Meet Christopher Lloyd Wright

"Everything you can imagine is real." - Pablo Picasso

For all local residents (Binghamton, Johnson City, Vestal, Endicott, etc.), this Friday (November 1st), during downtown Binghamton's First Friday Art Walk, you can meet and experience the amazing artwork of Christopher Lloyd Wright.

Chris is the man (as well as a dear friend) behind the beautiful pieces that make up the Seeing book teaser.

Chris will be at the Lost Dog Cafe in Binghamton (222 Water Street) from 7 p.m. to 11. The event listing below is directly from the Lost Dog site. Hope to see many of you out there in support of one of our own amazing talents!

Portraits & Places, Real & Imagined.

The Art of Christopher Lloyd Wright

Select Works from 2006 to 2013

Christopher Lloyd Wright, 32 of Sidney, New York was raised in the Afton, New York area.  Known also as CLWright, he studied Fine Arts at Pratt Institute in Utica and Brooklyn. He completed coursework in Jewelry, Sculpture and Anatomy drawing from 2001 to 2003.  Leaving Pratt before graduating, he took what he learned from the anatomy classes and started teaching himself how to paint portraits with oils.  Using a mix of real and imagined people and places, CLWright builds unique compositions dealing in urban, rural and sometimes exotic backgrounds. Christopher draws most of his inspiration from vivid collaged memories, using both imagined and Upstate New York cityscapes. He also draws upon his many conversations with other local artists whom he considers to be his most reliable resource.

"Meet the Artist" in the Lost Dog Cocktail Lounge from 7 to 9 p.m. on First Friday.

The kitchen stays on open til 11:00pm on First Friday!!!

On Writing, Part 2

"Best advice on writing I ever received: Finish." - Peter Mayle

Before I continue on with Part 2 of this three-part "...On Writing" blog series (the first part of which can be read here), let me repeat from the previous entry: While I am having my first novel published next year, I am no authority on writing. I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do or what to write. The purpose of these blogs is to encourage writers. Encourage them to continue and not give up. Encourage them to finish. Which is what Part 2 is all about.

I'm being completely straight (no B.S.) when I say the most important part of writing is to get to THE END. And so, because reaching THE END is so important, this next digit on my "Top Ten List of Things I've Learned and Have Helped Me in Regards to Writing" gets its own entry.

4. Finish

When you sit down with a blank sheet of paper (or Word document) and are about to commit yourself and your time to this brand new writing project brewing in your head, you're quite excited to begin, right? You've got a great story that you feel is fresh and exciting, you maybe even jotted down some notes on Post-its or in a separate notebook for story or character reference. You begin filling the first page and feel the words; the description, the narration, the dialogue; pouring out of you. You see sentences then paragraphs taking up space as you move on to more pages. You get one chapter under your belt. The next day you get another. And another.

Days, weeks go by.

Then it happens.

You hit a wall. 

Suddenly you don't know what to do. The story has stalled, or you begin to notice a character is not behaving how you originally thought. A portion of the plot is meandering away from where you planned, or there was a thread you forgot all about and don't know how to re-insert it into the story. You go back and read a few pages and find the writing stinks. Whatever the issue is, you find yourself dreading continuing on because now it feels more work than fun. The initial spark that fueled you is gone. At this point it's easier to quit.

I cannot tell you how to fix this, or any other issue. You'll do what you want and what feels right. What I can do is share with you how I get past such...speed bumps...and how I make it to THE END.

First, I plot. I know a lot of writers (probably half) are opposed to such a practice. There are writers out there, very gifted, who can construct a story from beginning to end all while they work. They don't know where the story is going; they just make it happen. Like magic.

I'm not that kind of writer. I have to know where my story is going. I have to know how my protagonist will fare throughout. I have to know my message gets across. If anything, plotting allows me the freedom and relief to know my time spent on the story won't be in vain. I won't hit a dead-end. In fact, plotting not only helps me with connecting the dots of the story's events but also helps me know more about the characters and their motivations before I begin.

I need to mention that when I plot, I don't prepare every moment of the story. I begin with the simple Plot Structure Diagram (where I jot notes down about the Exposition, the Hook, the Rising Action, Climax, Falling action, and Resolution) 

and then, once I know the story from one end to the other, I jot down ideas whenever I get them - further filling out the story.

