Returning to Work on Red Room Auditions Pt. 1

7-28-19

     I am glad Malcolm is inspired to release some old fiction to show me and is working on a new project. Initially he planned a short story but another confidant and I convinced him to elongate it. There are indications I may be on the verge of returning to write my fourth novel or edit and publish the first three. I am sitting on it for now, writing poems and blog pieces, as I wish. But I don't think I'll be going to today’s Critique Meet in Taipei; I haven't looked at the others' writings in Dropbox. I lost the urgency to edit, publish, or find a publisher, for now, but I'm not deleting the work I've accomplished, either. 

7-30-19

   I did some work on Chapter 2 of RRA yesterday, making the present tense monologue of Nate Fisher more dynamic and fixing the investigation details of the first three murdered making background relevant. Initially, I dumped stories of three creeps I'd met in Taiwan without aligning them with the plot or even making them dead! I've been working on the novel inside out; dumping details, leaving the weaving till later. Later is now. Without having to wrap three days around silly bushiban classes, I have time to spread out and think. I even went up the river two mornings in a row last weekend; something I hadn't done in a while because of the rain and other factors.

8-1-19

    A few days ago, I started to edit Chapter 2 of RRA. In all my “packing and unpacking junk” from manuscripts, there has been little fresh copy besides a few political taIWWan pieces and poetry. There are three photo blogs awaiting text in Taichung Journal and a few on music in Radio Free International and The Gershwin Summer, The Silver Pinball, the latter two blogs I may abandon and add contents to the former because I haven’t written enough articles to warrant its own blogs.

8-4-19 

     I changed the text of TBT to 12 pt. from 14. It reduced the length of the book thirty pages, even after I added five more stories; it's now 260 pages long. I haven't incorporated the textural edits I'd been making to the dummy book; indeed, I haven't finished making those edits and I just added more pages that haven't been scrutinized. 

     Robert sent me a name of a CIA spook, Mudd, to follow up on and educate the history of Nate Fisher. I want Nate involved in the U.S. Air Force on surveillance while on duty in Taiwan before leaving to become a SF detective. 

     Unlike Malcolm and Robert, I have no story board or plot map for RRA. It seemed to be no problem in AWM; the plot wrote itself as I discovered what I would do as the characters discovered. But I am lost in RRA because I haven’t decided on a climax yet. Right now, Nate will be discovering his estranged daughter is a high-priced call girl. She will be based on Simone's friend, Victoria that had some notoriety in Taiwan for her big boobs in the early millennium before her career deflated. The mother of Nate's child sold her up as a model when she was young and that was her demise. Nate finds her in a high class call girl and they realize they are father and daughter. He ends the novel with her at his side on the plane back to SF, AIT issuing her a replacement passport for the one her mother stole. I have to write about what I know. I'm going to have to write some new text instead of borrowing from myself.

8-7-19

     I did more work on RRA the past few days adding nuance to Chapter 2, The First Three Murders; I may re-title the chapter "The First Three Auditions" in keeping the sardonic feel of the undercurrent. I don't know how I will incorporate Malcolm's Jade Menagerie obstructions but I want to; I haven't done it yet. Maybe I'll have the character "Malcolm" spit them out when he's there or let Nate or Chen talk about it in the third person. It would be cool if after all the ways are introduced, there is a flurry of revelation in the last few chapters. I have to create a timeline for Nate so I don't get mixed up. 

     Robert was helpful in brainstorming it with me by LINE last week. 

1.     Born 1955 Brooklyn. Moves to SF with family at aged 7. 

2.     Enlisted 1975. Sent to Taiwan after boot camp; 20 years old

3.     1976-1979 Air Force police in Taiwan; 21-25 years old 

4.     1980-1982- Monterrey Language school and CIA; 26-28 years old 

5.     1983-1989 Return to Taiwan as Air Force surveillance; 29-35 years old 

6.     1990- 2002 Joins SFPD as detective specializing in Chinese community; 35-47 years old

7.     2002-2004 Sent back to Taiwan to solve serial murder cases. 47-50 years old 

8.     2005-2009 Returns to U.S. to SFPD; 50-55 years old

9.     Retires; 55 years old. 

     Something like that. I also typed up a few more dates in Taiwan Teacher's Journal to be included in the E-E-O book. I looked over Smoke No Fire and Life's Progressive Movement that starts at Chapter 22 of SNF. Once I reduce the type size to 12, I might want to rejoin the manuscripts into one. 

8-8-19

 I finished editing Chapter 2 of RRA and tackled my desire to add Malcolm's Jade Menagerie subterfuge, but I did it as a power point presentation at a meeting of white CIA agents on Roosevelt Road. No Taiwanese agents were invited, not even Chen who is on the serial murder investigation team. Nate Fisher is disgusted by the racist stereotyping but is glad the room is darkened so no one can see the expression on his face. I say Malcolm's handbook is true but it doesn't only pertain to Taiwanese. In RRA, there will be instances of obstruction from the white boys more than the Taiwanese. In fact, they try to pin the murders on an innocent, but ignorant, victim: Darrow Shaw's character. It is gas-lighting, I think it's called. I'll work it out. But for now, the first two chapters are what I want; present infinitive tense is used for most of Nate's internal dialogue. I sent a draft to Malcolm who says he's confused by it. It has to be consistent for the reader to get readers' confidence.

     I was asked, after sharing Ch.2 in Messenger by Malcolm, "Why in the present?" I wrote:

He's living in the infinitive; everything hits him in the face. Only passive voice (something done by an other) and past perfect tenses (something that happened before something else in the past happened) are exceptions. Let me know if I miss (LOL) any. He is also running from the past and Sees no future.

I explained that In Brooklyn, we often use this infinitive tense to dramatize. It is most prominent in our reported speech which is not reported speech rules at all. For example, instead of saying. "He said he had lived in Little Falls before he moved to Taiwan" we would say: "He goes he lived in Little Falls before he goes to Taiwan." Nate Fisher, a displaced Brooklynite, carries that syntax with him through the air police, CIA, and detective career, only in his internal dialogue and to his homies. I hope the reader is flattered being welcomed into his world

The other characters, and Nate himself, do not use the infinite in conversation with each other; he only uses it when he is reporting to the reader.