F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Stories

All Around The Fire Pit

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Dad's Fire Pit. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 13, 2016)
Dad’s Fire Pit. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 13, 2016)

What is it about fire that we so love?

I don’t mean all those massively destructive ones that ruin lives, but the far smaller, controllable ones that we love to sit or stand around and stare into.

The ones that seem to enrich our lives.

The ones around which we talk and weave stories and take in the crackling wood, dancing flames, and shooting sparks that fly off into the night?

I’ve read that fires bestow healing qualities to those who stare into them, and I do believe that must be the case. Maybe not so much a physically healing quality—but maybe so, who knows?—but certainly emotional and psychic healing. I love to hang around those kinds of fires. The fire pits…the camp fires. And my dad having one of these (I have to get one!) was really neat.

As the lot of us converged at my dad and stepmom’s place for our summer vacation and my dad’s 80th birthday, we hung out at the fire pit. Standing…sitting…trading stories. Conversation. Enjoying the night and the company (and Alek, Greg’s son, did a fine job of getting it started and keep it running—thanks, Alek!). On one of those nights, I stood and conversed with a friend of my dad’s who’s had a fair amount of paranormal experiences that he’d been wanting to talk about with me for some time. Every time we’d met, over the past few years, he’d bring up some really weird stuff…about how doors open or close without people doing it…or hearing footsteps in hallways while no one was there. That kind of thing. But he’s always been on his way, or we’ve been on ours. We’d always begin talking about the experiences, then would never really complete those conversations and I always got the feeling there was so much more he’d wanted to talk about. Anyway, it was fun finally getting to swap those stories in a continuous, uninterrupted conversation with him about both of our experiences!

But, it was also neat being in the “atmosphere” of the fire pit, where my other family members were also talking and laughing among themselves! While I was in conversation with my dad’s friend, I was also pleasantly conscious of the other conversations and laughing going on with the others, and it warmed my heart. Family members with whom I don’t get to see nor be physically around with much anymore, though we do communicate with in all the usual, technological ways of today. We were all standing and sitting in the backyard…in the night…around a warmly burning fire….

I felt the love…I felt the emotional and psychic “healing.”

What is it about being around fire pits?

I’m not sure…but I love it.

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We Talk Story, Yeah?

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English: Interesting Story
An Interesting Story (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Story.

Isn’t that what we’re really doing—writing stories, fictional or otherwise?

I read this article the other day, by Bob Mayer, and it really made me look at things differently! Bob’s got a lot to say in the post, but one of the things I came away with was that books are not the be-all, end-all. They’re a method to this madness, is all—and not the only method. Bob broke it down into three great lines (quoting from his post):

“Authors create stories and ideas.

Readers consume stories and ideas.

Everyone in between the two has to add value to that.”

What great insight!

What this means to me: I’ve been trying to get my work published through my agent by the traditionally published route. It hasn’t gone well. Over 4 years and not one sale. I never claim to be a Stephen King, Bob Mayer, James Patterson, or anyone else. I’m just little ol’ me, scribblin’ down my stories. But the point is, the traditional route isn’t working, and the traditional route is all about selling books. It’s not so much about selling stories. There’s an ever-so fine distinction there. It’s about the story and about picking different platforms, and all that goes with that. Mr. Mayer does a great job of it in his post, so I suggest reading it, but my point is that I’ve been resistant to trying the e-book only platform, having to admit to loving books, in and of themselves. I do, yes. As a reader. But as a writer, I’ve never been against any of the other platforms, like e-books. Just personally didn’t deal with them. My view has always been, if readers want to read on computer screens, smartphones, or tablets, more power to them!

So, I’m going to give this a shot. I’m going back over, for the umpteenth time in 12 years (I’ll post more about the long road in this novel’s journey once I get it out there), to my supernatural murder mystery, set in Gulf Cost Florida, and I’m going to publish it as an e-book. And I’m pretty dang sure I’m going to do it through Smashwords, but I’m still open to other ideas (I met Mark Coker last year, at the PPWC, and heard him speak; I was quite impressed with him and how he stood up to “Traditional Publisher Think,” or TPT—okay, I just made that up, on the spot, here, but feel free to use it!). And I’m pretty danged excited about it! This is a story that has been near and dear to me, on many levels, but, most importantly, it’s a story that’s important to me (or I’d never have stuck with it this far; I have given up on other manuscripts)…and one I think will entertain others, not to mention “get readers to thinking.”

So, let’s talk story, folks, and think differently about what it is we’re doing and how we’re doing it!

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