Writing Fast

I wrote a new short story on Monday. I had a notion for a couple of months that I wanted to write a secret agent story set in 1965, but I hadn't gotten around to the actual mechanics of it. Although the story would have a tangential connection to two other stories I wrote and sold earlier this year--my Western "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" and my '30s-set pulp hero story "The Copperhead Strikes!"--the specifics were undefined. I wasn't sure of the plot. I hadn't even decided whether the protagonist would be male or female; I just knew that he or she would be known as Codename: Copperhead, and that I wanted the story to take place on New Year's Eve, as '65 became '66.

As part of the process, I've been watching stray moments of the '60s TV series Secret Agent and The Saint, and combining those shows in my head with memories of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I didn't want to write a parody or pastiche, but I wanted to pay tribute to that style, that period-specific cathode-ray vibe of black-and-white (and later color) images set to a percolating soundtrack of nightclub jazz, punctuated by swagger, heroics, karate chops, and international intrigue. And, y'know, pretty women. It's all part of the secret agent aesthetic.

The story's title evolved during the time it danced in my head. "Codename: Copperhead" became "Codename: Copperhead! The Snowman Affair," the latter a direct salute to the style of titles used for U.N.C.L.E. Mind you, there was still no real blueprint, just a feel I wanted to go for. I finally settled on a title of "The Copperhead Affair," while continuing to pull at mental threads.

On Saturday night, prior to a wonderful live performance by singin' songwriters Gary Frenay and Arty Lenin, my friend Pete Murray asked me about the stories I've written and sold to AHOY Comics. In that conversation, I mentioned that I wished I could write and sell one more short story in 2019, but that I'd probably run out of time to accomplish that. By bed time on Sunday night, though, I determined that I should commit to getting a serious start on "The Copperhead Affair." Come the Monday morning commute, my iPod offered benediction by shuffling to Gary Frenay's cover of the title theme from the James Bond movie Moonraker. Well! That's a good omen, I thought!



The damned thing wrote itself. And it wasn't bad at all. I did a few checks and rewrites, fixed some things that needed fixing, and decided to just submit it to AHOY without further hand-wringing. I mean, what the hell. No use shilly-shallying. 

I was a hobbyist freelance writer from 1984 to 2006, selling nonfiction pieces about comic books and rock 'n' roll groups for various magazines (principally Goldmine). I always wanted to sell some fiction, and I finally got around to that this year. This morning, it occurred to me that my very first freelance sale was "The Call Of The Mockingbird," a retrospective of a 1960s DC Comics title called The Secret Six. The Secret Six was at least peripherally a secret agent series, so it's fitting that I've now written my own secret agent story.



I don't know if the good folks at AHOY will ultimately buy "The Copperhead Affair" or pass on it, but I'm proud to have completed it, and satisfied with the resulting work. It's the tenth short story I wrote this year; five of those were rejected, but four of them sold, and that's four more than I ever sold before. 

Maybe I can sell more. Maybe I can secure a publisher for my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Maybe some of these ideas and concepts at constant war in my head can find physical form.

And maybe they can find a home in the public eye. Gotta keep writing, man. Gotta keep writing.




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Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

(And you can still get our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, on CD from Kool Kat Musik and as a download from Futureman Records.)

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).