The New Ka-Tet Cantina

[LongTallSally]

*curls up in the corner booth with a cup of tea* I drove by the place I'll be looking at tomorrow. Yes, it is small. Good-bye drafting table. I won't miss it much. I want to see what the inside looks like, and ask if they have a little laundry room. If not, there's a laundry place a few blocks away and I can backpack it over there, I guess. Making slow progress, but I'm seeing a bit more light at the end of the tunnel.

[Sigmund]

Hi, Everybody!

In a rush to say, sending thoughts, prayers and safety vibes to everybody in the path of Issac.

Ya'll take care and stay safe, please.

Let us know how ya'll are doing. We'll be praying and worrying!

Hugs.

Peace.

[Debbie913]

Hello Everyone!
Wow! Thursday again already. I just never get enough time to stick around here and check up on things anymore.
I hope all are doing well. Got a lot going on in my life right now, trying to just take it one day/thing at a time.
The weather has been great around here lately. Too dry, but it's been really nice. I am not looking forward to Winter. Yuck!

Take care of yourselves and those you love.
Sending hugs, love, good vibes, and whatever else you all might need!
((((((((((((((Everyone)))))))))))))))

[MadamMack]

Book fountain at the Cincinnati Public Library

[Gelata]

Hi, happy Friday and happy weekend to all!

There's something I would like to ask you, because I really need your opinion. I have been searching the general questions thread but haven't found the answer.
The point is that I have a friend who has read several of SK books and she loves them. She's very intelligent so I pay much attention to what she says when we talk about anything.
Sometimes she has told me that each SK book is a piece of a bigger work, that they are like limbs of a body. She says that the Dark Tower is that body and the rest of the books are parts or elements of it. That all the characters from all his books are connected to one another, like people living in the same universe or planet, and all the stories are parts of a bigger story.

I find the idea interesting, but I have never seen it that way. I have always enjoyed every book as a whole in itself -except of course the DT case and the common elements that can be easily spotted, like Derry or Castle Rock, and topics or themes that are typical of SK .
And I think that the same could be said of almost every author, Dickens, for instance: all his stories and characters are obviously part of a universe -Dicken's literary universe.
But I think she sees SK work as a preconceived plan, as if he had previously designed a world and every book he writes is a piece to give shape to that world.

What do you think?
Thank you.

[Spideyman]

Hi Gelata. Personal opinion-- I do not feel SK had a preconceived plan. He is the "wordslinger" and with that has such a great talent to develop characters. And these characters often flow into other books that he writes. They are like little hidden Easter Eggs, a prize for his Constant Reader, a trail of bread crumbs within many of his novels. Preconceived, I do not think so-- it just happen. His muse speaks, and he writes.

[blunthead]

I believe an author, he or she, must get attached to his characters (what am I saying, he is them, how can he not be attached?), so while allowing a new story to tell itself may find roles for characters who continue to be him. I think an author who can trust himself and the story being told to allow it to be told however uniquely will end up with a most interesting story.

[MrsBook]

Hello again, everyone! Sorry I fell into a hole there for a day or two... I've been writing and I'm happier than a pig in the mud. The last few days I've written more prolifically and happily than I have at any prior point in my life. Some of you wondered where I was at, and I have to say, it feels good that people noticed I was elsewhere! (I was checking back in here, but every 30 seconds of peeking around, I got a little twinge to quit the internet and throw more down on the page because there was still more to give that day, so I didn't end up posting. )

My prayers are with you LadyPain, and also those at risk of hurricane-ing soon, and just generally with everybody. I feel like I'm walking on air.

MadamMack, that fountain is amazing.

Gelata, I don't think that SK started out intending to write a vast, interconnected work, but I think that writing often goes the way he described Eddie's wood carving in the Dark Tower. Sometimes it's not you making the story, it's you bringing the story out, and the longer you spend with that story the more you uncover. For authors that write series, I think this is a more immediate phenomenon, but SK doesn't generally set out to write series, and yet it still happens there for him, if you get what I'm saying?

TGIF and have a good weekend folks!

PS I woke up this morning with a new story in my head. I have a novel and a half on the current story to throw down before I get to writing this new story (unless I hit a block, then I might detour). I knew the second I wrote this bit of it down that I had to share it with all of you, but I don't care to splash it across the forum in its own thread, so here it is, not even a first draft:

"It was a dark and stormy night…

No. F--- that. There’s no such thing as a ‘dark night’ in the City, too much neon. It was hot as hell, the air was thick with smog, and I was curled up on my futon with a cordless phone pressed to my gut, bawling my eyes out. He was out of my life. The bastard. I’d said those two little magic words, he’d said the next two most powerful words in the American lexicon, and he was gone gone gone. I was making my mind up regarding the responsible thing to do under the circumstances, but I’d forgotten the cardinal rule: when God blows one man out of your life, you’d better slam the door behind him before another sweeps in.

In this case, the first I saw of the man was his red gleaming eyes."

As you can see, there's going to be lots of polish and work, but this is the first cut. More or less like pulling the branch off the tree before you can start carving. Thanks, everyone, you inspire me.

[Moderator]

Great start, Mrs.Book--keep at it! I might need to copy that cardinal rule down for future reference to embroider on a pillow.

[MrsBook]

Great start, Mrs.Book--keep at it! I might need to copy that cardinal rule down for future reference to embroider on a pillow.

Thanks MsMod, I am a sponge for appreciation of my writing. It always knocks my socks off when someone enjoys anything I've written, even my husband who is pretty much obligated to say he likes it (not that he seems to realize he's obligated...). Since I already did my "official" writing for the day and the well is still pumping back there in the back of my head, I might move forward on this little appetizer.