What I note is mostly the big story and character arcs throughout. Like I said, I don't prepare every moment. There are times my characters go somewhere, do something that I hadn't planned but seemed natural for them. I let those instances happen. Stories shouldn't feel forced. Then, when they're ready, my characters rejoin the structure - again, when it's natural for them to do so.

I should also mention that before I even begin to write a story, I know the ending. The ending is the most crucial part of the story because it ties up and concludes all the plot threads, all the conflict (internal and external). In knowing the ending, I can place clues throughout the text; I can be assured the ending makes sense with everything that came before it so that it doesn't seem out of character or simply made up out of thin air because I ran out of ideas. I try to make the climax the only natural finish.

Now, there are times (a lot more than I'd like) when I find inconsistencies as I'm working on the first draft. Maybe the name of a place changed, a character does something (either intelligent or stupid) but it's never mentioned again (heck, I've even had a character disappear), etc. Let me tell you: That's OK! From a writer's standpoint, your first draft is going to be terrible. You won't be happy with it in terms of content. It'll be riddled with errors and too much description and some awkward dialogue, to say the least. But you know what else your first draft will have? It'll have every idea you had for the story contained in its pages. That's what editing and draft 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on is all about!

You know what will make you most happy about that first draft?

That you got to write THE END.

Part 3 of this blog coming soon.

On Writing, Part 1

"...most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company included, don't understand very much about what they do - not why it works when it's good, not why it doesn't when it's bad. I figured the shorter the book, the less the bullshit." - Stephen King (On Writing)

This won't even be a short book. Hardly lengthy at all, and that's how it should be.

Yes, I'm having my first book published next year, but who am I to tell anyone how to write? I won't do it. I don't have THAT much to say on the topic. I'm doing this now three-part blog (it was a two-parter) because if I can be helpful in any way to someone out there who's struggling writing a story and feeling that sense of doubt that they'll ever "make it" and quit before they start, let alone wrestling with the feeling that they'll never finish if they've already begun, my hope is I can inspire them to keep going. To keep writing.

To create their own path.

I'll keep this very minimal. Hopefully completely devoid of B.S.

Instead of talking about writing, what I thought I would do is share what I've learned. Consider it a Top Ten List of the things that worked for me/helped me. Your journey will be different from mine and everyone else's. You'll eventually come up with your own Top Ten as you go on. Consider this a start into devising your own list.

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. Do what works for you.

The Top Ten...On Writing:

1. There are NO rules.
No matter what you read online in anyone's blog or in Writer's Digest magazine, don't be fooled. There's no one certain way to tell a story. What I've discovered is people have specific ways and want to share them with the world and that's fine, but it's not necessarily "the way". There is no "the way" so don't bother. You got a story in mind? Write it. That's all.

This leads into...

2. Write the story YOU want to tell.
Don't write what's popular. Don't write a vampire story or a boy wizard story just because of the successes of Twilight and Harry Potter. Yes, E.L. James made a lot of money and earned a lot of fame from a trilogy of books based off Twilight fan fiction she tweaked. But she was an exception (and not a very good one, I hear, when it comes down to her abilities). There are not many exceptions. Point is: write the story you want to tell. Don't put a year (or more) of your life into a story you feel you should write just because of how it's exploding the market. Chances are by the time you finish (if you don't lose interest beforehand because it's not something that speaks to you), readers will have moved on to the "next big thing".

At the same time, if your love is vampire fiction, by all means write it. Write what YOU want, not what the market wants.

3. Write every day, even if it's only a little.
Got some free time in the morning? At lunch? In the evening? Write. Write whatever you can and don't let anyone make you feel bad for how much (or how little) you get down on paper. Stephen King recommends writing 2,000 words a day. This is where I call B.S. on him (and he's one of my favorite authors). Unless you're well off financially and can afford to stay home (like King) and put the effort into reaching a 2,000 word limit every single day, you've got to fit writing in wherever you can. That means around work, around cooking meals and doing laundry and dishes and spending time with your family/spouse/significant other, and taking out the trash. Don't forget the recycling. You simply cannot ignore life and be able to write successfully. I write during my lunch break and in the mornings and some evenings on weekends when I can. Sometimes I put down only 300 words, sometimes it's 500. Sometimes I manage 1,000 or even 1,500 on really good days when the words and story are flowing. But, all the same, I write, with no goal of word count in mind. I work in the time I can find and what's doable. It's not about passion for writing (if you're a committed writer you have the passion), it's that many of us find our time split between the many things in our lives that are important.

