Dabir and Asim Return

skelosFor the first time this year I’ve sold a short story. I’m delighted to relay that the upcoming Skelos magazine will be carrying a never-before-published Dabir and Asim story in its second issue! You can see magazine details here and there is, briefly, still time to get in on its kickstarter.

I still fully plan to finish writing at least one more Dabir and Asim novel. If I can actually maintain the pace with this current set of drafts, I hope to find time to create a new Dabir and Asim every other year or so and market it as an e-book. That’s assuming that the next one sells, and that ANY of my next books sell, of course. I think they will, I plan for them to sell, but one does have to be realistic about these things.farwell my lovely

Over the weekend I discovered it was possible to over-Chandler ones self, although reading a bunch of Chandler was a great antidote to fantasy. I was able to resume editing my own prose Monday morning with pretty clear eyes and see a number of little things here and there that needed fixing up.

My new(ish) writing method allows for quick drafting, but if I’m not careful the result can be kind of sparse, so I’m going back through and adding in a lot more background detail and a little more personality to some of the point of view stuff. It’s going slower than I intended, but I’m also pleased with the result. And since I don’t yet seem to be a writer who’s become self-indulgent, I think if I’m happy with it you probably will be.

As to being overly Chandlered, there suddenly came a point when Marlowe (or Dalmas) had been knocked out too many times, and my faith in Chandler’s plotting grew shaken, especially after seeing how he was tying up older stories together. My mistake was probably reading all the stories he’d never wanted reprinted because he’d cannibalized them to draft a number of his books. It was pretty educational, though, as to studying his methods.

I could go on, but this post is fragmented enough as it is. I’ll drift back to talking about Raymond Chandler eventually, I’m sure, and will try to discuss my thoughts in more detail then.