After finally finishing my latest novel, I see a whole new set of beginnings coming with it. No time to revel in joy for completing the novel, I’m already looking for that new spark in the wilderness of imagination.

But first, I must reset the way I do things.  Productivity this past year was in the shitter.  I could rail on with a few dog-ate-my-homework memes.  Birth of a new grandson a few months ago, and losing a father-in-law in past weeks would certainly headline the list. Too many times I found myself looking back to say WTF.

 

 

I made a commitment to finish the book, “The Gravity of Light”, by October. That slipped to November, which then slipped to December. In order to keep up between life events, I slowed my Twitter and Facebook posts, and let this blog lapse for a couple months to focus on typing those final chapters.  Didn’t help matters I was already on version four, and heading into version five after realizing I was caught in a blizzard of plot holes.

 

 

I’m also a slow writer. Yeah, I’ve read all those writer blogs that espouse the benefits of ‘catching-the-story-express’, forget grammar, pacing, scene descriptions, et al.  Just ain’t my style. It’s the ever present ADD muse in me that prefers to stay on the platform.

 

 

But it’s done. After more than a year (okay, it was two years), slogging through undiscovered country, I reached the rainbow. I removed hundreds of notes from the margin, changed multicolored sentences to black, and put a nice header on it.  Now, it will make the rounds with agent, author friends, and significant writerly-others I trust.

 

 

With an ending, come new beginnings.

First up, reflect on how I got to this point. What worked? What didn’t? The part that always works is my long term affair with a muse who has always been there for me, that magic that steals the hours like the orchestral Bolero, where every facet of the song has its unique moment. Far from a perfect muse, though, it has a terrible habit of exploring dirt roads off the main highway in search of something new and different, only to get mired in literary mud in the middle of BFE and a signpost to nowhere. It took five versions with a story thread that didn’t reveal itself until I was damned near finished. Me and the muse gotta work on that.

Next up, I need to revamp this blog. I’ve been doing the “green-thing” for way too long. It’s time for some light and bright. I’ve avoided it because it takes time – time away from writing, time away from the muse, who is an impatient son-of-a-bitch and insists on every free moment of creative time available. I also need to get back to posting more often than every-once-in-a-while with a schedule more diverse than earth’s insect species. It’s a necessary evil to engage an audience, and I love Pinterest, but I have to suck it up and dispense with my quasi anti-social media presence when it comes to Twitter and Facebook. Just don’t ask me yet to join Instagram, nobody is interested in seeing pics of what I ate.

Finishing “Gravity” signals the beginning of Part 2.  It’s not a series, but I couldn’t finish the protag’s journey in one book, which focused on discovery. Upside is that I’ve already penned a few chapters, something I did when Part 1 wallowed in creative muck, waiting for a literary tow truck.

 

 

Finally, I need to do more short stories, like ‘Snow Belt Sanctuary’, featured in BWG’s Author Roundtable for winter 2017. And next year, I’ll be conducting an hour long seminar, Pinterest for Writers, at the GLVWG WriteStuff Conference™ on March 23, 2018.

So, that’s my New Year’s resolutions. Let’s hope I live up to it.

 

 

 

Oh, and Happy New Year to all of you.