Next two

As some of you know, I always like to work on two projects at the same time, each with a different voice. It keeps me honest and prevents falling into a rut. When I was first starting Riverbend, a long time ago, it was so dark that I found I needed a light, fun story to offset it in my head. So, I wrote a kids' movie about a dog and a cat on an adventure - the only kids' story I have ever written! I found it a nice antidote to the formative first chapters of RB's serial killer storyline.

I wouldn't finish RB for several years later when I revisited those first chapters and realized I had something. Two years after that, sometime in 2000, I had a 1,000-page first draft. Another two years and it was down two-thirds. Skip forward almost a decade, and the book was finally finished: 130,000 words (about 400 pages in paper). The kid's movie lies dormant, but I think I will revive it someday as a kids' novel. Again, it will probably be my only one ever!

Back to right now and two novels - one a heist action-thriller and the other a Mob action-thriller - with very different voices. So, even though the genres are similar, the way I want to tell each story is not. Again, I find this keeps me out of a rut of sounding the same or telling the same story over and over.

I would love to have both out for Christmas, but I seriously doubt I will make it. I'm trying, though! Back and forth, forth and back. Onward and upward!