Free at Last! (An Announcement)
Free at last! Free at last! Free at last!
There’s no greater feeling than the taste of freedom after a long internment. At times, it felt like I was locked away and my master or the warden had thrown away the key.
No, I wasn’t a slave or a prisoner. But it certainly felt like I was a hostage to my work. Finally, after all this time, I can say that The Smiling Man Conspiracy (the sequel to my previous novel) is basically complete. It can be read from start to finish. It was a seven month journey (that should’ve been three, but my procrastination and writer’s block interfered) of odd avenues and increasing alterations to the story in my mind, but it’s all on the page now.
Well, technically the epilogue still needs to be written, but I’m waiting for a revised version of the rest before I commit to that part. As I enter the editing stage, I can’t help marveling at how the plot took shape. From the horror-thriller that was The Shadow Over Lone Oak, we enter an action-packed race against time juxtaposed against lost love, struggling with guilt, and the feeling that evil is in control of this crazy world
There’s still a ways to go, but at least I can see the light from here. I don’t know when TSMC will be made available for purchase. It probably won’t make that summer estimation for a release date. I’m glad that I’ve given it the breathing room it needed, however, because I think a much better story emerged from that lack of a rush.
I can’t wait to see what my beta readers have to say about this one. And I’m really looking forward to seeing what my dad thinks about a particular chapter created in his honor.
As the impending gruel of editing the work hovers above my head, I can say this much: my next novel will be different. Yes, there is a novel after TSMC. Can I say what it will be? Not really, except that it won’t be a sequel and will probably be told in the first person. I won’t commit to writing it until after TSMC, so it’s more of an idea rather than a plot at this point.
There’s a saying about getting to know a person by walking a mile in their shoes. Well, after TSMC, I feel like I’ve walked ten miles in seven pairs of shoes. My feet hurt and I’m exhausted.
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I’m glad that this is the post I can make on the final day of my week-long experiment of daily blogging. I can think of no better cap than this announcement. Will I continue to make posts every day? I’m not sure yet. I definitely want to do more than once a week, but it remains to be seen if I can keep up the pace.
Well, that’s enough rambling and raving from me today. It’s time to sign off and watch a little Twin Peaks.*
*Please don’t waste twenty minutes on a surrealist exposition of a nuclear explosion, David Lynch…
