Napoleon once stated that, “Quantity has a quality all its own.” While he was speaking of artillery, the same is true of writing. The more you bleed out onto the page, the more wrong turns and reconsiderations you make during the course of an extended writing process have their own intrinsic value. The Iowa Writing Workshop put out an anthology years ago entitled The Eleventh Draft, which argues that it’s not until the eleventh draft that any work of literature truly comes together.

The photograph in this posts features all the versions of my current novel which has finally arrived, after a year of lost nights, at a stage in which the foundation and narrative arcs are solid and clear. After a summer missed completely I’m now only weeks away from submitting it to my incredibly encouraging and supportive agent. A year has passed since I started this process. The physical toll its taken on me is clear, but the months of sunny days and restful nights I’ve sacrificed to say something true are worth it. That is the bargain we make as writers. We serve the work, even if it means sitting alone as the seasons pass in a window-less room, only holding out hope the smallest hope that one day, soon and ever in the distance, all our struggle will be rewarded. My stack of drafts, each one building and improving on the last, might not be as stunning as Spalding Grey’s “monster in the box,” but it is a testament to the investment I’ve made to share a story that’s been on my heart.

I finished the 10th draft of Dream Kids at the end of August, and with only a few plot points to strengthen I hope soon to be able to lay down my arms, bury myself in books, and recuperate until the next battle begins. There are always more books to write, characters speaking to me before sleep who want a voice, and after the world cools to Autumn I’ll do my best to allow them their say.

During the last two months I’ve not only been working on the final edits of my novel, but have also been fortunate to be selected as a featured author at several literary events. Writing is like a kiss in that you can’t do it alone. You have to have the grace and attention of readers, and I’ve been fortunate throughout this year to be given that gift. Last week I was the featured fiction author at The Rising Literature, Art, and Music series at the historic Black Acres Historic Homestead outside of Louisville, KY, and in a week I will be a featured author at Cincinnati’s largest literary event Books by the Banks. If you near Cincinnati on October 11th I’d encourage you to come down. I’d love to see you, and will be signing copies of my latest book Roller Girls Love Bobby Knight which won the inaugural Deerbird Novella Prize from Artistically Declined Press.

The fight to offer something meaningful on the page is long, and depends on both dogged self-determination as well as the fear of leaving something vital unsaid. I’m tired and bruised, but still moving forward. One day soon this book will be finished. I’ll be worn through, terrified that I can’t do what I’ve done before, but eventually will find myself locked up hitting keys until I find my way into the next new battle to create a lasting work. If nothing else I’ll have a stack of drafts that will have a gravity of their own.

On September 26th I’ll be reading and signing at The Rising Art, Music, and Spoken Word event at the Blackacre Nature Perserve and Historic Homestead just outside Louisville, KY. You can find all the details for the event on the Butler Creative website here.

My writing life last month was composed almost exclusively of commenting on student essays, posting announcements, and answering emails. Teaching two courses and forty students in a six-week-long intensive summer session was worth it financially, but stole any time I had to get significant creative work done. I made progress, but didn’t finish as strong as I’d hoped. Now that the semester is all but over,and I’m looking forward to the clouds parting. There are still three weeks of summer left, and soon I’ll have days free to finish rewriting the novel I first wrote around this time last year.

I did make headway, and for now that’s all I have to make me feel as if I did some good. I finished the 9th draft of my revised novel, which is for all intents a new book, and completed a third 40+ page outline/editing guide to revise what I have now into a final draft. I hope to have that finished by this week or next, then I’ll only have to line edit the copy and send it off to see blue skies again. I hate missing deadlines, even when they’re self-imposed, but the monsoon of student writing and lessons left no time to be of a single mind.

In addition to finishing the 9th draft of the revised novel and the editing guide, I stole a night to finish a book review of Carol Matos’ new poetry collection The Hush Before the Animals Attack  from Main Street Rag Publishing. That review is now forthcoming in Fjords Review where my review of Catherine Gammon’s novel Sorrow will appear next month. Gammon’s novel was released by the great indie press Braddock Avenue Books which consistently releases great reads and deserves your support.

Lastly, on one of the few days I scheduled out, I was honored to be a Featured Author at The Holler Poets series in Lexington, Kentucky. It’s always fun to share my work with readers, even as the one prose mutant in the crowd, and I had a great time reading in one of the best dive bars I’ve ever visited.

Rays of sunlight are breaking through the seems in the clouds above, and my faculty inbox grows quieter with each passing day. I look forward to feeling the heat on my face, and getting back to the words alone.

I spent most of June locked in my basement sitting in front of my laptop and missing summer. I got an amusement park pass for Christmas that I haven’t activated. I haven’t taken a walk through the park yet just to appreciate moving and fresh air. I’ve been to the community pool two houses down from mine exactly once. Other than time spent mowing the lawn, I’ve missed the sun and warm days completely. I was, and still am, in writing lock down.

