I think it was Faulkner who said that he set out wanting to be a poet, but he wasn’t good enough, so he became a novelist instead. I could say something similar. I started out dreaming of being a poet, then tried being a novelist, before ending up as a columnist. It turns out those little 600- to 700-word stories fit me well. At this point, I have written several hundred of them, and I hope to continue.
In the fall of 1983, I was taking some writing courses at LSU in Baton Rouge, La. I was two-thirds of the way through a long novel I was writing that was loosely based on the Patty Hearst kidnapping. It was moving along well, and my instructor, the novelist Warren Eyster, was encouraging me to finish and get it published. But I had another idea for a short novella, 100 pages tops, that I could finish in a short burst. So, I put Random Murders aside and began to work on An American Impressionist.
Seven years later and a continent away, I finally completed the last sentence of An American Impressionist, in San Francisco, in a downtown studio apartment looking out toward the Golden Gate. An American Impressionist was in my imagination for seven years, and I came to love all those great American impressionist painters from the 19th century — Childe Hassam, William Merritt Chase, Mary Cassatt.
I found a literary agent who liked my novel, and for awhile I was flying high, like Icarus, but we know what happened to him. A few editors liked it, but never enough to publish. So I put it back in the drawer where it shall likely always remain.
The hero of An American Impressionist is a painter named Carter, who like the hero of most first novels, is a stand-in for the author. I lived alone in a small apartment looking out on the city, and he did also. Only his loneliness occurs 100 years earlier and the city is New York , not San Francisco. Carter has to choose between an ecstatic vision of art and a normal life, something I was thinking about as well at the time. Maybe it was a false choice; I’m still not really sure. I met someone not long after, got married and had a family, all of whom are now reading in the other room, while I type away in the study. I continued to try to make art with words, and every now and then I think I’ve succeeded. And still, An American Impressionist has stayed with me. Carter and I, we’re both a couple of painters of the American scene, impressionists of our own lives.
Thank you Walt for setting this up, the loss of the recipe du Jour including your Saturday contributions has left a void in my morning reading. Great idea to keep us all connected for when Rich and Tim return to our screens.
I miss you, Rich and Tim so much. I wish the best for all of you and pray things turn around for Rich quickly.
Miss reading the e zine…….Can’t count the years I have read your stories, recipes, etc. Please return to us. We miss you all….
Walt, thanks for letting us know what is happening.
Yvonne
A) It’s your hair, so do as you please!!!! The family will let you dye it purple, if that’s what you want!!!! Thank God Family Love isn’t depending on how we look!!!!
and 2) One of these days, you should open the drawer and take another look at what all’s in there. You may be surprised….
Thanks, Walt. Some of us think you’re a heck of an artist.
ryal….love me
Please put me on your mailing list
Thanks for letting us keep our friendship alive during the hiatus!
Thank you, Walt for doing this for all of us….Tim And Rich..we’re just out here with prayers in our hearts and positive thoughts in our minds..that you’ll be back with us soon..
The computer misses you, too!!!!
Semperfi!!
What a wonderful surprise to get the update email and the link to this website. I am hopeful that all of you will be well, be happy, and be back with us soon.
Hello from the BigHorn Mountains of Wyoming…
Thank you for “keeping us all together”! Miss all of you!
Have been reading all available for years – one of the first sites I “found” when I got a computer!
Yes, will request an email notice. Thanks again!
As to the hair issue – try it! Might be fun and if not, it’ll grow back!!
Linda
Walt I always like to read your work. I feel you capture the simplicity of America with your words as Norman Rockwell did with his paintings. Saturday was always a treat for me to get your column and I would forward it to my sister telling her she just had to read this one! I like Tim’s tips also and would like to see it resurrected sometime when Tim feels ready.
Thanks for setting up the blog, Walt. I have subscribed to some of the best recipes to come out of my kitchen for more years than I care to think. I hope Tim and Rich will be back soon. Wishing them the best!
Andralla
Thanks, Walt, for keeping us in the info loop! I truly enjoy reading your column, as well as all the comments from Tim and Rich. I look forward to seeing them again soon! Thanks again!
P.S. It’s only hair! Thank God, it grows back, even when you cut it off. I’m sure your family looks beyond the hair to the real you!
Hello Walt~This is such a good idea and gives all of us, your faithful readers, a chance to know what all of you are doing. Please send our best wishes to Rich and Tim. We miss you guys!!
Thank you so much for tracking me down! I am so happy to read your blog and to connect to Rich and Tim and you through it. It’s nice, also, to see the comments of other readers. I hadn’t realized how much a part of my morning Recipe du Jour had become. What’s that old Mills Brothers song: “You Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry” or something like that. (I was en-utero when my father played it on his 78.) I look forward to your blog.
Toni in Yakima
I love your “little” pieces, Walt. I truly miss RDJ for the recipes as well as the writing by all three of you. As for the American Impressionist and your longer works that remain unpublished and unshared with the rest of us, please go find my friend Edward C. Patterson on line and request a copy of his little book, “Are You Still Submitting?” (The actual title is longer, but that’s the only one of his books that is titled that way.) It’s a marvelous little book to help you get yourself published without any monetary cost to you. If you order the book in electronic format such as Kindle or Sony Reader, Ed will even send you the copy for free — I’m not sure he does that for paper copies, but it’s cheap enough to buy one. I truly hope you will do this because I want to read what you’ve written and I’ll bet I’m not alone. You would actually have a ready-made reading public because of RDJ, you know.
Thanks, Peg. I’ll look into that.
Walt
I’m thrilled that you and Tim have set up this way to continue the journey! Whatever way you all decide to go, I’ll follow!
It’s nice to have your words in a place where they’re easily pointed to.
You have the ability to put down in words the feelings I hold inside, an ability I lack.
I’m glad that I’ll be able to easily share them with others now.
So glad to have all of you gradually coming back together.
Thanks, Walt for keeping us in “the loop” about things. Great that you convinced Tim to join the blog.
Thanks for all the reading enjoyment you provide .
The last one that I read was like a syi-fyi thriller. I once worked in a bookstore with a guy that really liked it – he was weird. comes off that way to me.
Mr. Mills,
I am delighted to have found this blog. I have read At the Middle Passage for some time, and look forward to reading more of your writing. Made my day!