Is this the great Novella writers meet-up?

If  you came here thinking you’d learn how to mix a Pina Colada, or Mai Tai, I apologize for the confusion. You will find nothing about tropical drinks here. My thoughts on writing and being a writer are here, but this site is for readers as well as writers. My name is William Patterson and I am the tropicalblender. I will explain the meaning of the title a little later, but first I want to say that I definitely have a purpose in mind for this blog.

I started out with the intent of promoting the ‘novella’, or as it is sometimes called, the ‘short novel’. These often overlooked works could use a little promotion these days. After doing a bit of research on the internet, I discovered that  spats and buggy whips are more in demand than a well written novella, and if the market has not been declared officially dead, it is certainly on life support.

I probably would never have thought to write about such an esoteric topic as novellas,  if I  hadn’t written a couple myself.  I like novellas. When I started writing fiction I found that I had trouble with the short story. I tended to overwrite, and I didn’t have enough time to develop characters.  I always felt rushed. Consequently, my short stories always ran long, and before I knew it, had grown to 20,000 + words before I could finally call it a day.

For years I wrote in humble silence – you writers know what I mean. Writing is a lonely business at best (props to Papa Hemingway for that near quote). For that reason, I thought that maybe I could reach out to some other writers out there who would like to share their writing experiences. Haven’t written a novella?? No problem. You can still check in here.  All writers are welcome! If you have written a mighty tome, full length novel, novella, novelette, poem, sonnet, limerick, short story, or hell — even a very long grocery list, then there is a place for you here on tropicalblender. What inspired you to sit down in front of a keyboard, or pick up that yellow legal pad and pound out/scribble out 10, or 20 or 30 thousand words (or a lot more)  into a cohesive story. How long did it take you? Did you find a market for your work? Would you do it again?

As far as my motives for starting this blog, I cannot say they are entirely altruistic.  I cannot say that I will never  promote my own works — I mean after all, it’s my blog. But I really want to hear from you o’ reader, those of you, who are reading novellas, and writing them.  If you are a reader, where did you find your favorite novella. Was it in a bookstore, or was it an elecronic download to your Nook, or Kindle? If you have written a novella, what was your inspiration, and have you found a market for your work?

So that’s all for my first blog entry of my blogging life…or just about all…

Oh, I almost forgot…what is the significance of the ‘tropicalblender’? The name just seemed right. As for the ‘tropical’ part, that has to do with where I live, which is in South Florida,  or about as close as one can get to the tropics and still reside in the United States. The ‘blender’ piece just seemed to follow. In a way, ‘blending’ is what a good writer does — he/she assigns words to thoughts and ideas and commits them to media to be shared and enjoyed by others — in much the same way a good mixologist selects the perfect cocktail ingredients to blend together to serve to thirsty patrons…ah well, the hour grows late.

I shall leave you with the recipe for serving up the perfect novella :

2 parts personal experience
1 part pain
1 oz good character development
Strain over ice and mix well
Serve chilled.

Anything more than that is a pure waste.

Mahalo

wep