EJ Ruek’s The Grimace and The Giggle

THE NEW TOSHIBA LAPTOP COMPUTER: Ah…well…working fine — phenomenally, even.  Hey, it’s a Toshiba, a company whose laptop computers are the very best in my opinion.  However, installing my favorite programs is a bit of a slow process as always, and Word 2007, which came pre-installed, makes me nervous until I try it for awhile.  [...]

Our town has a water problem.  The city is very good at hiding this fact from, both, the locals and potential buyers coming into “one of the best places to live” — hubbub spread by greedy Realtors in cahoots with the Chamber who engages savvy marketeers, their bold, outright lies spread like caviar across the face [...]

So I’m sitting here at my computer, minding my own business, hacking and slashing chunks of dead tissue out of my next selected release when, from out of the sky, drops this new story.  Like ripe fruit, it’s plump, juicy, smells delicious, and makes my mouth water.  Such temptation. 
Dutifully, I take the gift, careful not to [...]

Once I’m into a book, I can write up to 10,000 words a day.  It’s a looong day, for sure, but I’m so immersed in the story, I don’t notice the time…or my growling stomach.  A query letter, though.  It takes me hours, sometimes days and weeks, to write one.  I’ve determined that I am [...]

One thing I’ve never lacked is a sense of humor.  Now, admittedly, my humor runs in two basic categories, either so subtle and droll that a lot of people miss it completely or else a bit over the top — the top of many people’s heads, that is.  In the latter category, usually only among friends [...]

Digging into the draft of the next novel I plan to prepare for submission, I find myself being pulled deeply into the potentials of one small, seemingly insignificant catalyst and object of symbolism.  It’s a mouse…well, mice.  
These aren’t dancing mice, talking mice, or any kind of out-of-the-ordinary rodents.  These are your standard variety – small, gray, [...]

Well, having spent a great deal of time and effort writing what I and my beta readers consider a really riveting novel, I’m now researching agents…since it has been quite a few years since I had the honor of pursuing representation.  Let me tell you, things have changed.  A lot.  So, first order of the [...]

Diane Oliver, Don Willard, Bosley Gravel — all published and professional authors, all excellent writers, with the perk that one’s an excellent editor, as well.  Then there’s Patrick, Viola, Max, Laura, and, maybe, if I’m lucky, Wayne, real world people, some of whom read fiction, some of whom prefer non-fiction, rarely cracking the cover of [...]

Deborah and William’s story is complete, now.  Short at 80,000 words – the shortest book I’ve ever written – this contemporary tale has just the slightest nod to nerve-tingling possibility.  It’s a tense and riveting read, bordering on “psychological thriller,” as you wonder, first, if Deborah is such a good choice for William.  This quickly swaps to you wondering [...]

One of the very best parts of writing a novel is being in “the deep end.”  This is where the story has so consolidated itself as something real that’s happening “now,” that your every hour — waking and sleeping, both — lives the story back to front and front to back.  No matter where you [...]