Robert McKay: Blog

I've got an inquiry out to a publisher, and until I hear back I'm going to suspend posting just in case. I hadn't planned on submitting anything anywhere, but this one looked like it might be promising, and so my self-promotion is taking a back seat for now. :)

If something comes of the query I'll let y'all know, and if not, I'll just resume posting.

I seem to receive only two kinds of comments - those who love my writing, and those who can't find a single nice thing to say about it. And the opinions seem to be about even in numbers - that is, there seem to be about as many people who love my writing as people who hate it.

Well, since I love my writing, and since I write for me first and foremost, I have no reason under these circumstances to materially change what I do. I've explained in an earlier entry why I write what I do, the way I do, and with as many people loving that as hating it, why should I change? Certainly I'm not going to pretend to be something other than I'm not, just so I can convince one person that maybe I'm not a bad writer, especially not when that would likely upset those who like things as they are. :)

So it's really pretty simple:

1. If you like my writing, read it.

2. If you hate my writing, don't read it.

Of course, if you have some constructive criticism (which is something different from telling me that my style is garbage - style is something that's not subject to alteration, because it springs from the nature of the writer), feel free to let me know. :->

I thought I'd quickly explain why the Carpenter stories are as they are. :)

Way back in December of 2004 I found myself in a very emotional situation. The end result of the situation was to remind me just how much I love my wife (as a side note, in August of 2011 we had our 32nd anniversary), and I developed an urge to write about that.

So for the first time in a number of years I set out to write fiction, intending to produce two or three short stories and be done with it. Well, it's now seven years later, and though I'm not producing at the initial feverish pitch (for a while I was turning out 65,000 word novels in two weeks), I'm still writing - I'm currently at work on The Night Shift, the latest Carpenter novel.

So these did not set out to be mysteries. Darvin's a PI almost by accident; I had nothing in mind at the time but giving him some way of supporting himself which didn't involve punching a clock. The first focus was the romance, and he only began detecting when someone pointed out that if I was going to keep writing about him, he needed to actually handle a case now and then. :)

I can't write hard-boiled stuff - I know, for I've tried. I can write Darvin, Cecelia, and Darlia Carpenter. And because the whole point in the beginning was to write about my marriage, that's always been a very important part of the stories. And that's why there's so much family stuff, as opposed to the usual run of mysteries. :->

I suppose everyone's wondered where I am, other than posting stories. Well, maybe someone has - most people find that I'm not nearly as interesting as I'd like to think I am. :)

Anyway, my computer at home a) is slow, and b) connects via dialup, so I post my stuff at the library, where I have a time limit. And so I've just stuck to posting stories, and haven't done anything else. But I'm going to start trying to keep something going here. I'll post weekly, since that's when I can get to the library.

Meanwhile, for the holidays my posting schedule is likely to be deranged. It's already off this week - normally I post on Monday but because of schedule changes and being sick for a couple of days I'm only getting to it today, which is Wednesday. Come the second week of January I ought to be able to get consistent again.

Because of that computer situation I mentioned above, if you have any comments about my stuff I hope you'll look for my reply via e-mail. That's by far the easiest way for me to respond. :)