Month: October 2021

A New Series Of Stories

Posted on by johnpriceauthor

SO HERE I AM, COMPLETELY finished with the presidential book I have been working on well over a year now. The 3rd draft is dun…d-u-n, dun! And now, I know more about presidents than I care to admit. It’s probably going to take at least 2, maybe 3 months to be edited, and while I wanted to have it ready before the year was over, I’d rather have it done right the first time (or as good as I can make it) or not at all.

After finishing it, I came to the conclusion that I will most likely never write another history book. It’s tedious as hell. Verifying, and verifying and referencing, it gets old after awhile. Don’t get me wrong, I love research. In fact, I love doing research on historical shit more than I care to admit. For example, yesterday my girlfriend and I were joking about songs we grew up with…kids songs. And she brought up the song, ‘do your ears hang low’ and there’s a line in the song that goes, ‘can you throw them over your shoulder like a continental soldier.’ I told her that when I was a kid, I always thought the song was, ‘do your balls hang low,’ and that I’d never heard the bit about a continental soldier. So, we decided to consult the bible, aka…google and look up the actual words as well as the history of the song. 

Well…let me tell you something; the song was originally ‘do your balls hang low’ but was later sanitized, and ‘balls’ were replaced with ‘ears’ so that kids could sing it without getting the shit kicked out of them by their parents. But it doesn’t end there. The melody of it, and most of the lyrics, were sung by the British in WW1. Before that, it was the Turkey and the Straw, and before that, it was called ‘Zip Coon.’

And here, boys and girls, is where it gets interesting. Zip Coon, the melody of the song, anyway was a character in blackface who attempted to fit in with American high society. The song dates back to the 1830s. It’s a song that was always intended to be racist and has all the racist stereotypes associated with black Americans, watermelon, chicken, you name it. 

I honestly had no idea, and neither did most of you reading this. But this is what I love about writing, the research…I just hate coming up with a way to write it so that it doesn’t sound like I plagiarized the fuck out of it. That’s the part that can be exhausting. And yes, the book about presidents exhausted the hell out of me. Usually when I finish a story, I take about a week and kind of regroup. But this time…holy shit! I got finished with the book back in August and I haven’t really written anything up until about a week ago. 

Last week, I started another short story, and this one will take a different turn than all of my previous stories. I’m about to put together a collection of short stories that will take well over a year to complete. I have 17 short stories written out (first drafts) and every single one of them overlap; some of them overlap in several locations. Each story stands alone, meaning, you can read a story, and when it ends, it ends. However, in each story, someone makes an appearance who will have a story about them. 

I got the idea for this when I ran into someone who knew someone I used to know. I went to church years ago, and ran into someone who goes to that same church. This individual doesn’t know I went to that church because I left it over a decade ago. He started going to the church maybe 3 or 4 years ago, and I’m sure my name no longer comes up. Well…it may. That church had more gossip than any church I’ve been in so it’s possible. It’s crazy how the religious crowd is supposed to “go into the world and preach” but yet they segregate themselves into an elite group of super spiritual assholes.

Anyway, it’s crazy how paths cross and we meet people who know people and I was thinking, why not find a way to have people’s lives overlap in a series of stories? So…here goes. So why the image of Richmond? Because most of my stories take place in Richmond. If you are in Richmond, you’ll recognize some of the places.

Just Stick To The Subject

Posted on by johnpriceauthor

Note: I am unable to resize the above image and I’m not sure why. I’ve been having trouble with WordPress for the last 6-8 months so it doesn’t shock me. I’m not really a fan of WordPress but it was recommended as a writer, to blog on the site, so here we are.

That said, let’s get into the meat of things. I wrote this on my Facebook page, and thought I’d put it here. As you read, it’ll take minute, but will make sense as you go along. This is a common theme that I run into and it’s honestly annoying.

It happens on a day just like any other. It’s nothing special, but I have this weird taste for something and I really don’t know how I’m going to make it. How do I cook or bake this thing that’s been on my mind today? Ahh, I know…I’ll google the hell out of it. Scrolling…scrolling…scrolling…oooh, that one looks good. It’s a recipe that looks good, and based off of the photo I should have all the ingredients. So I click on the recipe. At first, I’m roped into the article and don’t realize that I won’t be reading the recipe right away. No…the author has written an essay about her life. She brings up hot summers where, after her husband was out in the field working until sweat dripped off his oily nutsac, they’d sit on an old porch swing and listen to Nat King Cole and Dolly Parton as she served him a drink. This was her grandma’s sweet berry slushy pussypop infused with vodka that she used to eat every summer while her mom was daydrinking and reading Harlequin romance novels. This popsicle brings back such sweet memories and she’s going to tell me how to do it…but not so fast. First, a brief history of how this dandy treat was served at church cookouts when Rev. E. Jack Ulate would come to preach special sermons. After reading through all of that, we are finally greeted with a section about the ingredients; ingredients that are in everyone’s cabinet. We’ll start with Cream of Sumyunguy and an ounce of caramel fluff butter that is only sold in 5 lb bags at Trader Joes. The author will then go into the history of these ingredients, and why they give us the mouthwatering flavor that they do. Before we get into how to make our treat, we’ll need you to hit that ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’ link to get daily coupons and recipes that are sure to warm your heart with memories of days gone by. And now, let’s get into how we’ll be making this sweet berry slushy pussypop. You’ll first need a 10 lb skillet and here’s the history of that skillet and why it was made the way it was.

The photo above has nothing to do with this blog, just like a lot of the annoying essays on a recipe website have to do with the actual recipe. We don’t care about the author’s life story, or the pseudo warmth the memories of it brings to them. It’s fake, just like a lot of your relationships. We just want the recipe and need the author to get to the point so that we can begin getting wasted or cook that roast that is “sure to be a hit at your next Thanksgiving meal.” As critical as I am of shit like this, this is something I’m guilty of from time to time. I begin a story, and go off on a tangent that has nothing to do with the situation, and quite frankly, it annoys the reader. If I’m reading a recipe that is an essay/novel about the author’s memories, I will usually just exit out and move to the next recipe. As a writer, it’s your job to keep this in mind. People will put your book down and move on to the next if you begin to lose the reader’s attention. If it doesn’t move the story along or drags, delete the fuck out of it, I don’t care how “great” you think it is. Stick to the story and get to the point!

That said, I am still writing. I know I haven’t updated in months but there has been a LOT going on that has held up my blog. When I got finished with The Story of Hope, I wanted to work on another short story, but kept coming back to my book about presidents, and I have just finished all of the research on it. Plus, with the death of Lynanne’s aunt and mom, as well as moving, time is severely limited. I look forward to publishing the presidential book, and getting back to some more short stories. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo. I’ll play it by ear and see what happens.