A beginning is so important - and that's a doozy! One thought follows another, whatever note you strike sends you down a different path. Can't wait to see more of the "sometimes there" island.
Harlan Ellison. He wrote interesting, ANGRY PROSE soaked in adrenaline, gritty, witty &sarcastic. Humanistic. He grew weary of writing for television & movies.
Ray Bradbury - prose poetry, mixing at times. The Martian Chronicles was amazing.
Alfred Bester - One novel, " The Stars My Destination " was pretty much his magnum opus. Look it up.
I had an idea for a vampire private investigator. Kinda like Mike Hammer gets turned into a Dracula. He drinks Jack mixed with blood from someone NAMED Jack. But it's probably been done.
Morsels, morsels, we want more morsels. I have been absent myself, gathering thoughts and words, seeking clarity. It's good you stay the course, let these morsels ripen and grow.
I love these morsels, Nathan. It’s hard to choose favorites, as is always the case with your writing. But I’ll highlight these: “I have come to understand that I cannot write unless I know and see the start. The correct start, that is. One that broods to be born. Nothing else matters—no end, midpoint, arc, or goal.” — how relatable! This is my exact thought every time I approach the page. Everything has to have a beginning, but I like to think the end can be open, or even non-existent. Also, the passages from Cartarescu's Nostalgia are nothing short of what I expect from him: absolute beauty. I’m finally almost done with Solenoid, and I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you’ve ever said about it. No second thoughts. Lastly, your decision to go paid -- I think your reasoning makes all the sense in the world. I’ll probably mimic it one day when I decide to take the plunge myself. :)
A story of how words accumulate, landing lightly on your head. Trying to find their way in to ultimately complete a thought, a place, a feel. Like intermittent rain showers, or here in the U.S. , when the sun is out, we call them sun showers. Misty and warm, they patter on your head in the most delightful ways .
Looking for a way in .
“…to recognise when an embryo of story has been fertilised by certain words”.
Here, let me help you;
“Lately I have walked here before…”
“I’ve begun to see something that resembles coherence in the charade of my life.”
~Cotter Sean, Solenoid
(No, I have not read this, just went searching for a quote for you😊).
“I am going to…….turn on…”
There, there, it’s quite alright now she says, with a pat on his back. See, that wasn’t so difficult…
"Only later does the fear come, only after this fantasy (that happens about once every two or three months) becomes a kind of memory do I begin to wonder if somehow, among all the anomalies of my life—because this is my topic—the fantastical independence of my hands is further proof that…everything is a dream, that my entire life is oneiric, or something sadder, graver, weirder, yet truer than any story that could ever be invented."
“Perhaps all we want from reading is to return to that age when we could hold a book and cry, to that time between childhood and adolescence, the sweetest era of our lives.”
Well done for taking that paid decision in hand Nathan, its a biggy isn't it!
I have sort of melded into these fragmented thoughts of yours Nathan, they resemble so closely my own recent days meanderings in the physical and the metaphysical... not your exact words of course but the way you collected and arranged them, quickly before they take flight. And this 'lately I have walked the iron shore' I wait to see the (re)finings... you must walk more often!
Solenoid, alas, is still a book listed, highlighted even, but unread, I must remedy that! Thank you for the links!
Huge congrats on turning on paid subscriptions. This feels like a symbolic cheers to your writing life. I have no doubt, with time, others will raise that glass with you. It’s squirmy, I know! And the support on this platform shows up in many forms, but it’s a validating boost when someone can contribute in this way.
This prose is wildly phenomenal by the way. I’ve read it a half dozen times and I feel my awareness shifting in place and time.
“Lately I have walked here before,
light in step and knowing
that there is where you are,
across the sea that haunts the land
set deep within my eyes.”
“Lately and before” “there and where” “across and within.” I mean! Wow. Transcendent but entirely immediate all at once. 🙏
Thank you, Kimberly. Thanks for all your support over the time we've been connected here.
