Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Early April Update and Musings

It's truly spring now - the spring peepers are singing in our local wetlands. The Daffodils and Christmas Roses are blooming, and the lawns are greening up. Such a miracle to watch the world renew itself in just a few weeks each spring.

As I'm polishing DRIVING DREAMS and sending out query letters to agents, I'm stirring up ideas for another novel. I have several in mind, but some part of me wants to take on a very focused, smaller story and theme, you know a nice thin book that someone can finish off during a trans-Atlantic flight. An author recently told me we each have a 'set point' in terms of word length and manuscript scope. DD is about 155,000 words now, and while I'll keep whittling away at it, this length isn't completely outrageous since it's a multi-generational saga. I'm also writing short stories, to practice telling stories in about 2,000 words. It's fun to be limited by size. I've sent three of them out...none of these are about the Middle East.

In the meantime, I came across THE WRITING ON MY FOREHEAD by Nafisa Haji. It deals with many of the same themes in DRIVING DREAMS, in the context of an Indian family. The author's website is one of my favorites.

No comments:

Post a Comment