Chapter 84: What Happened to Halloween?

The evening's festivities are over, and my wife and I are settling in for our annual Ghost Hunters live event. I don't know if it was the drizzle and rain or something else, but this year's Halloween was disappointing.

Not many kids stopped by in their costumes. We have too much candy left over. And even the costume creativity seems to have taken a nosedive. I'm just not that impressed.

I used to look forward to Halloween as a kid. It was a night to go out after dark, explore, get candy, and goof around. I looked forward to seeing what others would wear and, in case I forgot to mention it, getting candy.

This year it was a Saturday night. I expected more children, not fewer. Are people afraid to let their children roam a neighborhood?

Now that I'm a father, I look forward to taking my girls around the neighborhood. I think I might even enjoy dressing up to give people a little scare as well. Forget the associations with paganism and satanism that some people place on this celebration of individuality, Halloween is Mardi Gras for children. It should be cherished and enjoyed.

Chapter 83.7: My 9/10 Novel

Living in northern New Jersey, it's difficult, if not impossible, to not think about the events of 9/11, 2001. Indeed, it's probably bad for your mental health not to think about it from time to time if you lived through it here. I suspect I will always remember exactly where in my commute I heard about the first plane hitting one of the Twin Towers. I chastised myself for assuming we were under attack — especially after the guy on WDHA amended his comments saying that it had been a small plane, not a large plane as he initially had heard.

In between the time I parked my car and turned off the engine and I entered my office, the second plane had hit the second tower. It immediately struck me: We're at war.

By 9/10, 2001, I had begun my first novel and written about thirty pages. I was stuck not on what to write next but when did my story occur. Was the time significant? On 9/11, I realized that we had just experienced an important line of demarcation in history; there is a pre-9/11 world and a post-9/11 world. From there, I had to determine how this affected my novel

I decided to use it obliquely. My novel begins on 9/10, 2000 and ends on 9/10, 2001. Because such attacks were barely contemplated by the average person, nothing more than faint glimpses of fear and omen are displayed. The story takes place in Hoboken, New Jersey, a town I know well that lies directly across the river from New York City. Ground Zero is within view. Indeed, the clouds of smoke and debris floated above the river after the towers fell.

Whether my oblique references to the tragedy of 9/11 should remain part of my novel — and not an overt focus of it — has been a frequent point of discussion with my initial readers. Usually I bring it up, but some of my readers have anticipated the question. I still think it's more than just a moment of inspiration; I think it's important to the story, subtle though it remains.

So, each year, I think a lot about the people who experienced 9/11 first hand. I lost a friend that day and thank God that I didn't lose more people who were close to me. I lost some innocence as well, which is largely what my novel is about — not my loss of innocence, but the nation's; or maybe it's that our eyes were opened to the terrible possibilities. And I reflect on those fictional people who mean so much today who came to life on 9/11.

With my young innocents at home, I have had almost no time to work on the latest novel much less to send my "finished" one out to agents. I respect their time and my own too much to look for representation when I don't have the time to respond appropriately if I should actually get an offer. It's like going fishing without the strength to reel in the fish.

Remember 9/11, my friends, in your own way. It's important for all Americans, regardless of political party or ideology.

Chapter 83.6: What to do?

Recently, my wife has been updating the Web site for her company. And that's gotten me to thinking about a topic I've had on my mind a lot over the past couple of years: Should I build a Web site for myself — my writing self?

I do a little freelance work. Having a Web site might be a good way to attract more work, though to be honest, the best way is to go out and pursue it, not expect it to come to a Web site others don't know exists.

Should I try to park my domain name now and come back to the site later, when I have published books to hawk? Perhaps. But my name is already being used by someone else (probably someone named Matt Sinclair), so what would I be saving? Perhaps the name of my first book. There may be sense to do that, but does that mean I'd have to create a new site for the second book? And what if the first book is never bought and published, but the second (or third or fourth) becomes my first "real" novel? Well, I don't really know.

Then, there's also the issue of having the time. If I'm to build a site, I need to take time to do it right. As those who've visited this blog and my writing-related blog, the Elephant's Bookshelf, know, I barely have enough time to habitate this little avenue of cyberspace, so adding one more rest stop along the highway probably isn't going to make the trip any smoother.

My hope is to eventually blend this and the other blogs into one primary site for me as a writer. But I believe it makes more sense for me to take what little time I have to actually write. I have work that could be done on my "finished" novel, and query letters to send out. I also have a second novel that's begun, which has characters locked en flagrante in Antarctica. Ok, maybe that's not quite true, but I think there was some love brewing when I was last mentally visiting that little spot of ice on the world.

So for now, I'll stick with my blogs. I don't need to spend money to park something when I can always get a new domain that's named something interesting. Hope no one minds.

Chapter 83.5: Meaningful Games in 2011?

My Mets are so done they're using the lines from the grill as their pinstripes.

Remember April? Back then, this Mets team was supposed to be the one that fans would look back on and say, "Remember that '09 club? Johan, Cy Young Award. Reyes, MVP. Wright, a Gold Glove and the solid gold leader of the team. Gary Sheffield came in and hit his 500th homer in April and then Carlos Delgado did the same in September, like Hall of Fame bookends. Even Billy Wagner, expected to be gone for the entire year, came back in August to solidify the bullpen with the best late-inning one-two punch the game had seen in a decade. That was the final ingredient that perfected the recipe. New York Mets, World Champs of 2009."

But no. Not even close. The Mets haven't had a meaningful game since before the All-Star break. Every single one of their so-called "core players" went on the disabled list: Reyes, Wright, Delgado, Beltran, Santana. Add to them Brian Schneider and Angel Pagan, John Maine and Oliver Perez. (Don't get me started about Perez!) Hell, even Alex Cora was lost for the season!

Abysmal. Thank God for the Washington Nationals.

Back in March, I had meant to do my annual season predictions. I had expected the Mets to come in second behind the Phillies, win the wild card, and advance to the World Series. But I didn't write it. There just wasn't enough time. I'm glad. It's bad enough that I'll admit that I thought this was going to be a good team. What's worse, Omar Minaya was signed to a three-year contract extension that hasn't even begun yet. This team is bad. The mechanic hasn't proven he can be fully trusted after several years under the hood. What's a fan to do?