Do you hear what I hear? A blog, a blog, sneaking in the night...

It's been far too long since I posted here, but it's been a weird month in writer's land for me. I've had several good bursts of energy to rework my middle grade manuscript, but in the between times, I've been unmotivated to work on it, so I have put off saying anything about it. I think it'll get done, but slowly, slowly.

I'm going to take an online class starting on New Year's with Barbara Samuel, one of my favorite authors. It's less about technique and more about inspiration and keeping on keeping on, it sounds like, and I think that'll be a good way to start the year.

I finished another short story, and considered entering it in the Writer's Digest short short story competition, but decided I had better chances sending it out on submission to some literary magazines, so I will do that after I polish it a little more, along with the other one.

Since the last time I wrote here, I came up with what I think is my best idea yet for a mainstream novel. I started and have written the first several chapters and am really pleased with it. I been wandering a bit in this area as I have struggled with voice and getting that really unique idea, but after some feedback and doing my first 5,000 words or so, I am really excited about this one.

It's going to be tough, but after telling my 18-year-old son about it and then hearing him describe it to my mom as "edgy," I am pretty excited. I haven't been able to find a single other fiction story like this, but I think it deals with an issue we'll see more and more in the next decade as "times they are a changin'."

I played the "What if?" game in my mind after a conversation with my son one day and it hit me, then I played the "What if?" game on paper with the broad topic, narrowing it down into many smaller questions, and I can see the potential for lots of story layers, but one "high concept" main idea, and that's a good thing, I believe.

So, that's been the last, um, month for me and writing. I'll try to do better updating here because I don't want to lose my three readers. ;)