“Writing”, 22 November 2008 (Photo credit: dr_ed_needs_a_bicycle)

Wow. It’s been longer than I thought since I added anything here. My apologies….

I’m bringing this back to a writing theme again, but not exactly on freelance writing. I’m taking a hiatus from filling orders and expanding a well-received short story into a novel. Although it wouldn’t be the first book I’ve written, it’s the first one of this particular genre. I’d tell you what genre, but I’m not sure which would fit right now, for it’s a little bit suspense, a little bit mystery and a tad bit more paranormal. However, there are no Changelings, vampires, or standard haunting types of aspects.

I plan on outlining the general gist of daily effort on this book and hopefully have it completed in six weeks or less. I know there’s a whole industry out there about writing a book in 28 days/30 days/a month, but I’m extremely critical of my fiction (and poetry, but that’s neither here nor there, really), and I want to give myself some recovery time from the slashes, cuts and rents of the work before claiming a final draft.

I’ll let you know how it goes, hopefully day by day.

Right now, I’m working on title ideas. The working title is “Even the Wicked,” after the saying, “Even the wicked get more than they deserve.” The short story  was sparked by a forum conversation some friends had several years ago. I made the mistake of accepting a dare: The original poster of that forum thread had written a poem about the Louisiana bayou superstition of bottle trees and her experience on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi.

I … um … put her on the spot by challenging her to write a second version of the poem, which she’d said she wanted to do. I really didn’t think she’d take me up on it. [insert self-deprecating laugh] Oh, foolish moi… She did. She bet me if she wrote and posted the second version that I was to write a story along the same general theme — bottle trees.

I’ve long wanted to expand the short story, and I even started on an outline when my computer crashed. Then the forum site was taken down, and I lost the story for a long time. Then I found parts of it on the Internet and recovered what I could. Instead of recreating the short story itself, I held it for a time when I could afford to take a block of time and expand on it.

Well, that time has come. Starting tomorrow, I’ll delve in and start the process. Today, I’m working on titles for the piece. If you have suggestions, please let me know! Here’s the synopsis so far. Not fond of the last line, but that’s a work-in-progress, too:

“Newly divorced, novelist Magellan St. Claire returned to her Louisiana bayou roots to kick-start her writing career again, badly undermined by her ex-husband’s ridicule and scorn. What she found instead could do more than threaten more than her sanity. It could cost Maggie her life.”

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to reply with your title suggestions! Talk to you tomorrow.

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