My brain is mush. This is the kind of symptom one can expect when writing back to back first drafts. Would I do it over? Probably not, although I didn’t choose the novels. They chose me.
After finishing Novel X (102,000 words, and which falls clearly into the category of thriller), I started upon a new project titled The Prairie’s Lament (82,000 words). This novel is more literary, with a heavier emphasis on inner conflict. Two different novels, and that’s okay. I had to tell both stories, and wrote them between December 1, 2011, and April 14, 2012.
It’s been one heck of a productive winter, and I look forward to a spring of editing. Editing has always been far more relaxing for me. First drafts are all passion and exhilaration.
I’m excited to get the novels to my agent. Novel X should be in her hands in a month, after several editing passes. Am I really calling it Novel X? No. That’s a temporary name. I’m sort of gun-shy about releasing the title of that one. Maybe soon. The shocking thing is Novel X does not take place in Montana (lol), a state I’m infatuated with. Invasive and The Prairie’s Lament take place there. Novel X is set in the Chicago suburbs, inside a super mall (Bridgefield).
It’s shaping up to be an excellent spring.
BTW, here’s a great track I’ve been enjoying by a band called *shels. It’s titled “Leaving the Plains”, and is found on their 2011 release The Plains of the Purple Buffalo. The track was in heavy rotation during my first draft of Lament.
