I’m working hard at my table here at The Backstory Cafe this morning. My iced mocha rests near the giant stack of papers and books in front of me. I’ve already decided that I’ll reward myself with the giant chocolate cupcake I see in the bakery display, if I stop goofing off and get my pages done for the day, that is. My motto for the week: KEEP WRITING!
The editing continues on my current manuscript, now that I have had a few comments back from agents. Chapter one doesn’t resonate with the same amount of suspense as the rest of the book, it turns out, so I’m rewriting. Again. I’m also giving the whole manuscript a complete “voice read.” I’ll find more places that need improvement, I’m sure, and then I’ll once again hit the streets with this project.
In the meantime, I’m also working on something new. Lolly Collins is a character that has been ready for a full-length project for a while now, and she’s bugging me for her shot. Lolly is an 83-year-old card-sharking, sass-talking, sneaky as hell detective genius. She is a frequent Confidential Informant for the police force of the rural Arizona town she grew up in. Lolly loves gin, both the card game and the booze, equally, and her ability to sniff out trouble is only slightly larger than her ability to create it. Lolly is on a new case, and I’m collecting her story as fast as I can. It’s hard keeping up with that woman!
I take a long sip of my iced mocha and look at the jumbles of papers on this table. It’s hard to tell if I’ve made any progress yet today, but as long as I keep writing I’ll be fine. Eventually, I’ll earn that cupcake.
