A New Pen

by Russell Dyer

published: sep 14, 2016; revised: dec 23, 2017; readers in past month: 208

Writing 'Not a Step'

I bought a new pen recently to encourage myself to resume work on my second novel — it will be the third that I will have published.

The story consists of two intertwined timelines: The first, set in the current day, is told from the perspective of a journalist who interviews the protagonist, Martin, and others regarding him. The second timeline starts in Martin’s childhood (in 1958) and goes on to tell his life story. His parents are divorced. His mother lives in New York; she has the looks of Elizabeth Taylor and the deportment of Jacqueline Kennedy. His father lives in Rome; he works in foreign services at the U.S. embassy to the Vatican.

I’ve written about 50 pages in addition to the 30 pages I need to transcribe from when I first started writing it a few years ago. That’s about 20 pages of new material. It’s definitely becoming a better novel. I’m very pleased with it, although I haven’t have much time to work on it in the past few months.