Lit Between the Ears

Replays first draft is finished

William Spear — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:41:35 +0000

The first draft of Replays, a full-length stage play, is finished and weighs in at 103 pages. The story is about four characters whose lives come together in a sports tavern named Replays.

The draft was started concurrently with the 2011 NaPlWriMo even though there was never a realistic hope it would be finished during November.

The four lead characters in Replays have been influenced directly or indirectly by sports. Journalist Roberta Times began he career as a sportscaster before moving into investigative reporting. Jack Downs, the owner of Replays, has been associated with the sports tavern for 25 years. Ex-footballer Joey Stilts, won a championship fifty years years ago. And high school student, Lois Chaos, wants to compose and perform classical music despite her parents’ wishes to play sports.

As the story progresses, and the characters’ conflicts are presented, each will remember, or realize for the first time, how their lives have been shaped by sports.

Further updates and developmental notes will be forthcoming.

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River Men Get Riled, Rough Up Visitors

William Spear — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:43:58 +0000

Frenchtown’s own professional footballing eleven musically mauled league champions, the Lumber, on Saturday night. After getting pushed around the first half, the River Men came out with renewed vigor in the final thirty minutes and flattened last year’s champs. Near the end of the slugfest, the Frenchtown squad’s newly fierce offensive line, the Five Titans of Terror, were heard singing an impromptu ditty titled “Wrath of the River Men.”

- Excerpted from REPLAYS by William E. Spear

Suspyre on Kickstarter

William Spear — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:14:42 +0000

Fans of Suspyre rejoice! The progressive rock band from the USA is releasing its fourth full-length album this year.

Fans and new listeners can help the shape the release by supporting them on Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/617834636/the-cycle-cd-dvd-new-album-by-suspyre

Please stop by and tell them Bill Spear sent you. By the way, the $6,000 level is a bargain.

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Christmas Wish: Better discipline toward marketing

William Spear — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 01:17:52 +0000

Dear Santa,

As you prepare to dole out gifts in the coming days, may I submit one tiny wish: Make me a better marketer. Temporarily setting aside the whole naughty-or-nice criteria, which would be a dealbreaker for me, there is a legitimate argument to support my plea.

Intellectually, I get it with marketing. Connecting readers to my work is essential for success of all kinds. But it is much easier to start a new piece or rewrite a current piece than executing page 14, table 9 of the Two Plus Plus international marketing infrastructure.

But if you make me a better marketer, I’ll promise these three things:

I won’t grumble (as much) about the 11th rewrite of a seven-page short;
I’ll actually get out of bed at 5:00A to have an hour of quiet time for writing; and
I’ll work towards finding solutions for global warming and international peace. (Those last two are stretches but I’m desperate.)

Thanks, Santa. Now about the whole naughty thing . . .

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2011 Writers Workshops – The Early Outline

William Spear — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:10:12 +0000

During the first four months of 2011, the Teen Cafe program of North Hiunterdon County Library in Clinton, New Jersey will conduct writers workshops. Held once a month, the workshops will present different formats and genre to the writers.

Mixing the premise that all participants are encouraged to help each other become better writers with the exploration of genre, the workshops will be presented as follows:

Comedy: Everyone likes to laugh and laugh and laugh – Character development within the novel format as the basis for telling funny stories.
Action: Hold on tight for fiteen minutes – The speed and power of short stories will be used to to get audiences into, and quickly out of, fast-moving situations.
Autobiography: Your life, page one, in any format you can imagine – You are as interesting as any character; why not tell your life story?
Mystery, suspense, and supernatural in metered verse: Thrills and chills of writing scary poems – Poetry’s flexibility makes it suitable for scaring readers; let the Wednesday Night Frights begin.

Also included are the following:

Each workshop will include a segement titled “Opening Paragraph.” Participants may write and read the first paragraph of a new work or read from an existing story.
Each workshop will also include a segment titled “Publishing your Work: Finding an audience is the hard part” which presents ways for finding an audience and getting published.

This is the second year for the workshops and should be as much fun as the last.

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