The whole paid thing definitely feels squirmy. That's such a perfect description. 😆
Love your thoughts on the prose here. It was a relief to get some of these words to the page so I can come back to them, rather than letting them simply dissolve into the word-soaked ether.
Oh man, I was reading this as one big labyrinth of story for reader to puzzle together and then I saw: "In recent weeks..." etc. and I realized some of it is just real stuff happening to you. So the cockatoos are really back? :)
Good searching for the 'morsel tree.'
I finished the first story in Nostalgia earlier in the week - The Roulette Player - and it did not disappoint. He didn't push the consciousness questions as far as in Solenoid in this story at least, but in a different way it formed a tighter narrative which was also nice as well as scary as hell (in a good way). Great rec, Nathan, thanks!
Hehe, yes, this was all factual happenings (well, aside from the tree itself being within my imagination). Glad you enjoyed the morsels.
When the weather is warm enough in the morning, the cockatoos come in big flocks and hack away at the nearby gym trees. They make a big racket, but I forgive them because they are pretty birds.
Glad you're enjoying Nostalgia too. Roulette Player is a great first piece. I think I enjoyed the second one a lot because of its direct ties to Solenoid. The third takes some getting into, but once the narrative develops then the memories within are excellent. Same for the fourth. The last is just craaaazy and quite interesting due to it being a different style for him.
Your writing to me is the same magic trick that a talented chef can turn with a few simple ingredients. Your love for words is so obvious and you are so attuned to the way the lay next to one another that when you decide to place them in a sentence, they lift off the page and go directly into a reader's subconscious. I really hope you will continue to walk along the iron shore and that it will be a nice long walk.
Intrigued to see where the “iron shore” story goes, Nathan. As I’m sure I’ve said before, the opening lines of The Dark Tower by Stephen King “The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed” and Tolkiens The Hobbit, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” were written by the authors with no idea what was to come next. Sometimes a morsel is all it takes to start something magnificent.
On paid subscriptions, I feel I’m going to do the same. I’m taking the first steps in turning my short stories into a book and that costs money. Plus, I don’t think it’s anything to be ashamed of. If people want to contribute then that’s a lovely gesture. We’re not going to force them to do it 😁
I actually just went to upgrade my subscription to Slake and found out you can’t do it on the app. I’ll sort it once I get home 👍🏼
Currently sitting in an empty car park apart from 2 other cars who parked directly next to me and, the other, an inch off my bumper. People are strange 🤔
Yeah I love that such iconic stories started in such a manner.
Aw, thanks heaps, though there is of course zero obligation (and the gesture will absolutely be returned). I've definitely felt the hesitation and some strange sense of shame. It's a weird thing, hey.
Very exciting to hear of you turning your stories into a book.
Love the morsel of this story... My mind went to a derelict iron blast furnace, which uses lime in turning iron ore into pig iron. Perhaps long ago, captives who worked the furnaces were kept confined on the island at night, ferried over to toil on the iron shore during the day. If you add a magical twist, it could be magic that either made the island or allowed access to it (like the mists of Avalon), but everything has fallen into ruin, the site is abandoned, and the magic is stuttering (which is why the island is only visible some of the time). If some of the captives made it out but others were left behind...perhaps your narrator is a tortured lover, longing to rescue his beloved.
Renee, this is amaaazing! You need to go write it. You've mapped it all out. I love how easily this came to you. Take it and run with it.
PS I miss your posts, just in case you've been considering posting anything soon. ;) There must be so many books you've read that I'd love to hear about.
Aw, thank you! Honestly, I'm unsure where I'd like to take the Files. I found that I can absorb a ton of information in a hurry, but my interests go in phases and sometimes take really circuitous detours. For example, I got into my list of top SFF last year and didn't explore new podcasts or non-fiction books for a long time, so the whole "four recommendations per newsletter" format was hard to keep up. But now I'm on a spree about museum exhibit design and reading kids books for fun (currently halfway through the World Book encyclopedia, volume "B"), which is like...what? Does anyone want to read about this on Substack?? :D
I recently read "Refuse to Choose" by Barbara Sher, which is an amazing book about people with what she calls a "Scanner" temperament - lots of curiosity and interests. I immediately felt seen, ha. She recommended keeping a "Daybook" to capture freeform ideas, letting them run as far as you like without feeling obligated to do any of them. I have pages. PAGES I tell you! It's been so much fun.
