You do not stand still. A man of genius should be like a young boy who is never, never and never will be a grown up. He must have a new style and new methods. Not for fashion’s sake, but because he has outgrown the old ways.
Wise words from Oscar Wilde’s dad.
It is hot today. My writing shed still holds the evening cool, but I feel heat encroaching. Right now, as I type, a cluster of hornets bangs against my window screen. Scout lies in the dirt, kong by his head, eyes narrowed.
So the year is almost finished, and the MFA program concludes, and I have a pile of stories in the middle of my floor. No idea what to do with them. Edit, maybe. Then send somewhere. Or just post them on this site. Other tasks beckon louder–copy edits for LOSING GRACELAND (galleys in June), movement on the graphic novel, and a two-week writing frenzy on the screenplay adaptation of THE MENSCH. There’s also the matter of novel #4. Seventy pages in it’s not terrible, and that’s all the incentive I need to stick with it. For now. A fickle bastard, I am.
Speaking of bastards, remember good old JACK? Well, I do. And he’s not gone. Just shelved, temporarily. I received an interesting email from–oh, hell. I’ll just put it up.
Mr. Nathan,
I finally got around to watching KILL BILL and it reminded me a little of the book you keep talking about. “Jack The Bastard.” Was this on your mind when you were writing it?
I too am from Buffalo. Thought you’d like to know that.
-C. Wiktor
Picasso said good artists borrow, great artists steal. Years ago–before KILL BILL–I watched a nice little Japanese flick called LADY SNOWBLOOD and thought to myself: “Self, this would make a good plot line.” I’d always wanted to write something set along the Tex-Mex border (a female classmate recently asked what the Tex-Mex border was; doesn’t everyone know the Tex-Mex border? It’s lawless, liminal, and one other L word…maybe licentious?). So I added one part female revenge tale to one part Tex-Mex spaghetti western, and you get the genesis of JTB.
For a graphic novel it’s an easier sale. For a novel, not so much. Hence the delay. And I knew a C. Wiktor in Buffalo, but I doubt it’s the same guy. If it is, what’s with the “Mr”?
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