Round the Bend

Yes, I’ve had the accusation a bazillion times, and it is probably one of the few things y’all agree on about me, but this is a WRITING bend. I’ve been running against the wind for MONTHS now to make any progress on CONSPIRACY. Every word was painful. But FINALLY last night I think I have the wind at my back again.





Metaphors that DON’T Work (Okay. Maybe a bit)



I did NOT crest the proverbial hill… it is NOT now smooth sailing. I won’t coast or glide into home. I have to keep working my tail off (and hopefully as I work my tail off, I will also work my tail off… gotta keep that Book Tour Fitness Plan in mind!)



So this doesn’t mean we are home free and clear, folks… only that…

Okay, you know how you have a tube of lotion you haven’t used for a while, and you are trying to put some on, but it is the tiniest trickle… then SUDDENLY the dried crusty stuff unplugs and you get this squirt of lotion that you aren’t even sure what to DO with because it’s so much? THAT is what happens. It’s not a pretty metaphor though, naked tart dripping lotion everywhere because there just isn’t enough skin surface to put it on. And I HATE wasting…



You know, normally… if I NOTICE the lotion is plugged, I can stick a pin in there and clear out the gunk, but when I do that, I think I push as much gunk back IN as I clean off, so the SAME gunk comes back to haunt me later.  Seems that might be the case with the writing too... better to just let the rush happen.



(have I stretched this absurd metaphor too far now?) But it’s TRUE!





A Matter of Motivation



If there is a main difficulty I have with my writing, it is in motivating the bad guys. It is NEVER on my list first and unlike most of it, it is something I just can’t force, no matter how hard I try. Oh, sure… I have had art thieves intent on getting rich, but I needed to make this PERSONAL. I’ve been working under the premise that they were mad at people trying to stop them, but I’ve FINALLY got it, and it is better than that!



It’s funny, because I ran into the same thing with CONFLUENCE, have it to some degree in ILLUSIONS (the second of this trilogy) and it has been a problem with my as of yet unnamed and unfinished murder mystery… of my 6 books I’ve finished or written significantly on, it has been a problem for 4. Maybe I need to spend more time with bad guys… always thought I had it covered with my bad boy fetish, but mostly they’ve only ever been naughty.





So the News



I am THANKFULLY back to writing… sure, it just really got in the groove yesterday, but there is idea enough for at least the next few chapters, and I’ve never worried about the ending, anyway, so I think I should be able to stay on track (hopefully finish by the end of March).

LEGACY, the first in the trilogy, has had clean-up number one (there are two places with notes for additions, and then the third place to incorporate this new motivation thing—but as a draft, it is cleanish) and I sent that to first readers.



In April, when CONSPIRACY is done, hopefully ILLUSIONS is typed so it is fresher in my mind, and I have feedback, then I will do the LEGACY rewrite… and in a dream world, query in May.





Watch List



In the meantime, I’m being paranoid… I’ve checked out half a dozen or more books now on art theft… hopefully that hasn’t put me on a watch list. It is yielding some interesting and useful stuff, though no where near as interesting as the how to be a spy stuff. So if I am arrested for art espionage, I might need to call on you to testify that it is all for the sake of writing books…