Writing Update

I thought I might post an update on my writing efforts. My novel Buster Bungle's Big Top sits there requiring about a half day's worth of polishing. I've been procrastinating though. It's the old fear of failure thing, I suppose. When it's completed, I'll have to start trying to sell the manuascript, and that's a daunting task. The odds against me are so long as to approach the impossible. I've thought of self-publication, but the people on the Writers' Beware site don't recommend it, and I can see their point. At best you can hope to sell a couple of hundred copies, and that's with a lot of hustling. There are stories of self-published authors who attract the attention of the publishing companies, but the Writers' Beware folks say they only know of two authors who did that, and that was after hiring PR firms to pimp their books for them. That's not an option for me. I don't have that kind of money.

I've been pondering a couple of new novels. I spent about a month making notes, about 10,000 words worth of them, on a science fiction novel, a contemplation of what it means to be human, but I've put it aside. There are just too many degrees of freedom. Reality doesn't put enough restrictions on you. I don't feel like I can make a plausible story out of it. I may change my mind later, but I've put it aside for now.

About a week ago, I started making notes for a black comedy that is loosely in the Southern gothic tradition. I'm finding that I'm much more comfortable with that kind of story. The trouble is that I don't know much about the world of country music, and one of the lead characters makes a Faustian bargain to secure herself a career as a country singer. I need to read some background on the world of contemporary country music. If anybody out there knows of any books, please let me know, even if they're trashy gossip accounts. Hell, those might be the best in terms of research for the kind of book I'm thinking about writing.