Just Stuff

Last night I was speaking on the phone with my father and he asked what I'm working on now. It's great that he's so interested in my writing career; it makes me feel wonderful and it's fun to talk "shop" with him for a few minutes now and again. But as I answered his question, I realized that for a writer, the answer is never a simple one.

I mean, if I was writing one book, and there was nothing else in the works, the answer might be easy. Short. Simple. But that's not the case.

Bear with me...

Just got the full Snowdance manuscript back from my editor, reassembled and with all changes to date. Now I've got to reread the novel, make any additional changes and send it back to her so she can format and submit it. Then, a galley copy will come and need to be read. Then, the print test copy. So there's still heaps to do with that one. It's not in the bag yet!

And I got my proposed cover for Snowdance the other night. It was beautiful, but not exactly what I had in mind. Some parts just didn't quite fit, so the art director, being wonderfully gracious and accomodating, is reworking the original cover. I've been holding my breath, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new cover. I know it will be perfect.

Between all of this, I'm contemplating preliminary edits for the next novel scheduled for release, Vineyard Mambo. It doesn't come out until March 1st but the time when I'll be editing will be during the holidays, so I thought I might just get a jump on this one. That's the plan, anyway. We'll see if it happens!

Oh, and I'm writing a new novel, called Hope Mountain. I'm fortunate to have a co-writer on this one, my darling husband. We are having a blast talking about the scenes, characters, plot and dialogue. He's got great ideas and the writing is going really, really well. I'd like to have this finished by the time Snowdance releases, but that depends on how fast our grass grows!

Because really, writers are just ordinary people, who have to cut grass, cook dinner, shop for groceries and do all the other stuff that everyone else does. It's sometimes hard to squash everything in, but it's always rewarding to be able to do what I love, with the people I love all around me. So, if our grass grows really, really fast, Hope Mountain may not be done until September. Or, if we spend lots of time dancing beneath the stars, edits might have to wait--and you know, that's what I'm hoping for. Let the edits wait. The novels will keep. I'm all for dancing with my man. :)

So really, I guess my dad got a bigger, more convoluted answer than he expected to get. The behind-the-scenes aspect of writing, the stuff involved, is sometimes a mouthful.

But then, it's the stuff that life, and dreams, are made of...