After a lot of thought about what to do next, I think I'm ready to begin work on a new book, something in the genre of creative nonfiction this time. The last five or six years have been slam full of projects, mostly nonfiction, Southern-related and/or student-written. I haven't lacked for something to do since about 2004--- especially since my kids were born in 2005 and 2008. With Children of the Changing South coming out last month, and with work on "You Can't Know Where You're Going" winding up for the February performance at AUMLAC, these questions of what to do next are finally arising.
Some people have suggested that I write novel, too. (It is often assumed that, when I say that I have five published books, I mean that I have published novels, which isn't the case. I have zero published novels to my credit.) I tried to write a novel once, in the late 1990s, and it didn't turn out very well. I was trying to write something unique, and I succeeded at that -- there was nothing else like it . . . but it wasn't any good. After several rejections from a variety of presses, one very detailed rejection came that finally helped me realize (and admit to myself) that my first attempt at being a novelist hadn't worked out. Normally, accepting rejections is difficult, but I was actually thankful for that one, because it helped me move on to write something else. I doubt if I'll ever fool with writing novel-length fiction. I find real life, especially life in the South, far too interesting.
My ruminations on what to write next have revolved around not only my interests but also around the massive changes in levels of technology, types of media devices, and the book business in general. Should the next thing be a book or something to be published on the web, I have wondered. Did I want to write a play or a screenplay, something that would be performed, not read on paper? As for subjects, ideas that I have mulled over have included writing a book about Auburn football or about life on Lake Martin, two of my more recently adopted pastimes. I also have considered focusing my effort again on something student-centered, like coordinating a student-written web project on Alabama writers in the vein of the Mississippi Writers & Musicians web project originally created by students at Starkville High School. On a completely different note, I have thought about researching something related to Catholicism in the mostly Protestant South, since I am now in the process of joining the Catholic Church. Finally, some part of me has considered spending some time just doing interviews, instead of writing, to alleviate the matter of what to write; yet another part of me has considered focusing solely on academic work, like literary criticism, which would provide the basis for the content of the work.
Some people have suggested that I write novel, too. (It is often assumed that, when I say that I have five published books, I mean that I have published novels, which isn't the case. I have zero published novels to my credit.) I tried to write a novel once, in the late 1990s, and it didn't turn out very well. I was trying to write something unique, and I succeeded at that -- there was nothing else like it . . . but it wasn't any good. After several rejections from a variety of presses, one very detailed rejection came that finally helped me realize (and admit to myself) that my first attempt at being a novelist hadn't worked out. Normally, accepting rejections is difficult, but I was actually thankful for that one, because it helped me move on to write something else. I doubt if I'll ever fool with writing novel-length fiction. I find real life, especially life in the South, far too interesting.
For the next book, I've got a subject and a title in mind already, a little kernel that is focusing my thinking, for a work of creative nonfiction, something contemplative, a mix of experience, research and reading that will explore and consider manifestations of power and its uses in the South, including portrayals in literature. After all, works of fiction are almost as real to many Southerners as reality itself, especially since a lot of "reality" in the South involves some pretty intense fictions. My friend Sonny Brewer once told my students, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."
I expect that this new book will take a few years to complete. Most of the others have taken about five years from starting to make notes to holding a book in my hands. So, with any luck, I'll have an announcement to make in 2016 or thereabout . . . Wish me luck!
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