on being God...

How many people have you killed since we last spoke, Dave?

what the! oh... hello...

One? Two? Ten?

i'm not sure what you mean.

Come on, Dave, how many people have you killed since we were last here together?

umm, i don't know. was i supposed to kill somebody?

Sure you were! It's what writers do all the time. You get us interested in somebody, then you kill them off.

we do?

Don't get all coy on me. Of course you do! Tell me how many people die in the first chapter of your book, The Shadow Without?

hang on, that's different! that's setting scene. that's making the bad guy bad. that's--

How many?

a couple. i guess...

You guess?

well, it depends if you include the prologue...

How many die in the prologue?

i'm not sure. maybe twenty or thirty...

TWENTY OR THIRTY? Bloody hell, Dave, you've gone all mass murder on me!

that's ridiculous! it is a mining tragedy. the people die in a mining disaster. it's not murder.

Sure it is!

no, it isn't.

It is, and I'll prove it.

fine. prove away!

Drop the Prologue.

what?

Drop it. Or have the miners saved at the last minute. Don't collapse the tunnel on them.

the tunnel doesn't collapse on them!

Then how do they die?

it's a poisonous gas thing...

Murderer!

it's not murder, it's a tragic mining accident. bloody hell, it's based on a real life tragedy at Mt Isa where miners were poisoned in a terrible accident!

So, change history. Don't let those poor buggers die!

i can't change history! even though The Shadow Without is fiction, i want it to be based in some historical fact.

Why?

it adds to the relevance of the story. it grounds the abstract and the fanciful in a little bit of reality.

By killing people?

no, not by killing people! by using historical events, real tragedy as a base for actual fiction.

I say it again. Drop the prologue and stop killing people.

why do you do this? why do you come in here and annoy me with this kind of inane chatter?

Why do you kill people, Dave?

i don't kill people!

You writers are all the same! You have this corrupted kind of God complex. You create life just to take it away!

oh, for crying out loud! i'll drop the bloody prologue altogether! as long as it stops your whining!

Thank you, Dave, but...

but?

I am still worried about that first chapter...

what? what about the first chapter?

Those two people who die in it? Do they really have to die?

of over-cooked pasta and ideas that won't hold shape

Hey, Dave, good to see you back!

oh, it's you...

Yeah, I was just sitting in here wondering why you changed your blog description from 'These are the thoughts and musings...' to 'ideas and musings'?

really?

Uh, huh.

well, i wanted to make it closer to what i intended in the first place. see, thoughts and musings are a little too close in a literal definition but i had wanted to make a distinction between idle thought and actual method and i think the combination of ideas and musings gets that across better.

So you were editing your blog. I thought you'd only do that to your book?

only to my book? i wish. you see writing is about editing as much as creating the story. well, it is for me. ideas come to me easily enough, i don't have to look too far inside to get whole swags of things to write about, but they come to me in a very soft and pliable form. perhaps pliable is not even right; it's still probably too firm a word. my ideas come to me like over-cooked pasta. they squirm like worms within a bowl as i pick them up to taste their usefulness and drip and run from my fingers like watery sauce spread too thin over the same pasta. so i edit and edit again. some of my ideas hold their shape and succeed and others fall back into the bowl to remain simply as pasta. make sense?

I think so, yes. You edit your work and have a thing about pasta and pasta bowls.

*sighs* what are you doing in here, anyway?

I've been waiting for you to tell me more about this story of yours, The Shadow Without.

like what?

Like how this character, this Jetta Coorain, how he saves the new President's life.

you want to know all that without reading the book?

Go on, Dave. It's not too much to ask.

all right, but just this once. Jetta's grandfather is alerted to the presidents' danger and being an old man, has to enlist Jetta's help to save the Pres. and the bad guy finds out that Jetta's grandfather has found out and sets out to have both he and Jetta killed. so, of courses at some stage, Jetta will be faced with having to save either his grandfather or the president, perhaps the most powerful man in the free world...

Cool! Who's he choose?

remember what i said about reading the book?

Oh, come on, Dave! What if you edit that bit out of the story? Then I'll never know!

true. it could happen that way, then you'd have to make the decision yourself...

Myself? Who's writing this thing? Me or you?

me, hopefully. if i edit it out in this book, then i'll put it in the next book for you.

Thanks, you're a great help. At least I know the hero survives!

true, again. and that is the nature of heroes, but at what personal cost?

Personal cost? How much is this book going to cost me?

not you. the hero.

Oh, yeah. I get it. Who else dies?

no more. i'm just passing through on my way to my edits...

On your way to kill off someone, I bet!

on not being confusing...

Hi, Dave, good to be back here!

oh, it's you again.

So, you were telling me about your novel, The Shadow Without, and how it's not confusing...

was i?

Yeah, kind of like off the air...

off the air? we're not a radio station!

I know that, Dave. Between posts then! You were telling me about your book between posts.

no, i wasn't.

I know you weren't! We're just pretending, it's a figure of speech, it's like--

and you tell me my work is confusing...

Forget it! I never mentioned it!

good!

So, this book of yours, Dave, it's about a Shadow?

yes

A shadow that is without something?

yes

And you're not going to get all confusing on me?

no! it's not confusing

It's about a shadow and what?

the shadows are minor players. it's really about a man that has some different kinds of powers who happens to be the only person who can save the new president of the united states from being killed on a visit to aussie.

Dave, I don't want to get personal, but do you have a problem with capital letters?

that's a silly question. this is the net, this is a blog, it's not a book. any more silly questions and i'm outta here...

Okay, Dave. Relax a bit. These special powers, what are they, and why does this character have them? And who is he anyway?

that's better! Jetta Coorain is his name. he can talk to some animals, and understand what they say, a bit like Doctor Doolittle, I guess. and he can move with preternatural speed, like one of Anne Rice's vampires...

Hey! You just used capitals--

don't!

Didn't cross my mind. Back to these special powers, how are they possible?

Jetta's grandfather participated in some pretty heavy alchemical experiments that left his descendents with some 'out there' kind of mutations.

Yeah? What kind of experiments? What other mutations?

sorry, you'll have to read the book...

What's the President of the United States got to do with the story?

he's the target the bad guy is after.

When you write about the President, you do use capitals, right?

last chance, buddy!

Okay, okay... so, why the President?

because the bad guy is interested in the power attached to the man, not necessarily the man himself.

What if Hilary wins the election? She's not a man. Is that going to ruin the story?

not really. it'll just be her life that is under threat in the book.

Interesting. Look, it's killing me. I have to ask. Do you use ANY capitals in The Shadow Without?

that's it. i'm outta here...

of blog titles and things...

Well, thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Dave.

pleasure. what would you like to talk about?

I'm thinking the title of this blog for a start. What's that all about?

you mean, A man writes through?

That'd be it, Dave.

i guess it is just my take on the ephemeral nature of blogs.

So, you think blogs are short-lived, or is this a comment on the whole of the blogger world?

no, i don't think blogs are fleeting or short-lived but i wonder about the web-surfing culture or phenomenon. it is the casual reader who is the transitory element here...

Ah, this is a site for men then, transient men, to surf through?

what? why should it be restricted to men?

You tell me, Dave, it's your blog name!

the title refers to me. i will pass through on my way to my novel draft. well, i won't passs through, i will write a bit while i'm here, so i will write through. oh, and by the way, i'm a man. a man writes through. get it?

Oh, you could have been a bit clearer, couldn't you?

i didn't ask you to stop in here, mate! any other questions before i leave?

Um, this book you're writing, The Shadow Without, it's not as confusing, is it?