Clio Not Calling

I'm regularly asked about the next book project. It seems reasonable to consider something although I never hesitate to explain to folks that book writing for all but a handful of very talented people is a labor of love not money. For cash in hand, I would be better off seeking a mid-management position at the local Subway. And, I could nibble on what I couldn't sell.

I've used up my wars and been fortunate enough to be part of the preservation of Robin's story. That means I've got to cull my past to find something of interest or figure out how to write compelling fiction. There aren't enough readers of ThunderTales to create a demand for a book of my political musings or initiate a request from a metropolitan newspaper for editorial contributions.

For a while, actually still, my wife has been pressing me to string the anecdotes of my upbringing together into another memoir. Growing up in an apartment in Chicago with a hypochondriac, narcissistic mother and an alcoholic, under-appreciated father has many elements of a salable book. It might be a cross between Mommy Dearest and Catcher in the Rye. The problem is building a flow of the events of a life time and sustaining the story of my mother without it being a conscious attempt to either gild her or admit her very serious shortcomings. I'm totally ambivalent on it.

There is always the option of staying within established genre. That could mean another flying book and there are two potential stories there. One is the pilot training years and the other is the peacetime fighter pilot in Cold War Europe. Each could be interesting, but neither seems likely to fill a demand or stir up a market.

That leaves fiction. Frankly, I don't know how people do that. Stephen King offered a handy little throw-away book with the accurate, though unimpressive title, "On Writing" which explains his prolific output. The question of creativity is dealt with by King simply by not worrying about it. His method is to create characters and then place them in a context. That's all there is to it. Then he lets his characters speak and act in a manner consistent with the personae which he has created for them. Voila! A story appears.

Clearly that requires a talent which only a few like King possess. Most of us have to have a story to tell with a beginning and an end. I don't know that I do yet.

There are enough "characters" in the tactical aviation community to populate a shelf full of novels. I know Tom Wilson who has done some great novels on the fighter business and those of us who were there can clearly identify a bunch of the players. I've had several conversations on fiction writing with Mark Berent, whose six part Vietnam saga draws heavily on his experiences in the war. Each of them have a skill which I've not yet found for myself.

I leave the office door open. Maybe one of these days the rustling behind my chair won't be the dog coming in to curl up or bark at me to put some food in his bowl. Maybe it will be the muse with the boot in the butt to push me into the book. I leave the door open...