I’m working on the last stretch of book-editing before I begin the process of querying. For now, I am optimistic. I am also in my own sort of writing cave that no one else can see because it’s in my head.
I actually write (on this book) less than an hour a day, I think about writing this book ALL DAY LONG. I pretty much live in Lola’s world. I’m continually trying to get to know her, to figure out how she feels about the major shifts that seem to be happening in her life. What’s a fifteen-year-old girl to do when her mother sinks into a deep depression and she suspects her father is having an affair, not to mention those crazy flashbacks to the concentration camp? The plot points are great but what I need her to give me is the FEELINGS. They’re starting to take shape. We’re almost there, Lola and me that is. I’m pretty sure Mark will be relieved when we do get there, so I’ll completely rejoin the Horner clan for a while.
It’s only recently that I get that thing people say about it taking a special person to be married to a writer. Lola’s been my excuse lately. Nothing’s wrong, I’m just thinking about the book. And it’s true! I can’t stop thinking about the book! But this is my last big shot at this author thing. If this doesn’t end up being my break-through novel, I’m not sure there will be one. It’s hard to put so much of your time and energy into something and find that it goes no where. I’ve done it 2.5 times before. I’ve queried agents for my other two novels as well as a book that would have been a compilation of the click stories here on this blog. I didn’t even get a foot in the door on any of those. This time around it’s just not going to be as easy to shove the book in a drawer and start a new one.
If this novel, working title Summer of Stars, gets published it will hopefully be the first in a trilogy. I’ve been thinking through the idea for about two years and writing it for about nine months. I’m very ready to write two more books about Lola and Ian if the publishing world is ready to accept them. So for the next few weeks I’ll continue to be in another world hoping that I can tell the story well enough to make the leap and earn the title that will make all these months of distraction worth it.