Finishing That Novel

I've been working on my novel "Savage Lust" for about two years now. I've already written the last chapter, so I know how it ends. My goal was to have the book contain 100 chapters. (they're short for faster pacing) I'm currently on chapter 75 and while writer's block isn't a problem, I seem to be putting off finishing it.
My wife says I'm afraid to finish it. I denied it, but she may be right. When I think about it, this is something I've worked on for the past two years and it's about to come to an end. Although I must say, I could easily make it into a series. Which I would like to do. So it's not like the characters will end with the ending of this book.
I wonder what is going on in my thought process. Am I afraid it won't be published? Am I afraid of putting it out there for rejections? I'm not sure. I do believe it has potential. I'm very satisfied with how it has turned out so far. I'm just not sure why I keep putting off finishing it.
I wonder if other authors have feelings like this when they are about to finish a book. One would think I would be ectatic at finally getting it finished.

One thing that has bothered me about writing a novel is that, at heart, I'm a poet. Since beginning my novel, I've hardly written any poetry at all. It's been two years since my last poetry book came out and I don't have enough to fill another one at this time. Mabey I need to decide what I want to be, a poet or a novelist. And why can't I be both?

Anne Sexton

Anne Gray Harvey was born in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1928. She attended Garland Junior College for one year and married Alfred Muller Sexton II at age nineteen. She enrolled in a modeling course at the Hart Agency and lived in San Francisco and Baltimore. In 1953 she gave birth to a daughter. In 1954 she was diagnosed with postpartum depression, suffered her first mental breakdown, and was admitted to Westwood Lodge, a neuropsychiatric hospital she would repeatedly return to for help. In 1955, following the birth of her second daughter, Sexton suffered another breakdown and was hospitalized again; her children were sent to live with her husband's parents. That same year, on her birthday, she attempted suicide.

She was encouraged by her doctor to pursue an interest in writing poetry she had developed in high school, and in the fall of 1957 she enrolled in a poetry workshop at the Boston Center for Adult Education. In her introduction to Anne Sexton's Complete Poems, the poet Maxine Kumin, who was enrolled with Sexton in the 1957 workshop and became her close friend, describes her belief that it was the writing of poetry that gave Sexton something to work towards and develop and thus enabled her to endure life for as long as she did. In 1974 at the age of 46, despite a successful writing career--she won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for Live or Die--she lost her battle with mental illness and committed suicide.

Like Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, W. D. Snodgrass (who exerted a great influence on her work), and other "confessional" poets, Sexton offers the reader an intimate view of the emotional anguish that characterized her life. She made the experience of being a woman a central issue in her poetry, and though she endured criticism for bringing subjects such as menstruation, abortion, and drug addiction into her work, her skill as a poet transcended the controversy over her subject matter.


Her Kind

I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.


I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.


I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.

Borders and Lulu Team Up For Self-Publishing

Back in February of 2008 the Self-Publishing world was abuzz with the news of Borders Book Retailers teaming up with Lulu.com, a self-publishing company. Aspiring writers and those of us who had already published books through Lulu were excited at the prospect of getting our books on the shelves at such a major retailer as Borders.

The merging was touted as “blazing trails in publishing”; “…a match made in heaven…” “…millions of customers will be able to fulfill their dream of publishing their stories and sharing them with the world.”

At last we self-publishers would have the opportunity sell our hard work and be read by the consumer!

Ha! The joke was on us. Sure Lulu is a great place to self-publish one’s work. In my opinion one of, if not the best place. And don’t get me wrong, I love Borders, it shop there weekly. But trying to get Borders to carry my Lulu published book on their shelves, I found was like counting on winning the lottery. It ain’t gonna happen.

Tulsa has two Borders book stores and both refused my plea to carry my book. I was told in both instances, “We don’t stock self-published books because we aren’t able to return them should they not sell.” Both store managers suggested I try Steve’s Sundries Book Retailer here in Tulsa. Well I did, and I’m happy to say Steve’s Sundries was more than happy to carry it. Thank you Steve’s Sundries, for giving a struggling writer a chance.
I even contacted Lulu and was told that Borders does carry their author’s books, and that it was up to the discretion of the individual Borders store managers.
Tulsa Borders…Shame on you.

“Borders and Lulu --bringing the dreams of the everyday writer to reality –.” Believe that, and I’ve got some beach-front property located here in Tulsa, Oklahoma to sell you.

I'm always happy to promote another author's work and would like to pass this along to anyone who is a writer, whether it be fiction, non-fiction, poetry or whatever genre. Jack Heffron has written a wonderful book to help any writer in developing his or her craft. This book is definitely worth checking out. Thank you Jack for such a marvelous book.

