffed one reached Europe it was thought to be a hoax. But the platypus is even odder than it looks. The platypus is one of only two species of monotreme, mammals that lay eggs. It is also one a few venomous mammals with a poison spur on its back legs.
I too am a hodgepodge of very diverse parts from varied life experience and conflicting personality traits. I realized I have a close affinity for odd creature and he could serve honorably as the mascot of my blog.
Since I do not spend any of my time sifting the sediment of small ponds in Australia, Mr. Platypus would need a new home. What better place than a library. Take a small pinch of literary license dust and poof we have an anthropomorphic Platypus who reads, writes and on occasion makes pithy observations of the human condition.
Besides having a platypus live in your library does you blog have a theme or specific purpose?
What? Having a sentient platypus living in a library is not enough? There are children's book, MA and YA novelists out there that could take this concept and write for years. But, yes there is a theme. My BTP (Before the Platypus) blogs were not too successful. They lacked a general theme or focused sense of purpose so they foundered. Blogs are like children, if you don’t pay close attention to them, they will cry to be fed and if things aren’t changed they begin to stink.
This blog has two focuses. The first is my love of the mystery/thriller genre, though the focus might drift occasionally into dark urban fantasy. Mysteries have been my companions since I learned to read. They speak to me about the darker side of the human condition.
The second focus of the blog is on writing. Writing is like a big circus tent covering numerous rings full of performers each doing something amazing, but different from the other performers. All of the performers need the big tent. They have to have a basic understanding of grammar and style as well as character, voice, pacing, narrative, dialogue and most importantly, story.
When you shift focus from the tent to the individual performers you see vast variations in their performances, yet all of them are following the rules that bind them under the big tent. In some rings you see the performers creating whole worlds complete with maps, physical laws, history and fable. In another ring there is a character driven story. The characters are so rich and the dialogue so musical that what plot there is to this story is created by the backwash of the character interaction.
In yet another ring there are note cards, whiteboards, outlines, all creating a completely tight plot full of twists, turns, & red herrings. Some of these look like locked room puzzlers while others look like edge of your seat terror inducing page turners. These, of course are the mysteries and thrillers.
Looking around the big tent you can see hundreds of other rings, where writers employ their craft in historical fiction, memoirs, horror, and even further back you can glimpse the rings where non-fiction appears.
In this blog I am investigating both the necessary skills of the craft, those that form the great tent and look at my first love, the ring of mystery & thriller writers
So I am still a bit unclear, what is the focus of the writing aspect of your blog?
Next question please. Actually I am not sure how to answer that question. Some of the content of the blog focuses on listening, learning and applying the advice and insights from professionals (you know the writers that have been published, the editors and the agents). The other content of the blog is following my journey as I write my novel. I will be posting word count and some of the struggles and successes.
Have you written anything before attempting to write a novel?
No messing around with you. Just go for the throat, heart, head, soul, dreams…..
The first and easiest answer to that is yes, I have written tens of thousands of words. Unfortunately, most of them were read by people who had no choice. I am referring to the writing I did while I was practicing law. Other than legal writing I have written some nonfiction, a few columns for regional papers and an article published in local magazine. As for fiction, I have written a number of short stories, one of them won an internet competition. I started an urban fantasy novel. I put it in a drawer after writing about twenty thousand words.
