Robert McKay: Blog

I began a new Carpenter novel today, called Life Is Short. It's something that as a rule I dislike - a mystery involving a serial murderer.* But I believe I did it differently enough that it's not a stereotypical serial murder mystery.

For one thing, I never ever get into the perp's head. I know enough about psychopaths (and all serial murderers are psychopaths - it's a "job requirement") to know that such a person's head is someplace I'd rather not be. And to do that, I'd have to depart from Darvin's first person narration, and while I have written a few stories in third person, and one from someone else's POV, the main point is what Darvin himself experiences - and he only experiences what he experiences, not what goes through the perp's mind.

For another thing, this is a Carpenter story, with all the family, Christianity, etc. that means. I'm not sure myself how to define exactly what a Carpenter story is, without coming back to the generic statement that it's a story about the Carpenters. :)

Anyway, the new novel's underway, and I hope y'all like it.

*I exceedingly loathe the common usage of "killer" in any and all circumstances. "Murderer" is a perfectly good word which people ought to learn how to use - and how about "perp(etrator)," "doer," "actor" (that last really is in use in some police departments, meaning the person who committed the act in view), or something else? The way people seem to think there's only one word per concept tells me that government education just doesn't work.

Between the time of year, and certain circumstances at home which I couldn't foresee (if I could, I could make a bundle as a psychic), it's been a while since I've posted anything. But today I submitted the concluding chapters of A Strong Woman, and the opening chapters of a new Christian romance called Hadassah. I like Burque Moreno, and I like Hadassah Garvin too. I hope y'all will like both, and my writing as well.

I think I've mentioned before - if I haven't, I'm mentioning it now - that though I was very prolific for a few years, my fiction output has stalled the point of utter inaction. However, in the past month or so I've resumed a project that I began in December of 2003, and which I set aside a year later because the fiction began pouring forth. It's a "pseudo-commentary" on the Bible, based on the notes I've scribbled in the margin over the past almost 30 years. I finished Isaiah yesterday, and will perhaps begin on John in a month or so (I've got to proof what I did on Isaiah first). I call the project Notes On the Bible, and if I get to the place where I can make 'em available I'll try to remember to tell y'all. :)

I've got to take my wife to the dentist a week from today - she's getting a couple of partial plates, and she's not fluent in English so I translate (not that I'm anywhere near fluent in Korean) - and so almost certainly won't get to the library on Monday, which means I almost certainly won't u/l anything that day. I ought to be able to get to the library the following day (Tuesday) but might not bother, since it is a bother and I usually don't the rest of the week (bother, that is) unless I've got books to pick up, which I won't.

If you're not confused yet, just figure that it'll probably be two weeks before you see the next chapters of A Strong Woman and One Flesh. :)

I began a new Carpenter novel today - A Strong Woman. In this book Albuquerque Moreno, who's a new Christian and has newly joined Darvin Carpenter's church, is the victim of a rape in Tijeras Arroyo. She hires Darvin to find the rapist, which of course he does.

Albuquerque - Burque, as her friends call her - is one of my favorite characters. She's the strong woman of the title, though of course Cecelia Carpenter is, as always, not exactly a weakling. I've only known one rape victim, and that was years after the event, but it's surely got to be one of the most traumatic experiences a woman can endure - humiliating, physically painful, terrifying, and with effects that last a long time.

It may not be a Christian attitude, but it wouldn't bother me if the punishment for rape were the removal, without anesthesia, of the offending organ. Of course rape is about power and control, not about sex - sex is merely the weapon that the rapist uses to intimidate, dominate, and control the poor woman in the case.

Darvin Carpenter is a better Christian than I am - he's what I strive to be, and don't succeed in being, though by the grace of God I'm closer to the ideal than I was in 1983 when I first came to know the Lord Christ. And he's a better detective than I could ever be, which is why he's the main character and I'm not. :)

I learned something in school (a statement which might astound my teachers), but these days I'm not sure anyone else did. This was back in the days, FWIW, of typewriters - I learned to type on a manual typewriter, and to this day I sometimes hammer the keyboard with the force I learned to use way back then - when the Internet wasn't much over 20 years old and the Worldwide Web was still 10 or 12 years in the future (can y'all envision such a world?).

I learned that there are specific ways to write titles, which indicate what sort of work is in view. A novel or an anthology goes in italics, e.g. Starship Troopers or Night Shift, while a short story, article, or poem goes into quotes, for instance "The Short Happy Life of Francis MacComber" or "When Lilacs Last In the Dooryard Bloom'd." Where novellas fall I never learned, and I've since come to understand from much reading that they're in a gray area - sometimes they'll go in quotes and sometimes in italics, depending on the author and editor.

What isn't correct is to put everything in quotes. It's wrong to write about "Snakes and Arrows," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," or "Leaves of Grass," because these are - respectively - an album, a novel, and a book of poetry. They belong in italics: Snakes and Arrows, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Leaves of Grass.

I really doubt that pointing this out will do any good, however. If people can get through high school and go on to obtain a college degree without learning this, it's not likely that a post here will educate anyone. :)