MY WRITING PROCESS.
1) What am I working on?
I am presently working on a story about three friends that I knew when I lived in South Africa. Their stories are terribly sad, with endings that are difficult to accept, one actually being supernatural. They are stories however that should be told, whether the reader believes them or not.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
It’s not easy to say which genre my stories belong to. I can only say that I am a fan of Somerset Maughn, and try to write as he did. The only problem I have is that I find it difficult to describe a tree in two paragraphs. I tell the story as it happened, and tend to cut out the descriptions. My vocabulary is also not excessive, and I use basic words not words where a reader will have to use a dictionary to find out what it means. The ‘Scintallate scintillate tiny asteroid’ is simply to me ‘twinkle twinkle little star.’
3) Why do I write what I do?
At my age, there is plenty of time on my hands that has to be filled, otherwise I will die of boredom, or golf, when I miss a six inch put. I decided to keep my day busy by writing stories about people I knew, and stories I had heard from customers when I practised as a Pharmacist. Many of my stories in the book, BRAKENSTROOM, are two even three stories combined into one. They all actually happened even though one publisher replied that the story of Tzippie was to unreal to have happened. But it did happen. My uncle was the Doctor at the mental institution, and he told us what happened and why he and his wife adopted this little girl for approximately 8 months, eventually introducing her to her parents. Tzippie would almost once a moth join us for a Friday night supper.
There are many more stories that I can tell. The VASE with the MANY COLOURED MARBLES is a story I promised Emma (not her true name) that I would tell only after she had died. Her daughter Marla (not her true name) gave me the OK to go ahead with it.
And so I write about people I knew, treated, cured and met in my life in Potchefstroom. Writing a story can take many years, all written in my spare time, when I am bored with nothing else to do.
4) How does my writing process work?
I write when I have nothing to do… when there is no decent movie on Turner Classic Movies that I want to watch. Because I trade the stock market during the day, and living on the Pacific Coast, I have to get to my desk by 6am in the morning after an exercise routine, then a shower and shave, I wake at 5am. This means that I go to bed at 8pm. At my age, I need that 8 hour sleep every night.
So I write my stories when I am not analysing the market or writing an analysis of a stock for a company in the United States to keep my hand updated and correct. Today, I have become an expert at Elliott Wave and Gann analysis, with the result that I have many followers who email or phone me for advice.
As a young boy, I loved reading Isaac Asimov. I will never forget his words when a person asked him, “Mr. Asimov, if you knew that you were to die tomorrow, what would you do?” He replied, “I would type faster.” Unfortunately that is me. My daily enjoyment is walking the dog, and in that hour chatting with many, but MANY friends in the doggie park, then coming home and at 5pm enjoying a Johnny Walker on the rocks. Two fingers of scotch, the spread between the first and the fourth finger.
Do look at the following website.
www.jacobashersinger.com
http://www.bryanmurphy.eu/,
Thank you.
Jacob Singer