Sounds amazing. I'd never heard of that type, but I can certainly see myself falling somewhat within it. I have too many hobbies and interests and often feel like I'm spreading myself too thin. *And* I have to work on top of that and be enthusiastic and dedicated to my job. When is there the time for all of that?
But in terms of your Files, why not just write about whatever is currently capturing your interest? Write as a form of Daybook of freeform thoughts. Many people would enjoy that. I certainly would. But only do it if it wouldn't put any pressure on you.
What are conflicts, what is the struggle for power compared to the meticulous, calm, even gentle victory of time against everyone?
—Mircea Cărtărescu
This is strangely consoling to me. A gentle victory--I like the way that sounds.
I’m glad you’re going paid, Nathan. It is time!
This is absolutely how I felt with that passage. It's a gentle victory and consoling. So well put.
Thanks for your encouragement, Ann, that means a lot. 🤗
A beginning is so important - and that's a doozy! One thought follows another, whatever note you strike sends you down a different path. Can't wait to see more of the "sometimes there" island.
Thanks Troy! The joy of the many paths words can take through a sentence.
Harlan Ellison. He wrote interesting, ANGRY PROSE soaked in adrenaline, gritty, witty &sarcastic. Humanistic. He grew weary of writing for television & movies.
Ray Bradbury - prose poetry, mixing at times. The Martian Chronicles was amazing.
Alfred Bester - One novel, " The Stars My Destination " was pretty much his magnum opus. Look it up.
Angry prose! that's a great term. I've read some Bradbury, but not the others.
Thanks for these, Daniel.
I had an idea for a vampire private investigator. Kinda like Mike Hammer gets turned into a Dracula. He drinks Jack mixed with blood from someone NAMED Jack. But it's probably been done.
Bradbury, yes.
Morsels, morsels, we want more morsels. I have been absent myself, gathering thoughts and words, seeking clarity. It's good you stay the course, let these morsels ripen and grow.
Great to see you around. Hope you’re doing OK mate, and maybe there’ll be some morsels coming from your own word/thought gathering soon?
Words are accumulating, they need a bit more time before they can be released. Soon!
I love these morsels, Nathan. It’s hard to choose favorites, as is always the case with your writing. But I’ll highlight these: “I have come to understand that I cannot write unless I know and see the start. The correct start, that is. One that broods to be born. Nothing else matters—no end, midpoint, arc, or goal.” — how relatable! This is my exact thought every time I approach the page. Everything has to have a beginning, but I like to think the end can be open, or even non-existent. Also, the passages from Cartarescu's Nostalgia are nothing short of what I expect from him: absolute beauty. I’m finally almost done with Solenoid, and I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you’ve ever said about it. No second thoughts. Lastly, your decision to go paid -- I think your reasoning makes all the sense in the world. I’ll probably mimic it one day when I decide to take the plunge myself. :)
A story of how words accumulate, landing lightly on your head. Trying to find their way in to ultimately complete a thought, a place, a feel. Like intermittent rain showers, or here in the U.S. , when the sun is out, we call them sun showers. Misty and warm, they patter on your head in the most delightful ways .
Looking for a way in .
“…to recognise when an embryo of story has been fertilised by certain words”.
Here, let me help you;
“Lately I have walked here before…”
“I’ve begun to see something that resembles coherence in the charade of my life.”
~Cotter Sean, Solenoid
(No, I have not read this, just went searching for a quote for you😊).
