Hello, Old Friend(s)

It is with an eager uneasiness(?) that I recently started writing book 3 in my Nemo trilogy. (Book 2 is in the hands of my presently otherwise-occupied editor.) If you don't count the revisions/rewrites I've done this year on books 1 & 2, that means it's been more than 25 years since I've written anything new involving these characters. Normally, that would be intimidating to the point of inertia, but having spent so much time this year in that world/with those characters, it doesn't seem like we've been apart since the early 90s.

Of course, with so much time passing, I've forgotten what the writing experience was like for me back then, and I have no idea if the struggles and challenges I'm now facing are new & different or the same old same old. Research is far easier today, thanks to the Internet, so that's no small compensation for any difficulties. But I still ask myself, was (such-and-such) so hard a quarter century ago? Self replies, I have no idea--I've slept since then. Go have a snack and Google it.

The main reason I went straight from editing 2 to writing 3 is momentum. I've been immersed in the story all year, so I might as well forge ahead while the creative fires are burning and it's all fresh in my mind. It will be my last go-around with these folks. When I'm finished I will have developed every idea I've had and said all I have to say--probably more. Until then, as Robert Frost wrote, there are "miles to go before I sleep."

Maybe we'll have a cast "wrap" party in my head when it's all finished. If we do, hope someone brings French Onion dip.