I have been tackling my first novel-length work for a little over a year now. Currently titled The Letter From William Waiklin, it is the story of a man who is delivered a letter addressed to him forty years before…twenty years before he was born. The letter is a warning from the past to not repeat the same mistakes which led the author of the letter, William Waiklin, to years of nightmarish and mystical isolation, trapped on the shoulder of time with his mind as his only freedom.

I'm in the last stages of the 2nd draft. if all goes as planned, the 300-page story will be ready for editorial review by mid-2008.

In all the literature I've read and no matter which of the dozens of published or otherwise serious, professional-minded writers I've spoken to, the consistent advice is consistent.

1. Write every day, no matter what, where or how many words. 95% of my days are writing days. I know that I had better have a whopper of a reason if I go a day without. I am proud to feel like a loser on the rare day I skip, even when that whopper of a reason rears its devilish head.
    
2. Similarly, it is wise, if not necessary, to join a fellowship of writers. Perfect clubs, writing partners or critique groups do not exist so you shouldn't spend time looking for that perfect situation. The point is to be around people who are serious about writing. Doing so refreshes my batteries and reminds me that no matter how hard a problem with whatever aspect of my writing may be at the time, there are others out there who face and conquer the same challenges every day. They help me if I need help and I help them.
    
3. As obvious as it sounds, don't forget you're telling a reader a story. If you're getting into writing to publish, you've stepped into the dark side. Gone are the days when you can write strictly to see the ink flow or the pixels light up with your genius. Now you are telling a story, so you are obliged to cut out the extreneous crap, move the story ahead, stay on task and reward the reader wtih everything you've promised him throughout the writing. It's a good idea to do a fair amount of reading when you first get started. By reading the reviews, you can find plenty of good books.
    
4. Shut up. Stop thinking. Stop making excuses. And write. No matter how much other advice you get, including 1-3 above, it all boils down to this.

If I've learned anything besides the rules above, it's that a dedicated writer must always keep engaged and open to learning. If one thinks he has mastered writing, he's probably only mastered the opinions of the people he chooses to keep around him.

Always learn.

Frances Feck Is A Freckle Collector is a young teen novella about Dottie Polk, a well-liked, kind, accepting middle school girl who is bothered to no end about her freckles. One day, after being teased about them by the school bully, Frances Feck, a mysterious new girl, appears to Dottie and offers her a freckleless life. When Frances disappears on a skiing trip, there's no one to help Dottie when the freckle jar breaks and the freckles rush out, anxious to find new homes. Madness abounds :-)

Downhill is a short story about entry and transference. The point-of-view in this experimental story travels from character to character until, in the end, the reader is left staring at the ceiling without a host.

In Two Years is a short story that follows our hero from his learning that he will be imprisoned for the murder of his wife...drumroll...in two years. Our hero dedicates himself to insuring that future will not come to pass. The twist at the end is worth the read.

Anniverse is an erotic novella about a woman frustrated. She arrives at a plan to allow herself a holiday of sorts. For one day each year, she allows herself to live as if she's not married. Anything goes, but she only has one day. It's a mad rush and the clock is ticking.

I am thomas mcauley, a fiction writer (and website designer) living in San Antonio, Texas with my wife and sons.

From the age of four, writing has been my natural calling. My mother still swoons over the 2 x 2 inch, 8-page book, The Little Water Buffalo, with it's clumsily stapled edges.

My father built a writing desk into the wall of my bedroom when I was a young teen. I spent hours in that nearly soundproof space writing (mostly poetry), drawing and planning my fantasy punk/eletro band.

After exiting the U. S. Marines and while attending college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, I turned to journaling at the local pizza shop.

I would sit for hours with my free refills and plate after plate of cheese-garlic bread, writing poetry, observations, anything in my quest to find myself.

When I married in 1989, writing suddenly did not fit well into my life anymore. I sadly and somewhat bitterly put the pen down. In the summer of 2006, I dreamed the beginning seeds of the novel I am currently working on. I restarted writing as if I had never taken the more than seventeen years off.

I believe the time away from writing has given me a unique persepctive as an author. All of my writing experience before that summer in 2006 had come from the child in me. Now as a man I have been able to pursue my craft in a calm and clear-headed manner. I think of the seventeen-year gap as a painful but necessary parting between lovers. I had to become the man I am today in order to pursue writing in the way that is right for me.

Today, I write primarily on my HP using Word. I am testing out Power Writer, a promising program that keeps all aspects of the story--background, characters, outline, etc.--in one file. I'm sure I'll have more to say about it as more time passes.

I am highly distractable, so I wear sound-cancelling headphones. Because lyrics and changes in music compete for my attention, I play New Age amorphic sounds. I've found The "So" Chord with Hemisync from Monroe Products to be ideal.

I tend to write at my favorite coffee house, Cafeggio in Stone Oak, a community in the northeast of San Antonio. It's a little too bright, but it's the closest, freest WiFi and the coffee beats Starbucks for my money. (Oh, and the grils who work there are pretty easy on the eye too, but don't tell the wife.)

I have a space at home dedicated to writing, but it's too in the middle of traffic for anything but very early or very late writing sessions, so I'll need to give some thought to a better spot.