In The Flow of Time – December 11, 2024 I’m about to start a new chapter in this tale. For whatever meta reason, while I’m doing it I’m watching myself doing it. Something about this chapter seems particularly instructive, so here we go. Writers write. Each of us is unique,… Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – December 1, 2024 FACT: white men had free black women as concubines. While “free” for real, as in not slaves, there is a massive power difference between white men, mostly French planters circa 1814, and young black women. The concubine relationship was called a… Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – November 11, 2024 I’ve started writing the novel about Marie Laveaux. I did chapter one a while back. It’s seeing some tweaks and adjustments as I write the characters. Details appear that I hadn’t thought of, or that are beneath the level to which… Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – September 14, 2024 Here she is, Marie Laveaux. There are some things known historically about her, but actually, not a lot. She was an illiterate woman of color in a white man’s world. There is no portrait or photograph of Marie Laveaux. There is… Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – September 12, 2024 Spoiler alert, in which the end is revealed. (Edit: Because this turned out to be two books, this will be the end of the second novel, or maybe not the end, maybe the prologue, or maybe a prologue to Dancer. 🙂… Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – September 9, 2024 I’m deepening my background on the ancestral roots of African religion to which Marie Laveaux is plausibly exposed. There are three major areas where people were stolen from Africa. Modern day they are Senegal-Gambia; the Bight of Benin, and the Congo…. Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – September 8, 2024 I’m plotting (devious SOB that I am). It is 1818. At this point, Robinette and her children have been pulled back into slavery (because slaves are things) and resold. The nasty antagonist making this happen is René Trudeau. He is historical,… Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – September 1, 2024 Way back when, in an entirely different novel, I wrote a scene that mentions folks singing as they walk down the street after a wedding. No real music, of course, just that that’s what was going on. And one of my… Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – August 29, 2024 The compass rose, what else is there? Well, street numbers of course. There are alternatives. On the Hawaiian islands, the central part of each island is higher (volcanoes), sloping down toward the sea. So directions are based on that geographic reality…. Continue reading
In The Flow of Time – August 28, 2024 An interesting thing happened on the way down the Mississippi. Silt. The river carries vast quantities of it. It flows and it floods. When it floods, water spread over the land and drops silt. I always knew that. What I didn’t… Continue reading
