In the Lull Between Books

Well, the second book, The Memory of Time, is finished and off to the test-readers to be groomed, stroked, praised, scolded, hammered, pruned, primed, and repainted. In waiting for them to render an opinion, the silence screams “it’s wonderful” or “it’s awful.”
It is, however, the book I wrote and the book I intended to write. I have vowed to never write the same book twice, and I won’t. One of my test-readers, who I know from practicing medicine with him for twenty years, has read it and given it rave reviews. The other test-readers have said they love it so far. I’m waiting to see how they suggest I fine-tune it. Of course, as long as one other person likes it, then it’s a success.
Now it’s on to the next book, which began whispering its identity to me on my morning run around the LSU lakes this morning. It will be set in reconstruction-era Louisiana and involve the original Sam Teague and a carpenter/traiteur named Jesse L’Agneau. The story will be told in the first person by Pete Carrick, a man who has worked for both.