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I’ve been meaning to put this blog up for a couple of days, but first the internet connection went down, then I had to shop for clothes. AAH. Yes, I know the girl union is going to come and get my union card, but dear, God, I hate to shop.
But what I wanted to put on the blog was this: Sunday was an almost perfect day. It was warm and lovely, late spring, almost an early summer heat. If I’d been in Indiana where I was raised, I’d have said, summer, but here in St. Louis Sunday didn’t have quite enough heat for summer. But it was a lovely warm day. I got to have all the windows in my office open. Yes, I know allergies, but sometimes you just got to have the fresh air. (I think my penchant for open windows may go back to being raised in a house without central air, or heat. In the summer I began to read and write with windows open to the summer breeze. Sometimes how you first learn to do something is how to always want to do it.) So windows open, beautiful day, and I spent the afternoon staring at a blue wall covered in sticky notes. All four dogs lay around on the floor. There was a moment when I looked up from the desk, to see the three boys in identical positions on their sides, legs stretched out enjoying the warmth and sunshine. The writing was flowing, and I remember thinking, “What a perfect day.”
The fact that I thought that while I was spending an afternoon writing, let me know that I still love my job, I just get overwhelmed now and then with the deadlines, and some of the more unpleasant aspects of the job. But every job has a crap quotient, it’s just a matter of picking a job where the crap is less than the enjoyment factor. I have that, and Sunday proved that at a time when I needed to be reminded that I truly do love my job.
I finished the Micah novella, though I think by word count it actually is a short novel. By most people’s standards 184 pages is a novel, right? Still working on a title. My plan is to take several of the characters out of town with Anita, or do smaller in town adventures (though in town adventures are hard to keep small because of all the other characters.) It was a nice break to work with such a small cast. But now that this novella is done, back to the actual Anita novel. Oh, the novella will be published as it’s own book in Spring of 2006, which would be next year.
But the novella gave me a chance to sort of step back and remember how much leaner and more focused the early Anita books were. I’m not sure it’s possible to have that kind of laser focus in town with all the characters and Anita, but I’m going to try and take some of what I relearned in the novella and see if it’s possible to apply it to the larger book. Short of whittling down my cast, which I’m unwilling to do, (and don’t even bother suggesting who to kill off, because you guys get really nasty when you start talking about that, and very adamant, that your favorite character should survive, and some other fan is just as adamant that their favorite character, you get the idea, so don’t start, please.) Besides Anita and I would miss anyone we lost. There are some really big scenes in this next book, lots of people, lots of movement, and lots of new characters. Some of the new ones will be permanent and some not. Some of the out of town visiting vamps will be seen later when Anita goes out of town in future books.