K. Marvin Bruce

My, is this thing ever dusty!   The problem with dual identities is that they’re, well, dual.   The working writer has to make a living.   Making a living interferes with being a writer. It’s no secret that I write under a pseudonym.   In certain professions writing is discouraged.   The only way I can get away with writing the fiction I do is by saying “It’s not me!”   I know I’m in good company here.   The average person can’t identify Samuel Clemens. No, I don’t mind the nom de guerre per se, but I resent a work life that doesn’t value the writer.   It’s not just editors, either.   There was a guy in my company who wasn’t an editor.   He quit to become a writer and the general attitude to his leaving was a smirk. Yes, it’s difficult to make a living as a writer.   Unless you get an agent you won’t make much in royalties.   You can’t quit your day job.   And aside from the many hours sapped from yo...

There are those who might rightfully suppose, like Mark Twain or Paul McCartney, that K. Marvin Bruce is dead.   The fact is that Marvin is engaged on two books of non-fiction that are actually under contract; fiction presses seem less friendly to my brand of writing. Also, I haven’t been submitting much fiction because, well, I have books under contract.   That’s why I’m pleased to announce that “In the Night” is up on Exterminating Angel Press: The Magazine .   You can find it here: EAP .   The title come from the theme of this quarter’s publication—Things That Go Bump. The story, as usual, predates the theme.   Quite some time ago I was struck by how religious authorities used to—and in some places still—have the authority to punish believers.   Believe it or not, in many parts of the world this includes the death penalty.   Civil authorities are unable to change their theological minds. “In the Night” deals with such a s...

Those of us who write are quite mad.  In more lucid moments we know it, but most of the time our reality is skewed.  There are any number of examples.  If you write, you know it to be true. I recently read a study of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.  Dick had drug addiction issues throughout his life, but he also experienced severe abandonment issues as a child.  As an adult he had mystical experiences that sound quite, well, mad. Whitley Strieber, who is still alive, has been subject to fits and mystical experiences throughout his life as well.  Some of his fiction is bizarre, but not as strange as his non-fiction.  The list could go on and on.  Writers see the world differently than others. We write and find that others don’t share our point of view.  We die and, if we’re lucky, then we become famous.  Those who made great statements in their fiction often began, and ended, obscure.  Poe was pilloried in h...

When we’re concerned about someone we ask, “How are you feeling?”  I don’t think I’ve ever said to anyone, “How are you thinking?”  Some scientists believe that thinking begins with emotion rather than with rational thought. As a writer, I know all about how emotion affects what I can write.  Yes, it controls what I write.  I’m in the middle of a couple of big projects.  I find it hard to write on the same topic for long periods of time, but I really want to get this book finished.  Sometimes I just don’t feel it. Like today.  I’m sad because a friend is moving away.  I’ve been fighting the depression that usually attends such things, and I have managed to whittle this down to a persistent sadness.  Sadness often brings out superior writing, but it means that the happy piece I’m working on will have to wait. Well, it’s not really a happy piece.  It’s more of a funny piece.  At least I hope it’s funny.  My Medusa n...

An editor once told me, “sometimes the story of the author is more important than the book.”  Of course, he meant that for sales, the story of the author may be more compelling than the book itself. Many authors’ stories are fascinating.  Today it may be less so, since anyone with a keyboard and wifi access can style him- or herself as a writer.  Looking at Amazon and their number of self-published books, I wonder about the compelling stories. I read authors’ biographies from time to time.  Some are fairly conventional “so-and-so always wanted to be a writer, etc.”  but many are not.  People like Edgar Allan Poe and Edgar Rice Burroughs struggled  with personal demons all their lives. Experience comes through in stories. My best advice to authentic writers is not to major in English.  If you major in English you may learn how to publish and how to craft conventional stories.  My advice: major in life experience. Wit...