The new novel is almost finished, maybe a week away or less, and until it is I’ll stay in my basement room grinding out the words. I’m aware there’s a world outside my windowless underground office, but I can’t think about it until this book is done. My writing life is monastic in that I spend a lot of time alone, in silence, questioning my decisions in life. If the book finds a home, if it’s read, then all the time I served will be worth it.

Last month I received word that I’d been chosen to be a featured author at Cincinnati’s Books by the Banks Festival which will take place this October. I’m honored to be included, and look forward to meeting readers and signing copies of my novella Roller Girls Love Bobby Knight.

I was also happy to be featured in my hometown newspaper The Manchester Enterprise which was kind enough to give myself and my work a full page spread. It felt good to be the subject of a “local boys does good” piece, and I hope to be able to go back home again soon. I’d love the chance to speak with the high school students there about writing and publishing since it would’ve meant the world to me to have an author visit our mountain school and share what he or she could with us.

Everything is in the future for now though. 65,924 words done, and at least 10,000 more to go. I hope to have the 9th draft of the new novel done by this weekend. After that I’ll get down to editing each line, scene, and chapter, make sure all the pages of notes I’ve written are included, and then line edit the eleventh draft before I’m free. The end is always close. The end is always impossibly far off in the distance. But I’m putting in my time (9 full drafts, three outlines with another to come, and two calendars so far), and hope to get paroled before the leafs start to turn. Hopefully by next month I’ll be tan, eating clean, exercising, and reading two books a day. I like to dream about times like that at night. Everyone on the inside needs some promise, or else there’s no reason to get up and try again.

I received word today that I’ve been chosen to be one of the featured authors at this year’s Books by the Banks Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. I’ll be signing books from 10:00-4:00 at the Duke Energy Center, and hope to see you all there. More information to come, but for now you can go to their website to see an early overview of the event.

I’ve written a series of articles detailing how to gain a teaching position in higher education after achieving an MFA. The first article (which covers searching for open positions and how to apply) is now up on the Spalding University’s blog. You can read it here. The next installment will go over how the interview process works, what to do, and what to avoid. I’ll post when it’s out. Hope this helps anyone interested in finding a college-level position.

May was a busy month filled with readings, an author discussion, and struggling to string words together for my new novel. I’m no good at lying around, so regardless of how hectic it got I appreciated that the wheels kept turning and the words fell where they wanted to.

At the start of last month I was honored to be invited by Marshall University to be the featured reader at their launch party for their literary journal Et Cetera Magazine. It was great to read my work, and offer advice to so many hopeful young authors in love with language.

During the last weekend of the month I read my from new novella Roller Girls Love Bobby Knight and did a book signing for the students and alumni of Spalding University. I hadn’t been back to visit the program in years, but it was great to see old friends and share. Returning to the program (if only for a short time) made me feel as if I still had a home there.

The following day I took part in a panel discussion dedicated to transitioning from an M.F.A. in Writing to teaching at the college-level, and was fortunate to have the opportunity to offer advice to their current students and new graduates on how to best navigate that difficult transition.

In addition to reading and signing at two universities, in May I was the featured author for The Next Best Book Club on Goodreads where I took part in a week-long question and answer thread with readers. That enabled me to give the story behind some of the stories in my collection Romance for Delinquents as well as discuss global issues related to writing and my process. Though the question and answer period has passed you can still read the thread here.

May 27th brought the release of my novella Roller Girls Love Bobby Knight, which won the 2013 Deerbird Novella Prize, and I was stoked to see my book featured by Barnes and Noble on their May Indie Book Roundup! They gave it the cover of the page, and a great write-up. It was also exciting to find my book promoted along with those from authors I admire.

Quick side note here, and not just due to B&N repping my work, but if you buy books online please do so through Barnes and Noble. Their prices are identical to Amazon, and unlike Amazon (whose book sales only make up around 20% of their business) are dedicated to book selling. Though it’s vital to patronize privately owned bookstores, if you do buy books online please do so through Barnes and Noble as they’re dedicated to books and promoting authors unlike Amazon, who in addition to recent fights with publishers, make the majority of their profits through the sale of electronics.

Now that May is over I’m deep in the process of finishing my punk rock YA novel. Novel writing at times can be like having a bad cold in that in one moment it’s easy to imagine will be over soon, and then in the next feel condemned to struggle through an undetermined length of time until it’s ran its course. This isn’t to say that the writing is grueling or without reward, but only to relate how hard it can be to know when you’ve said everything you want to and covered the stitching so that the narrative flows seamlessly.

I hope to arrange more readings and signings in the next few months and am in the process of doing so now. More than anything though, I want to finish what I started last August. The twelveth and final draft is hopefully only a few weeks away. Until then I’ll be in my basement room, with a laptop and some books, and a beat-up journal to store ideas away. Send dead flowers by the U.S. mail.

My latest book Roller Girls Love Bobby Knight gets props from Barnes and Noble. You can read the article here.