First Writing Rite



JUST PUBLISHED! THE FIRST YEAR OF THE BLOG COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY GENRE.

I had begun to get offers from publishers to publish my blog, and those offers sparked me to thinking how I would arrange my first year's blog if I did publish it.  The easiest arrangement would have been chronological order as each blog was published, but I realized that I had published four different genres of writing: (1) nonfiction: journalistic writing, essays, and reports; (2) poetry; (3) short stories; and (4) a novel.  Therefore, I decided to group them under the four general categories but leave them chronological within each category.

I decided to go with an 8x10, full-color layout because such would most resemble the blog itself.  The book came to 396 pages.  "Part One," pages 1-45, contains the 15 nonfiction pieces loosely grouped under the heading "Essays" because the majority qualify as such, although some are reports or ruminations more than well-structured essays. "Part Two," pages 45-169, holds 80 poems, most of which are my originals and previously published in other publications, and I give some background and/or explanations of these poems.  Thirty of the poems are my translations from Spanish (15) and French (15). "Part Three," pages170-268 consists of 11 short stories, some of my favorites from the two published collections: A Collection of Nickel-plated Angels and Touch Me.  "Part Four," pages 269-396, is one novel Encomienda, the second mystery in the Buck Jaspers series.  It is my favorite of the first three mysteries before Buck becomes wealthy and famous.

When I got the proof copy and reviewed it, I realized that the book would make a decent textbook for a creative writing class.  It has plenty of examples with background and explanations of how the pieces originated.  If ever privileged to teach such a course again, I might use it, along with the PowerPoint that I also created: "Notes for Writers"; and the syllabus for CRW2001.