And that's where I end tonight, because my wife's in the living room and I've spent enough time on this computer. And The Walking Dead is coming on. I got my writing in for the day and even the first part of this blog so I'm happy.

Part 2 of this list coming soon.

Book Review: Things Slip Through

"...I think a door of some kind was opened in there. Not all the way, just a crack. And I think something slipped through into our world..." Gavin (Things Slip Through)

And with that simple, introductory quote, I bring you my review of author Kevin Lucia's first book: a short story collection titled Things Slip Through.

Before I delve into my review of the book, a bit of history:

I "met" the author Kevin Lucia about seven years ago. I say "met" because we've never been in each other's company. Back then he was doing weekly book reviews for the local Press & Sun Bulletin and I, being naive and young and dumb, self-published a work that I queried him through e-mail to review. While he was more than accommodating, thankfully that review never took shape.

What did happen though was a thread of e-mails between Kevin and I and another local writer about getting a writer's group together. We were all just starting out (and by starting out I don't mean we had all just begun writing but writing with serious goals in mind) and very hungry - hungry to write and hungry for peer review. For reasons I cannot fathom we were unable to get together and make a group work. It's too bad really, in hindsight.

Through reading blogs and following Facebook/Twitter/website updates over the years, I was able to "keep in touch" with Kevin. I read about his progress; saw that he was getting short stories published here and there in collections and online; his most recent being a serial novella (And I Watered It With Tears) in the first issues (and Volume 1 bound collection) of LampLight magazine, as well as a story ("On A Midnight Black Chessie") in an anthology titled For The Night Is Dark, to name a few.

In November of 2012, Kevin made the announcement that he was tapped to have his first collection published. This collection of short stories (without a title at the time) would be bound and released by Crystal Lake Publishing in late 2013. The cool twist on the project was that this was no ordinary collection he was putting out. The individual stories (some previously published), while able to stand on their own, would link up with a central storyline prominent through the book.

Very cool.

It was quite refreshing to see a different take on the short story collection, which offers little variety in terms of presentation.

Over time, Kevin released the collection's title - Things Slip Through - followed by the amazing cover art by artist Ben Baldwin, which appears further along in this entry.

But even more than the artwork, the big sell came with the back cover blurb:

Welcome to Clifton Heights, New York, an average Adirondack town, and nice enough in its own right. Except after dark, under the pale light of the moon. Or on a road out of town that never ends, or in an old house on the edge of town with a will of its own.

Maybe you shouldn't have left the interstate, my friend. But you saw our sign, turned down our road, figuring on a short stay. And maybe it will be.

Or maybe you'll never leave.

While you're here, pay a visit to The Skylark Diner. Pull up a chair and I'll tell you about our town. It's nice enough, honestly. Except after dark. Or on cold winter days when you're all alone...

Having been born, raised. and a continued citizen of Binghamton, N.Y. (known for where Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, went to school and grew up, who based many of his stories in Binghamton), it's not hard for me to imagine the oddities of a quiet small town. I live in a place where, when traveling the roads by night, or the highway overlooking the valley in the early dark of morning, or wandering around under the bleak grey skies that dominate the year, it's not hard to look around and wonder what secrets, what unusual things are out there, tucked away in any house, lurking in the fog, or hiding in the shadows before the daybreak chases them away.

After hearing and seeing all that was being put out ahead of the release, I was excited for Kevin and couldn't wait to get a copy of his book - adding Things Slip Through to the list of titles I wanted to get through by the end of the year.

Which leads me to my review.

First things first, you can tell a great deal of care went into this collection. For starters, the cover art. Artist Ben Baldwin (whose other works can be seen on his website and at Crystal Lake's website) has created an image that is flat out gorgeous and haunting. Honestly, the cover is something you need to see in your hands to truly appreciate. The picture above is amazing, but doesn't do Baldwin's work (or Kevin's for that matter - whose words enhance the image) justice.

Now for the plot that links the stories. (I should mention here that the details I discuss may be considered "spoilery". While my aim is not to reveal everything about the book, I may give you more details than you're willing to know if you've just started or have yet to read it. So, to be safe, read the book then come back.)

