Here We go, Starting a New Project

I now have a long list of stories and books I have either begun writing or want to write. History Press, publisher of my last two books Legends, Lore and Secrets of Western New York and Wicked Niagara: The Sinister Side of the Niagara Frontier, is interested in a proposal for another book. This idea is one I've had since right after my first book for them but have not the chance to work on it. I am currently doing research to see if there is enough to meet their requirements, then I will have to write a proposal. This is what happens for writers once they get some under their belts, but it is no guarantee of publication. Right now, I can't share the topic for this project. I can only say it is a history!

Book set to Release

Well, for everyone who has followed the process of this latest book, I can finally reveal the title and cover!

I began writing after History Press contacted me in fall of 2010 pretty much non-stop until its deadline in April. The new book should be released in mid-June which is just around the corner.

My first book with History Press, published in 2009, is Legends, Lore and Secrets of Western New York. They had contacted me to write something about the region because they wanted a storyteller's perspective. I chose to underscore the uniqueness of Western New York. We so often gets lumped in with upstate but we are as far removed culturally from upstate as we are geographically. Western New York is the farthest you can go west in the state. It was a wilderness but a crucial doorway to western expansion and has given the world innovations and so much throughout history. Once the second largest city in the state and one of the largest in the country, our demographics have changed as the industrial age came to an end, but the culture and the people here are amazingly resilient and friendly, like no other place you can imagine.

When History Press again contacted me in fall of 2010 to write a second book I was flattered. But this new book is quite the opposite of the first. They wanted a book for their Wicked series which meant having to "betray" my thinking on the first book and write something darker about the region. After giving it some thought and doing a little research, I came to terms with the idea, that while I believe so lovingly about what has become my home since 1970, I can also agree that dark and light walk hand-in-hand. What I am offering in this new book is a sensational look into that shadowy place which for all its negative has contributed to our culture just as surely as the good things we have to offer. I also chose to stick with early history on this book and not include contemporary darker stories. I did so intentionally to protect the innocent who are in many ways still living through their ordeals. That history is for someone else, someday.

All this said, I present the newest book under my belt "Wicked Niagara: the Sinister Side of the Niagara Frontier." Further announcements to be made soon when the book is on the shelves!



For now, I have a publisher considering my "life" work "Dancing at the Crossroads" a three part project. "Dancing at the Crossroads: Stories and Activities for Mentoring At-Risk Youth", "Dancing at the Crossroads: a Caregiver's Guide to Mentoring At-Risk Youth Through Story" and "Dancing at the Crossroads: a Practitioner's Guide to Mentoring At-Risk Youth Through Story."

There is nothing else I can do on this project for the time-being so I am thinking about my next project(s). I have several ideas on the table including another book for History Press which they are interested in learning more about, an inspirational "nightstand" book, a personal memoir, a humorous but serious monologue, some children's stories I began working on but put on the back burner, and a powerful ghost story based on a true murder which I have already told twice and am considering as a screen-play. I think that should keep me busy for a while.

Almost time

I sent the book to the publisher and have already received the proofs. They go back to the publisher next week. I expect the book sometime in mid-June but that has not been confirmed. I will reveal the book title very very soon. Are you excited? Well, at least curious? I am excited.

History Press, new book almost finished!

Well, I am working on the very last story for this book. That feels so good, although I have really enjoyed researching all these stories that are new to me. My big test is whether they are new to Thomas. He knows so much about history and since he was born and raised in Buffalo, he knows much about this region too. But all the stories in this book are new to him! That's a good thing.

There will be those people who already know these stories, but I feel many of the people out there will find them interesting and unknown.

This last tale nicely sums up the region. Can't wait until I can reveal my title and tell you more about the book.

My research is really finished for this last story and I have written one page as an intro to it. The next step is detailing the story. It will probably be the shortest tale in the book and it is in many ways the lightest. I did want to end on a light story.

It has been more difficult than any other story to get started on, perhaps because I have done so much writing and am at the end. You can suffer a little burnout by this time. So I am really pushing to do it while keeping the quality I hope I bring to everything I do. This week is a busy week in preparation for a major Medieval event on Saturday. The book is due to the publisher on April 11 and I plan to get it finished no later than April 2.

Where am I on the New History Press book?

Well, I am nearing the end of my writing for this book. I only have about 5000 words left to write and five stories I'd like to include. This means they have to be short stories or I have to cut back somewhere. I'm just happy to have found the material I want to write rather than fishing for something to fill in. I also have more images than I can use which is good. It will be difficult to cut back on these as I really like them all but something has to go.


Today, I am working on one of the last stories. I am very excited about it but also concerned with keeping down the word count while still making the story dynamic. For that reason, I have decided to tell the story from a different perspective. I like to do that for one or two stories anyway. My books are not supposed to be reports of facts but rather give the reader a sense of the human emotions of living in a time and place during an event, I'm a storyteller telling history rather than a historian relating a story.

