THE END IS NEAR!
I am in that state of mind that writers fall into when the end is near. The last chapter. Meeting the deadline; well sort of. My deadline was December (last year) and I’m looking at mid-March.
I have been writing completely off schedule. I writing in the morning, I’m writing in the afternoon and more recently, I’m writing at night! Usually, I am morning writer.
What I thought of in the beginning as a 200-page Mick Murphy Key West Mystery is now at 350+. I had to put an end to it, because in my head I’d laid out even more mishaps for the boys to fumble into.
Yeah, I say when I answer the question about does the story write itself. I may write it, but it goes in whatever direction characters and situations take it. Or so it seems.
I know writers that outline and follow it from beginning to end. I couldn’t do it. First, my outlines are never as interesting as the way my characters lead me. I work with a beginning idea, think I know the middle and, of course, I’ve got the ending thought out.
Well, I can tell you, that for me, it just ain’t so! The beginning has held up pretty well, but the middle and end go to hell in a hand basket soon after the first few chapters are written.
With a little luck, I’ll have TO BEAT THE DEVIL done next week. My editor has worked the first 100+ pages months ago and recently the next 100+ pages, so the final 150+ should be edited quickly. The cover is designed. Once I get the edited copy back, make the changes (if I agree with them) I’ll have it off to be formatted for Kindle. The book should be available on Kindle the first week of April (not that deadlines influence me).
I will be on the road to NY/NJ to visit my twin daughters in late March and while there, I will format the book for a trade paperback edition that will be available on Amazon for $15 probably in late April.
After all that, I’ll sip some Jameson’s and smoke a few cigars in the chilly north before heading back to Paradise. Next, I have a short story in mind that involves Hemingway’s typewriter and I’m going through my file of newspaper clippings on art theft. It’s the 23rd anniversary of the Gardner Museum theft in Boston and I’ve been reading the Boston Globe’s stories on it. Now, if I can figure a way to get the art thief to Key West, I’ve got a story. Maybe that’s my next book, or I could resurrect my vampire story that didn’t have any vampires in it. You have to settle for Goth . . . hell, that could be as interesting as art theft.
Have to run. Need this space for the novel. I feel inspired and in last chapter I left Mick and Pauly sitting in a plane in the Everglades and a couple of red neck blokes with shotguns approaching. I’ve spent the last couple of hours wondering what they’re up to.
Only way to find out is to write . . .
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