Things begins with main character Chris, the new town sheriff of Clifton Heights, who one night confronts a small group of his friends regarding mysterious disappearances and...happenings...within the town limits. Being that these friends have always been local, Chris believes they know more than he does regarding these mysteries and resolves to get answers. Taken up on the offer to openly discuss any and all details, Chris and one of this friends, Gavin, head off to The Skylark Diner - a local establishment open 24 hours that allows them the time and the quiet (not the mention the fuel by way of diner food) to get through a night of disturbing town history.

This is where the meat and potatoes of the collection - the stories - come into play. A neat storytelling device, the stories are actual stories in the context of the book - written by Gavin himself, who was once a published author before...succumbing to difficulties. As it happens, Gavin shares his handwritten tales with Chris, who reads them when we do.

Right off the bat I was hooked. Lucia jumps right into the story. There's no prologue or lengthy opening chapter that describes how these characters have met, gotten along, attended the same get-togethers and such - you learn these details through the progression of the book. The writing is sparse and effective. Where many genre writers, like Stephen King, can get bogged down writing forever in exposition (I swear I stopped reading Lisey's Story because the novel becomes page after page and so on of regurgitated material and back-story he already explained. Twice.), Lucia cuts right to the bone. His main character, Chris, is already bothered and frustrated by his lack of town knowledge on the first page, and doesn't waste time letting his friends know about it.

Between each story are moments of reflection and discussion between Chris and Gavin in the diner. Lucia uses these moments of dialogue to give us more information than the stories tend to reveal (like the fate of some of the...characters...after the story's conclusion), but there are also times when Chris and Gavin do a bit of catch-me-up and discuss previous stories like they are making sure the reader is still with them. After finishing the book I asked myself if this could've been avoided, and, really, I suppose not. Not with so many character names and how they intertwine with others throughout the book. The sections with Chris and Gavin are not long - a couple pages at the most - and then we're promptly returned to the meat and potatoes.

As it is with short story collections, readers will have their favorites. I won't get into discussing each tale, but, surprisingly, I found I was drawn more into the tales that focused more on the flawed people in this town ("Lament", "On A Midnight Black Chessie" especially, to name a few) than I was the stories where horror came into play ("The Sliding", "Lonely Places"). This surprises me because I'm very much a fan of the supernatural. Lucia is very good with both types of stories, but I felt more effected when I knew more about the characters and learned of their darker sides. "Lament" is an amazing opening story. It's harsh with its language and brutal and vicious in terms of its events, yet really makes you feel for some of the characters. One story, "Brother's Keeper", is a good mix of both character and horror, and is quite grisly to boot. A little something for everyone.

The ultimate success of Things Slip Through is in its tone. These are some dark stories. And it's a credit to Lucia's talent that Things keeps moving. In his restraint, Lucia keeps us present with the people of his town instead of hammering us with too many thoughts or over-explanation. Writers do tend to be wordy, but Lucia keeps it lean and mean. That speaks of his confidence in his material.

Overall, Things Slip Through makes a great Halloween read. It also serves well any time after dark. Or (as it goes) on cold winter days when you're all alone...

Things Slip Through ships in November.

Beyond Writing

"Personal experience is the basis of all real literature." George Henry Lewes

This particular post won't be about writing. In fact, once past this opening, I won't be discussing any of my work or the work of others. So there, you've been warned if you choose to read further.

What this post will be about is honoring a goal. And maybe/hopefully will be a little inspiring.

At the onset of summer, my wife and I began a program called Couch-2-5K. This downloadable app, for those that aren't familiar, is a running program designed with the purpose of getting a person who doesn't normally run acclimated with building the stamina to endure a 5K. The C25K program is split into an eight-week schedule with each week dedicated to conquering another level in regards to how much you run vs. walk in each session. In the beginning, you walk more than you run. By the end of the program you're running nearly the entire thirty-minute session. Sometimes the progress is slow, with you running less than a previous session but in longer intervals, and other times it can seem jarring, like going from running ten minutes in one session to twenty-two minutes the next time.

I don't think I need to tell you, but I will anyway, that neither my wife nor I are runners.

At least we weren't.

