LA FLORIDIANA Book Review- "Hot Damn! Alligators In the Casino, Nude Women in the Grass, How Seashells Changed the Course of History and Other Dispatches from Paradise" by James W. Hall by Will Moriaty

THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW "Freddy vs Jason" by Mike Smith "Jeepers Creepers 2" by Mike Smith

COUCH POTATO Couch Potato Fall TV Preview by Vinnie Blesi

CREATURE'S CORNER "Pillars", Chapter 2 by John Lewis

MIKE'S RANT Hey, Andy....Class....I Guess He Hasn't Seen "Nell"....Scary Is As Scary Does....Death On The Mersey  by Mike Smith

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Good Evening Everyone! Okay here we go; Round 2.
I began to write and I found a sudden rush of ideas as I commenced work on "Pillars." It seemed like it took no time at all to flesh out both a good synopsis and a great underlying theme for "my child" which was continually growing inside it's own womb. By January 23, 1992 (not even a month in) I was writing pg 100. This was nothing less than monumental for a guy who formerly couldn't hold together an idea for more than a page or two. As I moved deeper into the project I noticed that both the story and characters began taking on their own individual characteristics and literally wrote "themselves." I was the mere physical instrument that recorded the events unfolding before me.

It sounds like I finally flipped my lid, doesn't it? There's just no other way to describe the clarity with which these ideas came to me. It was at that point I understood how easy it was for some writers to continually come up with one idea after another and see them through to the end. I can also tell you that I also understand how ideas mutate and take on new lives or identities. By the time I was a hundred pages in, the voice of the simple story "The Three Days Of Darkness" had metamorphasized into a completely different story that had very little in common with the ideas from seven years before. By the time I was finished, the old story ideas had disappeared altogether, having been replaced with newer, fresh ideas that pushed them aside.

As I moved into my second month of writing I made it a practice to log the date as work on the book progressed. I wish I had done that right from the start because it's interesting to look back and see what was accomplished on what day. Anyway, my first writing day of record (besides the date 1-23-92 when I wrote page 100) was 2-9-92. On that day I wrote 10 pages. I would keep track of all writing dates from that point forward (incuding projects I am working on now). By the way, I was on page 134 on that day. I continued working at a fever pitch on the book until April of that year. Then the reality of making more money than a parttime job offered reared its ugly head and I took on more work which, of course, led to less work on the novel. Between April 1, 1992 and September 20, 1993 I wrote only 49 pages. In contrast, I wrote 273 pages from Late December, 1991 to March 25, 1992.

Next week I'll tell you about my triumphant return to "Pillars Of Fire" and how the thought of turning it into a movie came about.

Have a Great Week. C-Ya!!!