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This was a blog I wrote Monday, or late Sunday. Meant to put it up, but just didn’t manage it. So here it is.
I remember now why I need to write Merry every day with no stops. Because Merry is like a lover, that you still love, but not as much as the husband that has your heart and soul in their eyes. Every book makes me love Merry and her world more, but no fresh love can compare with a relationship of a decade. Not when that relationship has met my needs so completely as writing Anita does. I am not one of those people who thinks that first dates, the beginning of a relationship, is the best part. I dated when I wanted to, but I find those first fumblings to be sort of boring compared to the relationship after it’s been tended, after it’s had a few hard knocks, and it still works. Nothing excites me as much as a long term love. Merry is still new to me, and thus, she’s like a new lover. You still don’t know each other completely. You still have those awkward moments, that it takes years to work smooth. Maybe by the time I hit book eight with Merry, it will be like it was when Anita and I hit BLUE MOON, her book eight. That was the point when I totally fell in love with Anita and her world. I’ve found the other landmarks of series building have been true between the two series. Book four was magically, the book that I finally felt comfortable in the world. The book where the characters talked to me more freely. Book six for Anita was a turning point for the series, and the character, but if Merry has a turning point in book six, it will have to be a very different turning point. It will be interesting to find out.
But now, it is book five. Not quite the magic number of six for me, and four is past. The world is working, but the characters do not capture me as much as Anita and her crew. It’s the difference between five years and fourteen. So much learned about each other, so much shared. Merry is still finding her way, and I with her. I made the mistake yesterday of listening to Anita’s background music when I exercised on the treadmill. Of course, I got the first copy of MICAH, hot off the presses, and I found myself reading it, and reading the first chapter of DANSE MACABRE that’s in the end of it. The book reads well, I got caught up in it. But it was a mistake to read so much Anita, to think so much Anita yesterday. Today I got up thinking about book fourteen, not book five. When I sat down to work, it was Anita who spoke to me, not Merry. I thought, what harm could it do? I could just get the notes down. Yeah, right. Who was I fooling? So, I made myself stop, and reread the plot outline for this chapter of Merry. Even if I make only a few sentences today, it will make tomorrows work day easier. Some progress, before Anita’s world rears back up and overwhelms me. I am not easily turned by a new face. I usually prefer the old. Old friends, long term loves. Heck, I have a pair of jeans that are about as old as my daughter. They are so soft, so wearable. They are so not in style. They don’t even look good anymore, but I love them. I love the way they feel. Sadly, there’s a hole along the thigh seam, which means I only wear them sparingly, because one wash day, they will be gone. I’ve delayed long enough, back to the fight scene. If it was an Anita fight scene I’d know what do, and how to do it, but Merry in a fight scene still puzzles me. I’m outta here.
I got six pages done. Cool. It reads well. It’s writing well. I just need to keep my head down, my blinders on, and keep concentrating on this book until it’s done.