Gregory Blecha

I am a software architect living in southern Florida with my wife and some grown children (the exact number of grown children living at home fluctuates). We also have a cat. I toy frequently with the notion of getting a ball python, but am put off by a fear of commitment. There is a pond behind our house, affectionately and for marketing purposes referred to as a “lake”. The lake brings all sorts of urban wildlife into our backyard, such as hawks, turkey vultures, egrets, turtles and the occasional alligator. Every morning I engage in “toad rescue” and pull toads and other critters out of the pool. Recently I fished out a land crab, who was lording it up at the bottom of the pool and was not happy at the extrication.

Writing

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. In 1985 I wrote my first novel, which I titled “Blonde Sunrise”. I started on a notepad, but then graduated to typewriter, and finally moved to an Apple Macintosh. A few years later I wrote a play, in the style of Noel Coward, called “Jupiter Inn”. Both are now lost to antiquity (not Noel Coward – he still lives on, thankfully). I joined a writing community in Northern California, and submitted a few short stories to our publication called “The Mindprint Review”. Then, like a virus, the urge to write went dormant for almost two decades.

In 2003 my future wife and youngest son encouraged me to “write something” following a trip to Florida. I had been reading Salmon Rushdie and Umberto Eco at the time, so “writing something” meant “writing something that borders on the absurd”. Thus was born Love in the Time of the Apocalypse, which I wrote on spiral-bound notebooks at first, but then transferred to the computer whenever I had written thirty pages or more. I finished Apocalypse in early 2005, and in the process of shopping it around to agents and editors I received around 30 of the following:

I certainly can’t blame anyone for their lack of enthusiasm. To me, Apocalypse is a good read but a hard sell, although there are a few who think I’m only half-right in this assessment.

Dear Author:

Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, I was not sufficiently enthusiastic to feel I'd be the right agent for your work.

I never found a good agent and publisher. I self-published Apocalypse through iUniverse and set my sights on writing my next book, which I had begun in the winter of 2004. Seven years and several re-writes later, I am again ready to publish a novel through iUniverse. I gave no consideration to finding an agent or a publisher (this time it was I who wasn’t sufficiently enthusiastic). This second novel is titled The Land of Magical Thinking.

I’m already formulating the plot for my third book, which I am committed to completing in fewer than seven years. The book will incorporate elements of magic realism and meta-fiction like Apocalypse and Magical Thinking.

What I’m Looking for as a Writer

The biggest “literary thrill” I’d ever received is when the book club I belonged to chose Apocalypse as their monthly book selection. I had a chance to talk to my fellow book club members about why I chose a particular story line or plot element. The book club members made me feel like a craftsman.

I don’t know if I’ll get a shot at that again, but for just one time, it was worth it.