“I am going to…….turn on…”
There, there, it’s quite alright now she says, with a pat on his back. See, that wasn’t so difficult…
Hehe thanks for the Solenoid quote. For a moment that I held great excitement in my chest that you were reading the book. ;)
Thanks for the pat and reassurance. Much needed. I still feel a bit icky about the paid thing, but I hope I can get over that.
The description of the sun showers (a lovely term) feels most apt. 🤗
No, but I did read these two. While I do love reading a long novel, I think in this case, reading all 672 pages , may take me a year.🤔
https://lonesomereader.com/blog/2023/6/28/solenoid-by-mircea-cartarescu-translated-by-sean-cotter
https://socratesonthebeach.com/mircea-crtrescu
Wonderful. It's so endlessly quotable.
"Only later does the fear come, only after this fantasy (that happens about once every two or three months) becomes a kind of memory do I begin to wonder if somehow, among all the anomalies of my life—because this is my topic—the fantastical independence of my hands is further proof that…everything is a dream, that my entire life is oneiric, or something sadder, graver, weirder, yet truer than any story that could ever be invented."
“Perhaps all we want from reading is to return to that age when we could hold a book and cry, to that time between childhood and adolescence, the sweetest era of our lives.”
Mircea Cărtărescu, Solenoid
Well done for taking that paid decision in hand Nathan, its a biggy isn't it!
I have sort of melded into these fragmented thoughts of yours Nathan, they resemble so closely my own recent days meanderings in the physical and the metaphysical... not your exact words of course but the way you collected and arranged them, quickly before they take flight. And this 'lately I have walked the iron shore' I wait to see the (re)finings... you must walk more often!
Solenoid, alas, is still a book listed, highlighted even, but unread, I must remedy that! Thank you for the links!
I take great inspiration from your own wonderful posts and your walks, Susie (of which there is one waiting for me in my inbox, I believe). 😊
Solenoid is probably divisive, though I do hope you like it if and when you get to it.
Huge congrats on turning on paid subscriptions. This feels like a symbolic cheers to your writing life. I have no doubt, with time, others will raise that glass with you. It’s squirmy, I know! And the support on this platform shows up in many forms, but it’s a validating boost when someone can contribute in this way.
This prose is wildly phenomenal by the way. I’ve read it a half dozen times and I feel my awareness shifting in place and time.
“Lately I have walked here before,
light in step and knowing
that there is where you are,
across the sea that haunts the land
set deep within my eyes.”
“Lately and before” “there and where” “across and within.” I mean! Wow. Transcendent but entirely immediate all at once. 🙏
Thank you, Kimberly. Thanks for all your support over the time we've been connected here.
The whole paid thing definitely feels squirmy. That's such a perfect description. 😆
Love your thoughts on the prose here. It was a relief to get some of these words to the page so I can come back to them, rather than letting them simply dissolve into the word-soaked ether.
Oh man, I was reading this as one big labyrinth of story for reader to puzzle together and then I saw: "In recent weeks..." etc. and I realized some of it is just real stuff happening to you. So the cockatoos are really back? :)
Good searching for the 'morsel tree.'
I finished the first story in Nostalgia earlier in the week - The Roulette Player - and it did not disappoint. He didn't push the consciousness questions as far as in Solenoid in this story at least, but in a different way it formed a tighter narrative which was also nice as well as scary as hell (in a good way). Great rec, Nathan, thanks!
Hehe, yes, this was all factual happenings (well, aside from the tree itself being within my imagination). Glad you enjoyed the morsels.
When the weather is warm enough in the morning, the cockatoos come in big flocks and hack away at the nearby gym trees. They make a big racket, but I forgive them because they are pretty birds.
Glad you're enjoying Nostalgia too. Roulette Player is a great first piece. I think I enjoyed the second one a lot because of its direct ties to Solenoid. The third takes some getting into, but once the narrative develops then the memories within are excellent. Same for the fourth. The last is just craaaazy and quite interesting due to it being a different style for him.