Right now I am trying to decide if I want to write this story in first person, the only one like it in the book, or just tell the story as it specifically follows a real character, also unique to this book but less glaring. I am leaning toward the latter. Telling in first person means creating thoughts for the character since they did not leave a journal of their thoughts. Following the character will allow me to tell the reader what the character sees and hears and might feel based on historical context, always safer when not all the facts are known.

I will preface the story with events that led up to it, tell his story, and then close the story as I always do by letting the reader know how things are in that location today.

Okay, enough ruminating, time to write!

The "Big" Story

Well, after several unexpected short stories I am finally beginning the "big" story I originally set out to write. This is not a problem, in fact it was an unexpected pleasure. These are local stories that I didn't know existed and they helped pave the way to this big story, some of them becoming big stories of their own.

It isn't easy starting to put words to paper, or in this case typing into the computer. I am sitting here with literally hundreds of printed pages of information and stories that I need to read and sort through to find the kernels of a good story. I take all this information, make sure it is as accurate as possible, and make sure it isn't someones original research, then type it out loosely. I then go through each piece of information I have, finding the links and connections between characters and what makes them unique, their motivations etc. and tie that together with what I know about history and how one thing can lead to another. My job is to take the information and make it into an interesting story, not just a report of facts. This is the hard part, for me it is also the most fun. Dredging through all the info is not fun but when the story finds its voice, what can I say but "Yay!"

So for this story, I just started typing, using another person's report of facts as the skeleton. I have that all written out, in my own words of course, and will now go through other sources to match and verify facts and flesh out other interesting bits. For example, if the report of information mentions a new character, I can't just introduce that person without some background, so I need to go research that person and find out why the two are connected. That may become a story of its own, or just a paragraph, or it may just give me some insight into my main character's motivations. Keeping in mind that these are historical stories that may be completely true or may have over time grown into legends. I also feel I need to let my reader know what is fact and what might be legend and I have to do that in story context. It is a very interesting process.

Back to work!

Story Play by Play

I just finished writing a new story for the History Press book. Notice I didn't say finished working on it, I said finished writing it. There's a difference. This particular story needed a back story, information that leads up to it and sets the scene. After that was written, I began the story I originally set out to write, which isn't exactly a truth as this one came out of another one I was in the process of researching. That is the next story I hope to get to.

Once the writing was finished I sat down with my notes and looked for mistakes and discrepancies in the facts of the story and will go back and see if I can plug in some additional interesting information I found while doing that. Then I need to edit for flow and spelling and grammar. After all of that, I give the pages to my reader to edit further, that happens to be Thomas and he is very good at being honest.

This story is historical with a lot of dates, times, places and details that I want to get as close to accurate as I can with the research I found, while keeping it interesting to readers who are not historians but love a good story.

I usually sit down with that research and read over one or two different accounts of an event, highlighting key points and getting a sense of the story that interests me. Then I free write getting that on paper. If there are really crucial details that are unfamiliar to me, I sometimes develop the story paragraph by paragraph writing that out from one or two sources in outline form, creating my own story as I go. I will add tidbits from the other versions I found, but only after verifying that they are accurate. If something is way out of the norm of what I found elsewhere and I decide it needs to be in the story, I have to find a way to state that it is one account and not substantiated. There's a fine line between reporting and storytelling. I try to find the balance.

Once this is done, I reread my research, set aside things that might be good for an additional story and move on to the next.

It took longer than I expected to get to this story, but once I got going and got the back story in writing, the main story went quickly.

New History Press book on WNY continued

Well into my writing for this book but not close to where I should be with an April deadline, I decided to take a minute out of my writing retreat to share what is happening today. I am really hoping this will help me focus for the remainder of this retreat time.

One thing I find that happens for me, especially when working on a historical piece where I am researching as I go, I find ever enfolding bits of information with one bit leading to another. I have been reading printouts of works on a particular bit of information that I would like to include as a story. It is all new information to me, and surprisingly to Thomas too. He is a major source of knowledge for me in all aspects of history and he had not heard of this before either. As a result, I am looking at multiple reports and articles on this topic. I always do that anyway, because this is not direct source information and as a writer I would never want to take someone else's hard earned research and call it my own. I am simply finding information and combining it with my sense of environment and human nature to create interesting stories that flow together under my broader topic. At any rate, I am currently buried under a mound of growing notes, things that I want more information on so that I can write a sensible story. I might add. because I did not previously know about this information, it wasn't what I set out to write for this next chapter. So my writing plans for this chapter are on temporary hold until I finish this story first. It always seems to go that way.

When this break is over, I will be going to my notes for background information that leads up to where this new story begins. Always an interesting journey. I admit I am happy to have another story. After all, I have to write at least 30,000 words!