horse racing
Dressing Up An Old Friend
Last week, along with mystery writer Vicki Delany, I was a guest of the Public Library in Picton, Ontario. I read two scenes from my recently completed manuscript, Black Tupelo. The audience was relaxed and conversational, and one of the questions I was asked during the Q&A was “What are you working on now?” I [...]
Salvaging A Novel I Wrote In 1983
My first novel, like most first novels, was transparently autobiographical. It was also, I’m guessing, derivative of writers I admired at the time I wrote it, which was 27 years ago, writers like Hemingway and Faulkner. I am guessing that this is the case because I haven’t reread it since it was rejected, after 11 [...]
How I Keep My Tools Sharp
My latest manuscript, Black Tupelo, took me three years to complete. I worked on it every day — creatively or editorially — weekends included, for months at a time. Every once in a while I would take a break for a week or two, but never for very long; when I’m writing a novel, I [...]
Two Scenes From Black Tupelo
Although some people can write purely from their imaginations, others require actual experience upon which to base their writing. Stephen Crane never experienced combat, but he was able — through the power of his imagination — to create the most convincing of all Civil War novels, Red Badge of Courage. Conversely, Ernest Hemingway’s early novel, [...]
HOW OUR AMERICAN ODYSSEY LED TO ‘BLACK TUPELO’
All writers of fiction depend on their imaginations. The more vivid the imagination, the better the writing. But there’s no replacement for experience, and that’s why Karen and I set off to follow the itinerary of my character Campbell Young as he pursued a scam artist named Wendell Honey through the American midwest. The route [...]
A Deeper Look at Life’s Foibles
Those who are well-acquainted with mysteries may be interested in this mystery-to-literary fiction spin-off. J.D. Carpenter, author of the Campbell Young mysteries, takes us on a different journey with Priam Harvey, a character that occasionally steps into the spotlight throughout the Campbell Young mysteries. This time around, we focus on Mr. Harvey himself, an unemployed [...]
Twelve Trees – Opposing Views
J.D. Carpenter’s first literary fiction novel Twelve Trees has been receiving positive and even glowing reviews so it was with dismay that I read Margaret Cannon’s lukewarm review in which she writes that
“[Priam] Harvey, unemployed, bar habitué, gambler and storyteller is a terrific character. He can carry a novel on his own but this one, [...]
