Hallelujah! Two blogs in two days. This calls for celebration. Maybe I will sit down and write. More likely, since it is late (after midnight and, therefore, technically not blogging two days in a row, but it is only a few minutes into the new day so "what the hey") I will have a glass of wine, stare at the screen and hope for a few words, a phrase, a sentence, perhaps even a paragraph. If I accomplish the last it will be a good evening. However, a sentence is a victory also.

A writer cannot pooh-pooh only getting a sentence constructed, especially if it is a good sentence. That's what Hemingway believed. As you may have read in my short paragraph about Willa Cather on my favorite authors page, Hem said he was only trying to write a perfect sentence. That line is in the Cather section because I believe she wrote more of them than anyone else I have come across.

If you get the chance read through my list of writers. I would love to receive some comments about and challenges to my list, and I would like to hear about other people's favorites. As we know, no one is loved by everybody, nor hated by everyone. As Abraham Lincoln said, "...you can't please all of the people all of the time." I know I certainly can't.

I do hope, however, that everyone is having a great weekend.

Procrastination Multiplied

It only appears that I have been lazy. I really haven't been as idle as it might seem. Yes, it has been almost a year-and-a-half between my second blog and this one. As I mentioned in that earlier effort, I had just finished a fifth rewrite of Hathaway. Now, I have finished a sixth that includes breaking the original down from one long novel into three shorter ones. The "new" book is drawn from the first 200 pages of the initial effort, and focuses on the first mystery in that novel. With a bit of expansion it reads at 249 pages and 104,000 words. One of the nice things is that I now 50% of a second novel finished and about 80% of a third completed. Also, I have a fourth idea for Hathaway rolling around in my clouded brain.

I was told by several people, including my mysterious agent (more on that in a later blog) and a reader she hired, that the original Hathaway was too long for a first novel. I had been having the same thoughts for some time. Ergo, I set to work to turn one novel into three. It was more of an effort than I anticipated. As most of you realize, you don't just cut a book into three equal or easy parts. Events take place in the first story that are referred to or not even resolved until later in the original longer version. Those all had to be cleaned up. Other circumstances needed to be expanded and, in a couple of cases, shortened. Anyway, that endeavor is now complete.

That does not mean that I am finished. I have hired an editor out of Asheville, North Carolina to go through the manuscript and work with me on making it even more appealing to publishers and readers. She has a strong reputation and an excellent track record, so we shall see if Hathaway makes the elusive journey from personal manuscript to published novel.

Stay tuned for the results...and thanks for reading.