Genre Rules In Indie Fiction: What Does A Mystery-Thriller-Paranormal-SciFi-Magical Realism Novel Look Like?
What would Janis say? There's a simple question at the end here for folks who have read Beyond the Will of God . When I started to seriously write Beyond the Will of God back in 1993, I knew where the book was going to take the reader. I knew that there were questions I've always had about altered states of consciousness and the power of music. I had some weird adventures late at night back in the 1970s. Adventures in my mind. Adventures that needed to be turned into an intriguing story. But I didn't know how to get the story to where I knew it had to go. [I promise there is no spoiler in this brief essay]. The first scene I wrote is part of the first third of the book. It came out of nowhere for me. I woke up one New Year's Day and sat down in front of my new Mac II. I wrote one sentence: " His vision has that vibrating feel to it, like his eyes are being massaged with electricity." A nd then another: "In the distance, through the humidity, ribbons o...