Sunday, July 20, 2008

How Many Licks Does It Take?

A lot apparently.
It has been months since I've blogged. But that's because I've been writing. And writing and writing and writing. I have this illusion that I'll turn into a Stephen King or a Ray Bradbury one day. These men who can do three drafts and a polish and then send it off to be published. Maybe they can. For me it's six, seven drafts. And then I'm not sure. And the conference (SCBWI) is coming and I've got to have the pages ready and on and on.
Meanwhile life swirls around. A very complicated life that constantly intrudes on the solitude that writing needs to flourish. I don't remember writing, but each day I'm 20 pages ahead in my edits, rapidly approaching the finish of the draft. A pretty good draft. I think. I think.
So that's where I am. "The Pardy Boys: the Midnight Meeting Mystery" is almost done. I had a photo shoot today to get images together for the business card/ website. It was a lot of work, but so much fun, and from the looks of it, we got some great stuff.
Half of me thinks it's silly to have wasted so much time on images for a book that has not been bought. But it helps me visualize it, made me really think about the characters, and I think in today's web-aware world, it can't hurt.
More stories swirl, and short stories keep telling me how short and easy they'll be. Like bar sirens luring me onto rocky coasts. But I stick to the book, and after it's done, maybe I'll take a break and write a couple of short stories.
And after that, a trip to an oasis to do nothing but get a daily massage by a handsome Arab.