I am new to this site and wish to share the first chapter of a novel I wrote about westward expansion after an apocalyptic event. It's written much in the style of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, though I hope one can detect my own writing style in it as well. I hope that I can get some feedback and criticism on it, and hopefully you will ask for more.
I would like to remind readers that Archipelago is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and locales are my own and are drawn from my own experiences or imagination, and the world as we know it is has been filtered through my mind and now lies here in a state of apocalyptic ruin. Actually, I'm inclined to use the term post-annihilation rather than post-apocalyptic, since the term "apocalypse" implies revelation, as in the receiving of some crucial, maybe even divine knowledge. I don't see the people in my novel being the beneficiaries of that kind of knowledge, though some of them are struggling mightily to attain it. And I had a really good model for the post-annihilation future I depict, namely, the pre-annihilation present, presided over by the world's superpower-of-the-moment: us.
As for working out my imaginary future beforehand or making it up as I went along: the latter, always the latter. The novel is an improvisation--a structured one, I hope, but the excitement (and terror) of writing fiction for me derives from the way I am always simultaneously playing the game and making up the game.
For help along the way, I would like to thank Matt and Brian and the rest of the Palaver gang; Rick Wallach, for his insight into my writing style as "a worthy imitator of Cormac McCarthy." And as always, the love of my life: Leanna, this is for you.
I would like to remind readers that Archipelago is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and locales are my own and are drawn from my own experiences or imagination, and the world as we know it is has been filtered through my mind and now lies here in a state of apocalyptic ruin. Actually, I'm inclined to use the term post-annihilation rather than post-apocalyptic, since the term "apocalypse" implies revelation, as in the receiving of some crucial, maybe even divine knowledge. I don't see the people in my novel being the beneficiaries of that kind of knowledge, though some of them are struggling mightily to attain it. And I had a really good model for the post-annihilation future I depict, namely, the pre-annihilation present, presided over by the world's superpower-of-the-moment: us.
As for working out my imaginary future beforehand or making it up as I went along: the latter, always the latter. The novel is an improvisation--a structured one, I hope, but the excitement (and terror) of writing fiction for me derives from the way I am always simultaneously playing the game and making up the game.
For help along the way, I would like to thank Matt and Brian and the rest of the Palaver gang; Rick Wallach, for his insight into my writing style as "a worthy imitator of Cormac McCarthy." And as always, the love of my life: Leanna, this is for you.
