Here are fourteen tales, all of which are now free:
• If Ever I Forsake Thee, six tales of far northern Michigan
• A Drowning
• If Ever I Forsake Thee
• The Last of the Old Days
• A Little Weather
• Elegy
• The Entire Airy-Færie Brand New Winewood Hotel Idea• Nude Studies, five tales of artists, models, friends, lovers, relatives, strangers, and assorted others (New in March, 2007)
• The Gift
• Big Girl
• Nude Studies
• Line
• A Man of Bronze• Darkness and Light, a novel
• Banshee, the first two chapters of a new novel (New in May, 2008)
• Happy and Sad Holidays, a new novella (New in July, 2008)
I abandoned my endeavors toward the Great American Novel in the late 1980s to write smaller, more tightly defined, more carefully constructed fiction.
It didn’t occur to me for some while to wonder exactly what I was writing: short stories, long stories, novellas, short novels, or something else altogether. I tried repeatedly to write short stories; unfortunately, as often as I rewrote them, they ceased to be short. By and bye, I decided I was writing novellas, which I understood as full-sized stories with limited casts of characters, less than complex plots, restrained writing, and the like. I reread most of Jim Harrison’s novellas, and found I liked them even more than I’d remembered.
Concurrently, I resumed painting, which I’d all but completely abandoned in boyhood.
As often as I succeeded in writing smaller and better, I rewrote much larger and often worse. Big Girl, for example, wasn’t improved at all by the addition of a second half. I didn’t extend Nude Studies, (entitled Figure Studies for some years,) but likely would have done so if I hadn’t been distracted by another tale. I discovered I could rewrite parts of novels I’d written years earlier to stand alone, and so ended up with The Last of the Old Days and The Gift, both of which made good impressions on friends and acquaintances, and have proved popular at this site. Eventually, I stopped trying to distinguish among stories, novellas, and novels: they’re all just “tales” in plain English.
I threw up my hands in despair in about 1994, and resolved to concentrate on painting a few weeks to clear my mind. I kept painting instead of returning to writing. Though I continued to make my living in part as a writer and editor, as well as I could discern, I seemed to have outlasted the compulsion to write creatively. What a relief!
Darkness and Light showed up, whole and complete in my imagination, a decade after I’d abandoned writing. I put it off nearly a year. I tried to sabotage it. I interrupted work on it. I was far too old for twelve- and sixteen-hour days, wasn’t I? Apparently not. It’s a radical departure from everything else I’ve ever written, as well as half or a third the size of novels I wrote in the 1970s and 1980s.
The six tales collected under the rubric If Ever I Forsake Thee were added to this section in February, 2007. Some are old, some new, all completely revised and typeset.
Addendum, July, 2008: the half-dozen tales didn’t seem substantial enough, unless they simply didn’t tell the whole story. Mysteriously—I mean that literarally, not rhetorically: inspiration is always incomprehensible—another tale showed up, then another, then... If Ever I Forsake Thee has grown to an even dozen tales. The old are being completely rewritten, and all are being smoothly integrated. If I’ve found one chronological problem, I’ve found two dozen, to say nothing of inconsistencies of characterization and tone. I’d hoped to have finished the batch by now; unfortunately, the sixth draught required such extensive alterations a seventh has proved necessary. I’m adding Happy and Sad Holidays for those who’ve been patiently waiting longer than anticipated.
The five tales in Nude Studies were added to this section in March, 2007. Again, some are old, some new. I may double back to add a sixth, Anahita’s Daughter, if I can figure out how to make it fit smoothly with the others and resolve inconsistencies within the piece.
Yes, there’s a new novel in the works. It’s entitled Banshee, and is both much larger and more complex than Darkness and Light. Its central figure is Llewellyn Van den Berg, glimpsed here and there in the If Ever I Forsake Thee tales. If it need be said, work on the new novel has had a decidedly adverse effect upon my painting.
Addendum, July, 2008: Banshee is now in its sixth draught. The seventh should be the last. I hope to offer it to you by the end of 2008.
These tales are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format so you won’t have to brutalize your eyes trying to read HTML text on screen. If you don’t have a current version of Acrobat Reader, you can download it from Adobe at no charge.
Naturally, your comments are welcome.
© 1998–2008, James Stillwater. All rights reserved. These tales may be freely downloaded and printed for personal use and enjoyment, but may not be altered in any way or published in any other format or medium or at any other internet location without prior written permission of James Stillwater.