EXCERPT from my novel: I WEPT BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON

by Terry 40 Replies latest jw friends

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  Terry

  What strikes me as tragic is how many young witless lives were ruined by the ban on alternative service. I think they lifted it solely because of how widespread this sort of thing is in prison nowadays, and the Gibbering Buddy was afraid of mass rebellion in the face of AIDS.

  HB

  I gained alot of insight writing this. I had my life on hold without traction. The prison time wasted years I could have developed into a more useful person to myself and others. As it was, so many of us were biding our time waiting for Armageddon to make everything wonderful without lifting a finger ourselves.

  Armageddon is quack medicine that promises to cure-all, but, it doesn't do anything but provide a placebo.

  I don't feel sorry for myself. I made the best choice I could based on what I thought I knew.

  What bothers me is that more people around me who opposed what I was doing were not better informed in their arguments.

  In my book I change that a bit. The arguments against me are much sharper and better delivered than in real life.

  It sets up a nice contrast for revealing things.
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  AlmostAtheist

  Terry, this is powerful stuff. Thanks for the taste, looking forward to the meal!

  Dave
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  Terry

  Terry, this is powerful stuff. Thanks for the taste, looking forward to the meal!

  When I finish the editing and rewrites I'm torn as to the next step.

  The easiest path is to have LuLu.com publish the book. I'd apply for an ISBN # and people who wanted it could purchase it online through Amazon or directly through LuLu.

  The hardest course is to begin submission of the finished manuscript to various publishers and see if anything develops. The liklihood of any mainstream publisher even knowing what to do with this book (so specialized is the subject matter) is vanishingly small.

  So...I'm torn....
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  AlmostAtheist

  Terry, I understand what you mean. You can't write a "JW" book with the intent of getting wide general distribution. You write it for yourself, secondarily for the ex-jw community. That's about it.

  If one person reads and appreciates it, how will that make you feel?

  If one person comes back and says, "Man, I never thought about [x] before, but then I read your book and I got it", what will that do for you?

  It couldn't hurt to make the rounds of publishers. Then if there are no takers, LuLu it. If nothing else, you've captured your thoughts. Now set them free and see where they go.

  Dave
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  sweetstuff

  Wow, very riveting Terry. Keep it up.
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  lalliv01

  It's not boring, that's for sure. I would like to read more about Mathis Dante's journey. Does the story have sub-plots, I hope to find out? Terry, congratulations!
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  Farkel

  "I've known many people who have worked at the craft of writing, lovingly and carefully for as long as twenty years. They have labored, edited and reworked their words in order to get just the right ones, the right phrases, the right nuances, the right thoughts. Their writing was simply horrible."

  Isabel Paterson, (paraphrased) Note: Isabel Paterson was an early friend of Ayn Rand, and simply put, a much better writer than Rand.

  Farkel
• 

  Terry

  Terry, I understand what you mean. You can't write a "JW" book with the intent of getting wide general distribution. You write it for yourself, secondarily for the ex-jw community. That's about it.

  If one person reads and appreciates it, how will that make you feel?

  If one person comes back and says, "Man, I never thought about [x] before, but then I read your book and I got it", what will that do for you?

  It couldn't hurt to make the rounds of publishers. Then if there are no takers, LuLu it. If nothing else, you've captured your thoughts. Now set them free and see where they go.

  I've done my best to submerge the JW part into a story about my family, myself and general ordinary lives of others who cluster around the dazzling streetlamp of Truth like frenzied moths on a summer night.

  There will be very pointed arguments without it becoming a screed. I've done what I could to keep the presentation balanced. I had to go where I never wanted to return: the inside of my own mind the way I felt when Jehovah was the center of my life.

  To say it has been painful is to not tell it right.

  I shall submit it to publishers first. I'm aiming for the Nobel Prize in literature, but; I'll settle for a couple of hundred people reading it and total obscurity on the midlist :)
• 

  Terry

  It's not boring, that's for sure. I would like to read more about Mathis Dante's journey. Does the story have sub-plots, I hope to find out? Terry, congratulations!

  Yes, subplots galore!

  The tone changes many colors too.

  I might post another shade as an excerpt later on.

  Thanks
• 

  Terry

  "I've known many people who have worked at the craft of writing, lovingly and carefully for as long as twenty years. They have labored, edited and reworked their words in order to get just the right ones, the right phrases, the right nuances, the right thoughts. Their writing was simply horrible."

  Isabel Paterson, (paraphrased) Note: Isabel Paterson was an early friend of Ayn Rand, and simply put, a much better writer than Rand.

  Farkel

  Yep, that's the fear! When you "fix" it, do you neuter it instead?

  My rewrites fill in spaces and flesh out the humanity. I'm determined to eliminate all exposition and allow, instead, the reader to live it.

  That is such hard work I never believed possible!

  Ayn Rand's writing never really did much for me as far as her novels were concerned. I think the Fountainhead is far better than Atlas Shrugged.

  However, in a way, I'm writing my own Atlas Shrugged! Trying to cram all my JW feelings and exposing their theology at the same time as telling a story may be just as much a lost cause.

  Dunno.

  Only the readers can decide!