Ideas and New Beginnings

Whenever I finish a novel, I wonder if I’ll be writing another one, or if it’s time to “retire”.   Even mentioning the word makes Rick a little nervous.  “You’re not a happy camper when you’re not working on a project.”  Really?  What happens if I don’t feel the Lord nudging me into another project?

I have writer friends who can do multiple projects at the same time.  I also know a few who can do more than one book a year.  Some write in only one genre, others in several.  I’m in awe.   I can only manage one book at a time and it takes eighteen to twenty-four months to “finish” it and then sometimes I have to rethink what I thunk in the beginning, not that thunk is a proper word.  Sometimes it takes me six months before I start to “process” the story, let alone start writing the first sentence.  Part of the time I’m arguing with God.  Are You sure that’s the direction You want me to go?  Because I don’t really want to go there, Lord. 

Bridge to Haven is in Tyndalean hands, going through copy and line editing.  So this is “down time” for me.  I feel like I’m treading water in the fog.  Where’s land?

Rick’s words are sadly true.   It’s only been a few weeks and already I’m restless, edgy.

While I’m waiting for an idea that will grab my imagination, I’m sorting and reorganizing family photographs, telling myself I’m tackling this project to save our children the trouble after we’ve departed this world for the next.  I’m redoing my files, “spring” cleaning, turning the earth in the back yard and starting a vegetable garden, running “errands” (road trips) around town, playing ball with Sarge (our German Shepherd), working my way down the TBR pile of books, watching movies into the night, gathering and storing all the research-resource-pictures-maps-binders of materials from the completed project into a storage bin to be moved to our storage unit.

In reality, it’s a way of to stay sane while spinning wheels before the race starts.  Whenever that will be.