THE ONES LEFT BEHIND

            All the way back in July 2022, I did a post entitled “W.I.P. (OR, WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO)”. It was an honest identification of a variety of writing projects designed to motivate me by (“putting it out there”, holding myself accountable to keep pursuing the craft with these various endeavors. A scant three months later I posted a W.I.P. UPDATE as there had been some progress and I was rather proud.

            W.I.P. – THE ONGOING SAGA from May 2023 identified what was happening based on getting a contract for what turned to be THE DAY OF CALAMITY, VOLUME 1 OF THE WICHITA CHRONICLES. Other work had slowed down as I was in full edit mode, also desperately working on Volume 2. I did some brief outlining of Volume 3.

            And then, well, the house moving, the house selling, the holidays, right up until now with a minor kitchen renovation. I had just completed the fourth draft of Volume 2 when ALL of this started. In the middle of it was the book release. I knew I had done enough on the second book to hold off but was so desperate to “get to work” after the first of the year that I started the third book.

            But what of the rest of those interesting and intriguing projects? The stand-alone pulp novel. The rewrite in a different time period of a previously released contemporary crime fiction. Another one-act play. Re-doing old works because I now had a better handle on them and more appreciation for the craft.

            All of them became sands in a broken hourglass, drifting into the wind, falling behind me, sadly left alone but not forgotten. It seems almost ill-mannered to use other works as motivational tools, telling them (so to speak) that they are just as important as the BIG books and they have significance as well, only to drop them because, well, I was too darn busy.

            Writers often speak of their works as children. Wasn’t it Faulkner that said “In writing, you must kill all your darlings”? While he may have been referencing individual works and the editing process within them, it can’t go unnoticed that we take there pieces personally, deeply to heart.

            Well, my darlings, I am simply on a diet. Constrained by time and other responsibilities, I must temporarily sacrifice your coming-into-life and the efforts to do so. This is a passing situation based on major transitions in the life of a sixty-one-year-old man who is taking steps toward retirement. Soon, all too soon, we shall all be together again.