DFL Runner: Blog

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it ...

Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield

Last week was National Running Day and the local shoe store sponsored a free 5K to celebrate, except they had to cancel due to lightning. (Rain will not cancel your typical running event, nor will snow, wind, plagues of locusts, etc. Lightning, however, different matter.) It was rescheduled to this evening.

If you're not a runner, you may not be familiar with the meaning of my pen name. DFL is the informal name given to the person who finishes a race dead (channel David Ortiz here) last, and I'm usually that person. But, as the real-life Leanna has said to me, "you still finished ahead of everyone on the couch in front of the television."

Tonight was my first "event" run since last August, courtesy of some serious back problems. It took me slightly over an hour, and I'm in some pain right now ... but I finished. I didn't even DFL, although it was close.

I am hoping to get some time to review my editor's email tomorrow evening and get the next chapter posted before I head out of town on Saturday. If not, however, tune in next week, same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Many authors on here like to recognize the authors they want to emulate. I have three: Don Lockwood, radio_guy, and Oyster50.

I acknowledge often being, at heart, a sappy romantic like Don, although I can only hope to be half the writer he is. I even lifted a couple of lines from his eulogy for "Beth Trovini" in "Rewind" when writing my grandmother's eulogy.

I am a churchgoing man and radio_guy actually has helped progress the later parts of this story as I've drafted it, by drawing a map for how to incorporate characters of faith into a story like this.

And Oyster50, like Don, gives life and depth to his stories and his characters that I hope to one day even be able to approach attaining.

Gentlemen, all three of you, thank you for your writing and thank you for the inspiration.

Chapter 4 has just posted. Although chapter 5 is presently with my wonderful editor, real life may intrude on the posting schedule. One real-life aspect of dwarfism - one which will feature in the story later on - is chronic pain due to bone and joint issues, and a dearth of medical professionals experienced in treating it. There is, IRL, a clinic at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore that specializes in treating people with dwarfism. I have an upcoming evaluation scheduled at the clinic and will be heading up there next weekend. If I'm not able to post it before I leave, it will be posted the following Saturday.

Thanks for reading! Please keep the comments and feedback coming.

I got some feedback from both my editor and a couple of you that speaking in the present tense was a bit crazymaking for the reader.

The idea of writing in the present tense came from the first 5K I ever did. I wrote in a blog about it, using the playlist I had created to help me maintain my pace as a sort of outline for the post, and I found that it flowed better when writing as though I was writing about it in real time. However, a story is not a blog post, so I have made another editorial decision to switch to the past tense. Yes, I know the first two chapters haven't been fixed yet, they will be as soon as I can.

See you all on Saturday 6/8, when a little more drama comes into play.

Hi all ...

Long time reader, first time author! Actually, I've been writing since childhood and this is a story I've been tinkering with in various forms for over ten years, dating back to when a friend of mine observed that there are no romance novels featuring a character with a disability.

My plan is to try and post once a week. This week is a bonus to get the story on the radar. Chapter 2 is in the queue, and you'll likely see the next chapter on Saturday 6/1 if all goes as planned.

Back to my long weekend. Enjoy!