The hardest part about writing is… by Roger Peppercorn – Guest Blog and Giveaway


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The hardest part about writing is…

The hardest part about is more than a few things. The easy part is finding a topic that moves you. I think writers in general don’t struggle much with what to write about. There is a story each of us wants to tell but the hardest thing I think is to find your voice. There are hundreds of thousands of wordsmiths today and finding a voice that is unique to you and that captures the imagination and steadfast interest of the readers are hardest part of writing.

From the earliest of days philosophers and storytellers have found a way to leave lasting impressions that have stood the test of time. From Socrates to Whitman and Harper to Rowling the words they put on the blank page have lasted and inspired generations of storytellers through today and will inspire writers to the end of time. Their voices are as unique as the stories they craft.

To find it you must allow the words to appear on the page and without the noise of the world around you. You will know your own voice when you get out of your own way long enough to let the story come out of you.

I said there are few things and one of the other hard thing to do is knowing when to end the story and when to stop tweaking it. When I wrote my first book I read, deleted, added, moved and changed it so much that I realized at some point that I was one key stroke away from delete all. You always think there is something to add or delete. Put it down, let the story breathe for a bit and the next time you pick it up read it for the pleasure of the story. If you get lost in a story you have written then you’ve done your job. Give it over to the editor and let them help you make it better.

The last hard thing about writing almost anything is your readership or the lack of one. And then there are the comments sections. I have gotten reviews that give me the impression I may just be the next great American novelist and I have gotten reviews that point in an entirely different direction and make me rethink my choses in life.

The point is this not everything you write or create will resonate with an audience. Your voice is in there somewhere just let it come out and when you are through it won’t be perfect but it will be yours and you will have gotten something across the finish line that few people accomplish.

Thank you to Long and Short Reviews for a spot in your guest blog
Roger Peppercorn

With the drop of a judge’s gavel, Walt Walker has finally lost everything. The badge and gun he used to carry and the moral certainty of right and wrong, good and evil that used to keep him grounded. Now Walt, sans gun, gets his badges from an Army Navy store. He spends his days in South Florida, working for a boutique insurance firm as their investigator. He spends his nights in dive bars, trying to forget the mess he has made of his life.

Ronald Jacobs always preferred the title Human Resource Manger to Hitman. But now that he’s retired, he can concentrate on living in the shadows as a respectable gentlemen farmer. Far from the reach and pull of his past life.

Their transgressions are behind them but a chance encounter and a failed assassination attempt sets the two of them on a collision course of violence and retribution. Hunted by contract killers, the law, and corporate bag men, they are pursued across the unforgiving adobes and the sweeping vistas of the Mesa Valley in Western Colorado.

Survival means putting their past in front of them and their differences aside, because in this world the only thing that matters is to cast not others on the devil’s side of heaven, lest you be cast in with them.

Enjoy an Excerpt

A little after midnight on a clear and cold morning in March, Jimmy Dix parked his car three miles from the farmhouse. From here it would all be on foot. The sky, dark and overcast, would cover his approach to the farmhouse situated in the adobe desert, fifteen miles from the little town of Loma, CO. His target presumably would be asleep and unaware of his impending death.

Big Max Benson had been clear in his instructions. The job had to be tonight. Jimmy hadn’t bothered to ask why. Fifteen thousand dollars had been more than enough to silence any idle curiosity he may have had. And the promise to convert all the red ink that bore Jimmy’s name in Big Max’s ledger to black had been the clincher. He had driven fifteen hours in a rental car he had picked up in a hotel parking lot just outside of Billings, MT. In the trunk, Big Max had left a cut down 12 gauge shotgun, an AR-15 and a 9 mm pistol. Each weapon had come with more than enough ammo to do the job. Jimmy had brought along his own set of NVGs for the nighttime raid.

He sat in the car, staring out the windshield, thinking about the three mile hike he had in front of him. The car heater was cranked up to high. The dashboard clock read 12:02; the hike would take him about an hour. He thought about the task at hand. After he arrived, he would need probably thirty minutes to scout his final approach plus maybe another fifteen to twenty minutes to get set up. Maybe another five minutes to carry out the job. Jimmy did the math in his head and figured that worst case scenario, he would be back in the car no later than 4 a.m. This would leave him more than enough time to get clear of the area. Jimmy smiled at the thought of coming in under the cover of darkness, killing someone and then leaving under the same veil before any cops showed up.

About the Author: Roger Peppercorn has suffered for the better part of his life from wanderlust and this need to see the other side of the horizon has taken him to all parts of the world. The people and backdrop of his travels have served as the inspiration behind his characters and storytelling.

As a child, his mother taught him to read and write. His father’s collection of Louis Lamour novels provoked the fantastical images in his mind and the romance of the written word. In the seventh grade, his history teacher brought the characters of a bygone era alive. From that point on, Roger began to hone his skills in storytelling. After high school, Roger took a course in creative writing that was taught by a long haired hippy in a Hawaiian shirt.

Roger’s grandmother used to tell hypothetical tales of traveling across the plains in a covered wagon, the woes of having a son sent off to war, and the larger-than-life man she met at Pea Green Hall who later became her husband.

His first two novels “On The Devils Side of Heaven” and “The Sometimes Long Road Home” take place on the western slopes of Colorado, in the sleepy town of Fruita, where he grew up. They center on the strained relationships and sorted histories of three characters – Walt, Ronald and Jessica, and violence that erupts around them.

Roger is married and is a father of four beautiful children. He currently calls South Dakota his home.

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Comments

  1. Thanks for hosting!

  2. Sounds good, love the cover.

  3. bernie wallace says

    Who is your favorite literary character of all time?

    • You know Bernie I’m not sure I really have just one. The Sackett characters Louis Lamour created is still special to me. But I also got into the Travis McGee novels in my teen years. But if I had to pin it down to just one character it would probably be Dave Robicheaux created by James Lee Burke. Thanks for the question.

  4. I love reading new books!

  5. Good morning and thanks to Long and Short reviews for hosting today.

  6. I agree, each author has a distinct voice; it’s just a matter of finding it. Excellent post!

    • Thank you for the feedback and I am glad you liked it. The voice of a writer is so important to the storytelling. With all of the writers and books out there it can feel a bit daunting to find something that is yours and set apart from what is already out there. It’s hard to not sound like the authors that influence your style but not impossible. The most important part is the voice you right with be authentic to the story and characters in it.

  7. I liked the excerpt.

  8. Good afternoon. Sorry for the lateness, but I’m experiencing some technical difficulties. Thanks to Long and Short Reviews for hosting this event today.

  9. Diana Hardt says

    I liked the excerpt. It sounds like a really interesting book.

  10. James Robert says

    Great post and I appreciate getting to find out about another great book. Thanks for all you do and for the hard work you put into this. Greatly appreciated!

  11. What do you most enjoy about writing in this genre?

  12. Sounds like a good read

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