• Tag Archives Bill Holm
  • The Writer’s Table

    Imbolc                         New (Bloodroot) Moon

    My table at lunch had more monks.  Word had got around that I was working on a novel.

    Brother Benet listed other writers who came from time to time to write, “John Hassler used to come here frequently, especially for his first 6 novels.”

    Brother Sebastian, stone and wood sculptor and the Abbey’s tailor, said, “Yes, he’d have readings. ”

    Great, I thought.

    “Bill Holm came here, too,”  Brother Benet said.  “And Kathleen Norris.  She’s back in Honlulu, now.”

    Father Michael added another, a guy who’s name they couldn’t remember, but “He’s an junior high English teacher and also works in a funeral home.”

    The lively and the dead.  Sounds like a good title.

    “Oh, yes,” Brother Benet said, “He got an MFA.  He wrote a book of short stories, all set in the funeral home.”

    We all got a chuckle out of that.  Must be a quiet place to write, that sort of thing.

    I admit I felt intimidated.  Bill Holm.  John Hassler.  Kathleen Norris.  Big names in serious literature and here I am writing a fantasy novel.

    Father Michael, it turns out, reads fantasy.

    I’m 25,000 words further along than when I got here and I think they’re pretty good pages.  Not great, but pretty good.  Having a long quiet time in isolation from the world is a great thing.  Wouldn’t want to stay from Kate and the dogs and the house like this too often, but it seems to be effective.  I might do it again.  Maybe when I’m finished and need to start revising.  Maybe then.

    Oh, yeah.  Then there’s the fact that both Hassler and Holm are dead.