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Apr. 29th, 2004 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
You might have noticed a change in format of this journal. Or you might not have. :)
But I read your livejournals and what I like best are the details of your lives-- which I suspect seem ordinary enough to you. What fascinating creatures you all are. What exotic places you live! It occurs to me that just maybe, out of the kindness of your hearts, you might like to know how I'm doing from time to time.
I hope to keep on with the short short stories. This will do a number of things for me: Give me the illusion that they're actually Out There and people in general have a chance to read them, thus kind of doing an end run around the **** editors; get me out of the habit of thinking I have to folllow the traditional paper-publication route for everything; give me writing practice; and finally, let me write stuff that's just FUN. Maybe that will give me the courage to keep on with the more serious work-- or just give it up.
Hilltown. What is Hilltown?
I've had this idea for another novel floating around in the back of my head for years-- from long before I started on Flanker, in fact. But it's a disjointed, dreamy kind of story. It's full of beautiful scenes, but they don't link together into a plot. Hilltown just IS. It doesn't begin, it doesn't end, it's always been there and always will be. It changes but it doesn't change-- or does it?
You can't have a plot in a place like that; all you can do is get to know it. Does San Francisco have a plot? I guess it does, if you can see it over a long enough view, but mostly it's a place to live, a place to know.
So that's what Hilltown is. I can't make a novel out of that, but I can show you scenes of the life there, scenes that might give you some idea of the currents that formed it, the hidden stones that hold it up.
Just who is Dean? I threatened to name him Dean Thelin in order to annoy Athelind-- always a worthwhile project if done in good humor, I think. And what else are friends for? But his real name is Dean Lansen. I'm not sure why, but I know that's his name. And now we both know about as much about him as we did before.
What is he? Just this guy who lives in Hilltown. I think the question is what WAS he. But, as he says, what's past is here. The past is what the present is made of. (And that little bit of philosophy struck me as cool enough that it alone makes me glad Dean decided to speak to me.)
What's Hilltown going to be?
I had the idea originally to write one little scene per week for a year-- 52 scenes-- and put them together, and see what we have. I don't think there are that many scenes in Hilltown. Maybe five or six. I have a second oe scribbled on notebook paper. (That's how I usually write. Everything goes on paper first, then I rewrite at the keyboard.) I hope to type it in this weekend.
But I already made a couple of mistakes. For one thing, Chapter 1 takes place on the vernal equinox, not the autumnal. The idea of sacrifice on the Autumnal Equinox resonates better with the religious tradition I think is wrapped up in this stuff somehow, but tough. It's spring. Because the resolution, or one of the resolutions, occurs in the middle of a winter gale, and that's near the end of the series.
I'll never finish it I think, but who cares? It's fun. And some of you like this stuff; you told me so. Thank you. Those who liked it and didn't tell me-- thank you too. I need to develop faith that you're out there (even if you're not). That, too, is part of what I'm trying to do here. :)
But I read your livejournals and what I like best are the details of your lives-- which I suspect seem ordinary enough to you. What fascinating creatures you all are. What exotic places you live! It occurs to me that just maybe, out of the kindness of your hearts, you might like to know how I'm doing from time to time.
I hope to keep on with the short short stories. This will do a number of things for me: Give me the illusion that they're actually Out There and people in general have a chance to read them, thus kind of doing an end run around the **** editors; get me out of the habit of thinking I have to folllow the traditional paper-publication route for everything; give me writing practice; and finally, let me write stuff that's just FUN. Maybe that will give me the courage to keep on with the more serious work-- or just give it up.
Hilltown. What is Hilltown?
I've had this idea for another novel floating around in the back of my head for years-- from long before I started on Flanker, in fact. But it's a disjointed, dreamy kind of story. It's full of beautiful scenes, but they don't link together into a plot. Hilltown just IS. It doesn't begin, it doesn't end, it's always been there and always will be. It changes but it doesn't change-- or does it?
You can't have a plot in a place like that; all you can do is get to know it. Does San Francisco have a plot? I guess it does, if you can see it over a long enough view, but mostly it's a place to live, a place to know.
So that's what Hilltown is. I can't make a novel out of that, but I can show you scenes of the life there, scenes that might give you some idea of the currents that formed it, the hidden stones that hold it up.
Just who is Dean? I threatened to name him Dean Thelin in order to annoy Athelind-- always a worthwhile project if done in good humor, I think. And what else are friends for? But his real name is Dean Lansen. I'm not sure why, but I know that's his name. And now we both know about as much about him as we did before.
What is he? Just this guy who lives in Hilltown. I think the question is what WAS he. But, as he says, what's past is here. The past is what the present is made of. (And that little bit of philosophy struck me as cool enough that it alone makes me glad Dean decided to speak to me.)
What's Hilltown going to be?
I had the idea originally to write one little scene per week for a year-- 52 scenes-- and put them together, and see what we have. I don't think there are that many scenes in Hilltown. Maybe five or six. I have a second oe scribbled on notebook paper. (That's how I usually write. Everything goes on paper first, then I rewrite at the keyboard.) I hope to type it in this weekend.
But I already made a couple of mistakes. For one thing, Chapter 1 takes place on the vernal equinox, not the autumnal. The idea of sacrifice on the Autumnal Equinox resonates better with the religious tradition I think is wrapped up in this stuff somehow, but tough. It's spring. Because the resolution, or one of the resolutions, occurs in the middle of a winter gale, and that's near the end of the series.
I'll never finish it I think, but who cares? It's fun. And some of you like this stuff; you told me so. Thank you. Those who liked it and didn't tell me-- thank you too. I need to develop faith that you're out there (even if you're not). That, too, is part of what I'm trying to do here. :)
