Edit, edit, edit, agree to more remodeling projects, neglect the blog AGAIN. Thank God this blog isn't a child, pet, or plant. It would have run away long ago (except the plant...the plant would have given a last, dusty gasp and given up the ghost).
Two more grant proposals to go this season; when I'm not focused on them, I am drastically revising a novel I originally wrote in 1999. Originally called The Cool Side of the Pillow, it is now Mandatory Release, now undergoing its third or fourth major overhaul. I refuse to let it die because I love it, my agent loves it, and some of my beta-readers liked it better than Driving Sideways. Also, it has the first sex scene I'm comfortable with my mother reading.
(Though I don't think I'd integrate that into the marketing plan..."All sex scenes in this book are mother-approved!")
Anyway, I applied for a grant to expand my research and editing, and I'm even visiting an open house at a prison for correctional employee week. I'd rather go to Europe to develop a sequel to Driving Sideways, but unfortunately, the new book features characters who work in a prison, not a patisserie.
I know. What was I thinking?
Regardless, I'm having so much fun with it. I haven't cracked this one open since 2008, so it feels like reading a new book. (Did I actually make a joke about Larry King's scrotum? Why yes, there it is in chapter 28!)
If I weren't so impatient, I might adopt this strategy for all of my future novels: set them aside for several years before that final edit so they feel fresh and I can look at them with a critical eye, mercilessly gutting scenes that feel stale or pointless.
I'll be in the market for a web developer soon, so if you can make any recommendations, please let me know. (I still have events on my website from 2009. Think of all the celebrities who were still alive back then!)
There is also the possibility that my cover art will be designed by the same person who did the covers for some of Dr. Oz's books. I'm trying really, really hard not to "Squee!!!" about that here.
I can't wait to release this one into the big, wide world.
