Got It

Finally got it – YA novel #3. (Novel 0, forever in a box, doesn't count.) The characters, plot & the premise have finally come together. 

Bobsledding is off-season, but this is how I feel, that the key elements have aligned, that the team for novel #3 is ready. Kinda a long time in coming. #3 is based on a screenplay from forever ago that I never produced. But it's narrated by a new guy, a character in LUCKY, novel #2.

And the premise is different. Mostly, it's fun. Which in the past I might have thought was superficial... but... Sometimes a good ride is just what we want. So #3 is out of the gate, a chapter a week. 

How about you guys, how's your novel-writing team?

(photo from winterolympics)

Squawker

So many voices. Those who believe in us, those who want us to write only what they want to read, those who encourage, those who squawk.

When I was a kid, seagulls meant beach vacations. How cool that I now live by the ocean and for the first waking minutes of most days I think I'm on vacation. Usually. Sometimes the squawking is ugly.

I'm wondering if that might be similar to the voices around our writing. How cool that people care enough to voice opinions about our work? How cool that we're not in this alone? So what if not everyone uses the words we'd like. Our job is to hear what they're trying to say and not how they're saying it. And to those other squawkers in our lives... the people who are difficult for whatever reasons? They're just a small part of the flock.

Thank you to all the voices. May we hear them as if we're beginning a beach vacation, open and full of possibility.

How to you deal with squawkers?

(photo from Royalty Free Stock photos)