Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You

I have been working furiously on a new novel, The Breaker, which I hope to publish later this year.  Writing is an interesting, solitary career choice.  You can bounce story ideas off of others, but most of the work is done inside your own head, in which you question your character actions and the way the tale will progress.  Since the book is located in a place I have vacationed twice, I am paying attention to the geography of the area even though I already changed the location of one location, in a move to add more detail to the chapter in which the event occurs.  It is interesting to write about things empathetically when you have never experienced them in your own life.

Ace in the Hole

In the course of editing, revising, and prepping Heart Trouble for publication, I completed two additional novels.  I’m either an overachiever or a masochist, but any regular follower of mine knows that I have a lot of spare time on my hands.  My latest novel, at 70,000 words, is the longest thing I’ve written since I completed TheArt of Love.  Now the fun begins, sarcasm included at no additional cost.  Editing is always a fascinating process—some passages you read over and think, “That’s pretty good—I wrote that!” while other times you review a paragraph and scornfully question, “Was I lucid when I typed that?”  Typos are a fact of life, but I always find myself worried about the inevitable continuity errors.  I’ve been lucky in that regard, considering I write on-the-fly with the outline existing only in my head.  Little wonder I don’t sleep well, huh?  It’s hard to turn that neon sign of thought and creativity off.  This recent novel also branched into a genre I’d never touched on before, adding an element of danger and suspense to the proceedings.  I’d actually envisioned Kentucky Summer as a suspense thriller before the characters led me in a completely opposite direction.  I’m still not sure I did the genre justice, but it was nice to have my characters thrown together against their better judgment and working toward a common goal.  And now I work toward my next goal—getting published again.