Week Three

Oh, my God, I’m starting week three already! I’d originally planned on having guests on by now, but I’ve been inspired. I have to tell you the story of Painted Wall*. Anyone who has been a writer for long has heard of National Novel Writing Month. I have dreams of one day taking part. Whenever November (NaNoWriMo) rolled around I had other writing that needed to be done. One year I decided to do a NaNoWriMo on my own. I picked March. Around the middle of December I began my preparations. I wrote out a scene summary, chose character names, mapped out where cities were in relation to each other, etc. March first I started in. By the end of the month I EASILY had 50,000 words done. To hit the end of the story, though, took me until April third. There were 75,000 words. I burned out. I poked at the project until perhaps June, but not in any kind of dedicated way. For the next two years I didn’t write a bit. I didn’t critique. I went to critique sessions, but had nothing to contribute, and probably didn’t give good feedback. After two years another idea came to me. I started a new project. Writing came back again. But Painted Wall* languished on my computer, ignored. Some stories were published. Others completed, rejected. Some not even finished, but still possible. And I mailed my mother-in-law a scene of Painted Wall every week. Same thing for my grandmother. The story was still alive. Two years ago I decided to buckle down and get it ready for a publisher by the end of 2017. That should give me plenty of time. Almost immediately I was handed the opportunity to co-write The Handy Wisconsin Answer Book. So, Painted Wall still sits. I’ve added thousands of words, polished the first third quite a bit, and hopefully I’ll have something to submit by the end of NEXT year. Yeah. Two years later than I’d hoped, but I’m still making progress. And Purple Crypt* awaits. So does The Brotherhood series, Walking Whiskers*, Ebony Sea, Siba, Lord of the Realm, and so many more. *Fake titles to protect the plot.