I turned in the Enemy manuscript, y'all. To my editor. For. Production. The final draft is out the electronic door. And, and! We talked about cover art, too. (The phone call was relatively early, my time, and so I was freshly caffeinated. Might've been more loquacious than usual.)
I'm starting to feel like this writing thing is real, now. Like, it's a thing that I do, like teaching is a thing that I do (not job, because job sounds a lot less fun than writing or teaching, and vocation sounds either religious or romantic and pff). And I know my bio says Writer. Teacher. blah blah blah but there is writing in the dark, and then there is writing and realizing other people--many other people (please, benevolent book gods. Many) are going to read it.
The is awesome in all senses of the word.
Now I am going to defy my superstition about talking about projects before they're written because it's silly not to and besides, I already did. So. The new book is trooping along. I don't feel like I've totally got a handle on these people yet, but it's dialing in. It's a procedural meets an Icelandic saga. I think. If I can manage the procedural part (I know I can manage the saga part.) I have an outline (I never outline. This is weird.) and I'm actually taking physical notes as I go about word forms and made up crap that I am gonna need to remember. I'm planning, for the love of all good things. I only plan my syllabi and my game sessions.*
Maybe that's why I'm feeling like this writing thing is turning real.
*gaming is like real-time novel-writing, and with characters who live in other people's heads, especially my players' heads, I gotta at least try and stay one step ahead.
