As previously mentioned too many times to mention again, yet here I go, the past few years have not been as fruitful as I would have liked them to have been. I did manage to eke out a couple of literary amuse-bouche, a long short story and novella, to whet your appetites and hopefully keep you hungry for more, but I’ve come up sorely short on the novel front.

That will change this year.

Mark my words and hold me to them, I WILL publish a full-length novel THIS year.

As soon as I figure out which one…
So, I read these books a while back, review here, with a similar structure, i.e. alternating points of view and an unreliable narrator, and I challenged myself to write a comparable story. I started it. I was really enjoying the planning, plotting, and outlining–a first for me, but a technique I think I’ll need considering the alternating POV and unreliable narrator. I was making great initial progress…until I read another book, one which I have not reviewed yet, hmmm, but anyway, it reminded me loosely of Agatha Christie‘s And Then There were None, with it’s remote location, collection of strangers, and, of course, murder. And THAT story inspired a related novel in me. So, I began planning, plotting, and yes, outlining (there are many characters to keep track of, each with their own goals, secrets, and motives).

A wise friend suggested that if I want to finish one thing, I stop reading more things.

I’m calf-deep, more than ankle, less than knee, in the aforementioned manuscripts, but I’m wading in half a dozen other projects. I am equally excited, dedicated, and then dismissive of each of them. Fabulous stories all! To say I have options is an understatement; focus is what I need.

I am attending a writers’ retreat at the end of this month. My “goal” is to have a working outline completed by then for a whirlwind weekend of novel writing. It will probably be the most recent of my challenges, a story I am referencing, interestingly enough, as, The Writers’ Retreat. Title may change. Project may change. But I swear, as soon as I get out of my own way, I will publish again.

~ ~ ~

Wyra Goes to Hell, a tale of retribution, recollection, and recognition. In Hell.
School Spirit, Book 3 in the Kimmie Jillison Mystery series