Reviews:

From Publishers Weekly

For the myriad frustrated or blocked writers in the world comes another addition to the swelling shelves of guides designed to soothe, teach and inspire. And while Heffron, an acquisitions editor for Writer's Digest and other F+W publications, undeniably loves his subject and knows much about it, he doesn't break out of the conventional (and at this point, one might argue tired) format to tell it. He includes, for instance, the requisite quotes from famous authors that are designed to inspire struggling ones; the familiar pleas for details; the advice on courage and persistence; and the tried-and-true brainstorming exercises. What's better-but still, in form anyway, standard fare-are the 400-plus writing prompts: "Write about your first experience with death"; "Write a scene in which a character returns home after an extended absence"; "Every day for a week, write down something you've learned in conversation"; "Write a new opening" to a piece that's unfinished. Like any catch-all book (this one extends over scripts, poetry, fiction and nonfiction-forms and genres with their own advantages and restrictions), it is ultimately too broad to really instruct. However, those in the market for a basic, practical writing guide will find this one at least as useful as many others.


From Library Journal

Heffron (Best Writing on Writing: Twenty Master Plots) is a senior editor at Writer's Digest Books and Story Press as well as a published writer and teacher of fiction. In short, he's been on both sides of the printed page, as writer and reader, as well as teacher/coach on the sidelines. Written humorously but with substance, his book identifies some of the more common causes of writer's block and offers many ways to overcome it, from initiating a story, to resurrecting a stalled story, to casting about for a good ending. All the essentials are covered: changes of voice, point of view, the need for or absence of plot, and building characters. The author also quotes other writers and uses brief excerpts from published fiction as examples of what works and what doesn't. This material would be partly redundant for anyone with an MFA, but if the first chapter works for you, the rest of the book will as well. Recommended for public libraries and as a gift idea for the struggling writer in your life.

Here's a link to Jack Heffron's book on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Idea-Book-Jack-Heffron/dp/0898798736

Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines; by Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voide. Her bright body. Her inifinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my sould is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Pablo Neruda


Click the link below to listen to the poem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXHPk-ctoYY&feature=PlayList&p=09CC4F5EA0F3ED0D&index=3
Read by Andy Garcia

Palin's Farewell Speech...a Thing of Poetry

I Found a Spider in my Shoe

This is a children's poem book that I'm particularly proud of because my daughter Jalia did the illustrations for it.
You can order copies at my publisher, lulu.com , or email me at jim_d_jordan@yahoo.com and I'll send you a personized copy.


Book Blurbs:

"I found the book to be uplifting and caring. This book also demonstrates the special need to instill in our children the meaning of compassion."
- Crystal Reese

"(a)wonderful book. A child of any age would love it."
- Denise Place

"I loved the story line, and the spiders look very spidery and friendly. I would buy this book for my grandchildren."
- Lou Hughes

One of My Chapbooks

This is the cover to my 4th Chapbook entitled "When Summoned I Will Say Farewell". It contains one long poem, (10 sections).

Here is an excerpt:

(6)

When summoned I will say farewell,
yet never will I leave you.
I shall carry you with me always,
a small and stirring pain
within my heart; A sweet paradox
inevitably weighing me down at times
with either joy or sorrow.
These words I leave here
not by grace or genius grew,
nor by my merit did I bring them forth,
but exists by that deep sealed
love of ours.
The light that crowns them
belongs to you.

Chasing Emily - Poems by Jim Jordan

Look for my book of poetry at Borders, Barnes & Noble, or if you live in Tulsa, you'll find some signed copies at Steve's Sundries on Harvard. You can also order it from Lulu publishing or any of the online book dealers such as Amazon.com.
I hope you enjoy it. I'm currently working on my 2nd release of poetry. Not sure of the title yet.

I'm nearly finished with my novel, "Savage Lust", and hopefully it will be out later this year. I'll keep you posted.










Excerpt from "Chasing Emily"





The Kiss

I wonder if they know
people are staring at them
as they sit locked in love’s embrace.
They’ve been at it
for quite a while and
what started as a simple kiss
has long since become
an uncensored moment
of lust…
Two bodies naked
and intertwined forever.
Two lovers consigned
to the inferno
for their illicit passion,
a tragedy
who’s fate endures
eternal hopelessness.
Two people tasting,
exploring, enjoying
not just the promise,
but the fulfillment
of lust.
Their only crime
temptation ~
The kind that will
set you on fire
just thinking about it.
Their sentence,
remaining at the gates
of hell,
in death
never to be together
yet bound forever
in this block of stone
called love…

Jim Jordan



This poem was inspired by the famous Rodin sculpture “The Kiss”
Which depicts the tragic couple Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta
from Dante’s Inferno. Francesca was married to Paolo’s brother, but her
heart belonged to Paolo and they became lovers. They were caught together
embraced in a kiss and killed by her husband. According to Dante’s story
they were condemned in death to remain forever at the gates of hell for their lustful sins.





Nameste

~ Jim