[stag_dropcap font_size=”75px” style=”squared”]I[/stag_dropcap]f you recently subscribed to my blog to receive updates about the book I am writing, When the Lights Go Out at 10:16, I have an update. Over the past month, the following sections have been added:
- Dedication
- Foreword, by Kevin Hancock
- Introduction
Click here to start reading.
The introduction talks about why the story is named what it is, among other things.
To quote Matthew Rose, my professor of Religion and Modern Fiction while at UVA, “the words before the words tell much of the story to come. So, always read these words before you turn to page one.”
Actually, that’s not an exact quote but it’s a summary of what Professor Rose said that I inadvertently just made sound like a Dr. Seuss-like rhyme as I typed it out.
(Insert brief commentary on how I was once an aspiring poet at age 15)
Up next + how to bookmark a website
What comes next will be the story itself. So, if you have not already, please bookmark this particular page on my site where the story lives. As I noted in a previous post, when I update the story, you will not get a real-time update as you do with my regular blog posts. I do this so as not to bombard your inbox with a slew of daily emails because that would be annoying.
If you do not know how to bookmark a site on your phone or computer, visit this link from wikiHow: “How to Bookmark a Website.” It covers every browser, including mobile browsers for your smartphone. Select the one that applies to you from the very top where it says, “Nine methods.”
What you are reading is a draft
I’d like to remind everyone that what you are reading is a working draft. I’m letting it fly, tossing words and memories against the screen and seeing what sticks and what slides down the glass smeared and gooey like a snail’s trail.
When it’s all said and done, when I place the last period at the end of the last sentence in the last paragraph on the last page, I will take a step back, then place it all on the cutting room floor, and revise — again and again — until I am happy with the final product.
After all, the bulk of this material comes from journal entries when I was 21 years old and again at 24 years old; and have I already mentioned the following: have you ever read anything you wrote at age 21? I still thought Black Label beer was a solid investment back then.
A friendly reminder to donate
If you enjoy what you read, consider dropping a few dollars into the bucket of the Jeremiah Hamlett Memorial Scholarship Fund. To learn more about my efforts to raise money, read this first: “The Jeremiah Hamlett Scholarship Fund, and how this blog will help fund it up to $10,000.”
A friendly reminder to share
I hate self-promotion. It makes me feel icky. It really does. So, if you find value in what you read (eg. it reminds you of childhood or growing up or what have you), please help me feel less icky by sharing widespread so I don’t have to — by text message, email, and social media, in that order, because that order is who trusts your opinion the most to take your advice and click the link you sent.
I actually do appreciate this. Any writer that says they don’t care about growing readership is lying. I’d still write if only my mom read (hi, mom!), but I do have aspirations beyond my bloodline.
Thanks for reading.
