Tag Archives: Stephen Hunter

I’m Not Alone!

Oh, my!  It happens to other writers, too!  Even Pulitzer prize-winning former film critics/favorite PowerLine novelists like Stephen Hunter who had the following to say today on that blog about his newly released thriller Soft Target:

Some books write themselves. Some don’t. The former are beloved as labors of love. The latter are labors of, er, labor, and are the unwanted step-children of the writing business.

My novel Soft Target started as the latter. At a certain point, I think it was trying to kill me. It was the Thing in the Office, reeking of malevolence. It stank of mediocrity, infantility, and sheer inertia.

Okay, I don’t think Sky has quite reached the point of trying to kill me, but it’s definitely had its moments of being “the Thing in the Office, reeking of malevolence!” 

I loved what he wrote in his PowerLine blurb about how he overcame all this. articulating, more or less,  the very thing I know I haven’t found yet in my own WIP — the spark or seed or core that resonates with me and gives the book its life. His blurb not only encouraged me, it gave me an example of how it happens — and reminded me that it has happened for me a number of times before.  

Plus, I now have another book on my list to read. Not that I need any other books, mind you…