You are so kind to your tormenting birds but that’s a good reason to forgive. :)
Your writing to me is the same magic trick that a talented chef can turn with a few simple ingredients. Your love for words is so obvious and you are so attuned to the way the lay next to one another that when you decide to place them in a sentence, they lift off the page and go directly into a reader's subconscious. I really hope you will continue to walk along the iron shore and that it will be a nice long walk.
Aw Ben, thank you. This is such a lovely comment. Truly, thanks so much.
Intrigued to see where the “iron shore” story goes, Nathan. As I’m sure I’ve said before, the opening lines of The Dark Tower by Stephen King “The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed” and Tolkiens The Hobbit, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” were written by the authors with no idea what was to come next. Sometimes a morsel is all it takes to start something magnificent.
On paid subscriptions, I feel I’m going to do the same. I’m taking the first steps in turning my short stories into a book and that costs money. Plus, I don’t think it’s anything to be ashamed of. If people want to contribute then that’s a lovely gesture. We’re not going to force them to do it 😁
I actually just went to upgrade my subscription to Slake and found out you can’t do it on the app. I’ll sort it once I get home 👍🏼
Currently sitting in an empty car park apart from 2 other cars who parked directly next to me and, the other, an inch off my bumper. People are strange 🤔
Yeah I love that such iconic stories started in such a manner.
Aw, thanks heaps, though there is of course zero obligation (and the gesture will absolutely be returned). I've definitely felt the hesitation and some strange sense of shame. It's a weird thing, hey.
Very exciting to hear of you turning your stories into a book.
Hah re: cars. Yep, people sure are strange. ;)
Love the morsel of this story... My mind went to a derelict iron blast furnace, which uses lime in turning iron ore into pig iron. Perhaps long ago, captives who worked the furnaces were kept confined on the island at night, ferried over to toil on the iron shore during the day. If you add a magical twist, it could be magic that either made the island or allowed access to it (like the mists of Avalon), but everything has fallen into ruin, the site is abandoned, and the magic is stuttering (which is why the island is only visible some of the time). If some of the captives made it out but others were left behind...perhaps your narrator is a tortured lover, longing to rescue his beloved.
Renee, this is amaaazing! You need to go write it. You've mapped it all out. I love how easily this came to you. Take it and run with it.
PS I miss your posts, just in case you've been considering posting anything soon. ;) There must be so many books you've read that I'd love to hear about.
Aw, thank you! Honestly, I'm unsure where I'd like to take the Files. I found that I can absorb a ton of information in a hurry, but my interests go in phases and sometimes take really circuitous detours. For example, I got into my list of top SFF last year and didn't explore new podcasts or non-fiction books for a long time, so the whole "four recommendations per newsletter" format was hard to keep up. But now I'm on a spree about museum exhibit design and reading kids books for fun (currently halfway through the World Book encyclopedia, volume "B"), which is like...what? Does anyone want to read about this on Substack?? :D
I recently read "Refuse to Choose" by Barbara Sher, which is an amazing book about people with what she calls a "Scanner" temperament - lots of curiosity and interests. I immediately felt seen, ha. She recommended keeping a "Daybook" to capture freeform ideas, letting them run as far as you like without feeling obligated to do any of them. I have pages. PAGES I tell you! It's been so much fun.
Sounds amazing. I'd never heard of that type, but I can certainly see myself falling somewhat within it. I have too many hobbies and interests and often feel like I'm spreading myself too thin. *And* I have to work on top of that and be enthusiastic and dedicated to my job. When is there the time for all of that?
But in terms of your Files, why not just write about whatever is currently capturing your interest? Write as a form of Daybook of freeform thoughts. Many people would enjoy that. I certainly would. But only do it if it wouldn't put any pressure on you.
You should absolutely make the plunge, whenever you are ready. 😊
I figured that those words would resonate, knowing that we share a similar approach to our writing.
Excited to hear you're almost at the end of Solenoid and that you feel the same way as I do.
At some near point in the future I will be saying the same in return about 2666!
Aw, how lovely Nadia. 🤗
Hope you're well.