The program was difficult, at least for me, at the start. I'm asthmatic, and even in the best weather conditions of the summer it was tough enough trying to maintain the running intervals without stopping and sucking down a spray of Albuterol. But lungs be damned, I wouldn't give up; I pushed as hard as I could, every once in a while looking for my wife on the track. Seeing her reminded me of our goal. She inspired me to keep going. And I just kept throwing one foot out in front of the other, keeping a stride the best I could. There were times I was a faucet of sweat, my heart pounding through my chest, my lungs feeling as if they'd swelled twice their size, but I didn't stop. I couldn't. I wouldn't allow it.

What made us decide to tackle this program in the first place? For a while we'd been wanting to get into something that would inspire us to stick with making healthier choices - eating better as well as exercise. We love to go for walks but needed something more, something to dedicate ourselves to. And though the C25K program was an every-other-day-thing, we did it every day when we could. All each session required was thirty minutes to complete and that seemed quite reasonable to us. It got to the point where we looked forward to doing the next run together. By the end of the eight weeks I was running over twenty minutes straight without a break and not needing my inhaler afterwards. Talk about progress! No, seriously, even I was surprised by this. I even dropped five pounds. We bought more fruit during our weekly run to the grocery store and found ourselves turned off by unhealthier foods (though Oreos always found their way into our cart).

Our eventual goal in all this was to run an actual 5K. There had been one on the calendar for a while; a 5K run/walk that was dedicated to a man who long suffered with and eventually passed away from his long fight with cancer (a man who once went to school with my wife). Suffice to say we never got to run that 5K, but in honor of this person, and in honor of the goal we set for ourselves back in June, we were still determined to complete a race.

Today (Saturday, October 5) my wife and I are registered for the Color Run/Color Mania 5K in Scranton. Unfortunately, with the onset of school and just all around being busy from morning to night, we haven't been able to keep up with running daily. Heck, to be honest, we haven't truly run since the first weekend in September and that was only once. And it was a run around the neighborhood. Speaking only for myself, I know I've lost a lot of that built up stamina and conditioning. The constant changing of weather - from warm to chilly to hot to cold to rainy to humid - has been messing with my asthma (as it always does this time of year), making today's run a lot more difficult. The reality being - and I can feel it just in how my body has reacted to this weather change and lapse in exercise - that it'll be more of a walk than a run. A lot more.

But we're still determined. We have our shirts - printed with the name of my wife's friend, whom we are running in honor of - and we have our combined strength, supporting each other to make it through to the end. Whether it's run, walk, or even crawl.

Because we said we would.

But hopefully not crawl.

Answering the Call for RiverLit

"A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it." Edgar Allan Poe

There's a much more lengthy post regarding short stories in the works, but for now I wanted to take this time to mention that a new story of mine ("Answering the Call") will be featured in the October issue of RiverLit magazine.

A little over a month ago - in the midst of being on the back nine with another novel project - I decided to take a couple days to dedicate to a few smaller ideas I had, with the intention of submitting to RiverLit during their submission period. Earlier this year I had a short ("The Morning After") published in their tenth issue and really enjoyed my experience with them.

The idea for two stories came to mind at about the same time. The first one I wrote ("The Lady Listens") came out in its entirety in a single writing session. That doesn't always happen. I was down at my in-laws when the idea came to me, and I just sat down and penciled the whole thing on a few scraps of plain white paper. Funny thing is I really liked the story, so much so that after I finalized a typed draft I figured there was no use in even writing the other to submit because "Lady" was just too good (my wife even really liked it, and while she likes the things I write, she really made sure to tell me so with this one). And yet, when submitted alongside "Answering the Call", "Lady" lost out.

Surprising to me and my wife, but of course still exciting because "Call" is very much a...different kind of story. One that I am very happy with and am anxious for people to read.

"Answering the Call" will be included in the October issue, alongside other amazing stories from some very talented writers, and beautiful selections of art (I absolutely love the image chosen for the cover).

All of the details are below. And if you pre-order your copy now (before October 8) you'll get it at a discounted price - so hurry! Hurry!

RiverLit No. 12
(Volume 3 Issue 4)

Writing by: Luke Roe, Joseph Falank, Michelle Hartman, Bruce Holbert, Jerry Ratch, Geffrey Davis, Lisa Rizzo, Casey FitzSimons, Stephenson Muret, Isaac Black, April Salzano, Laura Kaminski, Marisol Baca, James Damiani

Art by Nochi Sardea, R. August, Christian Gastaldi, Florine Demosthene. 

Comic by Justin Winslow.

PRE-ORDER (Copies ship late October)