Getting Back to Writing My Second Novel

I left off writing my second novel—Dusk and Ember—in 2007. Or 2009. I was about halfway through, as word counts go. I thought I was done with my first novel ( There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes ), and I was most definitely done with my first memoir-by-interview ( Escaping from Reality Without Really Trying ). Neither book was published, though. My life was in some upheaval, personally and professionally. Many things were unsettled. I started graduate school. I put the second novel away.

Fast forward to Fall 2012. The first two books are published and a collection of poems is coming along, thanks to a creative rediscovery. My master’s degree is completed. Now it’s time to re-visit that second novel.

But not just yet. All of Fall and into Winter 2013 are consumed with marketing that first novel, writing book bloggers to see if they’d like to review it, doing online interviews and writing a guest post or two. And also revising my second memoir-by-interview (tentatively titled Never Stop Dancing) so that it’s in shape to send to literary agents.

OK. Now it’s Spring 2013. Now I can pick up that second novel. And when I did ….

It’s great to be back writing a novel again. The ideas and words flow; I can’t stop them. It’s like they’ve been pent up all these years. And the novel itself? I’ve ripped into it, repurposing and sorting and sifting and revising, revising, revising. Working it until it feels good and right and proper. It feels good to jot notes. It feels good to key in corrections. It’s great to be back writing a novel.