One Year Later

For some reason, I just revisited the blog post that I made exactly a year ago. It is stunning to me that I didn't even know the characters in Bodies of Water at this point. I hadn't dreamed a single scene. And I find it most surprising of all, that "the new project" ultimately became a love story.

From June 1, 2011:

On New Projects

So I am in that weird place in the novel-writing process where I am actually almost "done." Meaning...on June 1st I will send it to my editor and then, hopefully, have little more than some tinkering to do before it goes into print. There's still work to be done, but I can finally start to entertain the ideas for the next book.

I'm not one of those people who can work on more than one thing at a time. I am totally a totally monogamous sort of writer. But at this stage of the game, I am like a new divorcée, just waiting for the divorce papers to be finalized. There have been flirtations, of course....little notes jotted into my notebook, nights spent thinking about the new book instead of the one I'm with, but I have remained faithful. But now that the end is near, I have that itchy thrill of what will be next. New.

Starting a new project for me is so similar to falling in love. I seriously get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about all the possibilities. It keeps me up at night. I obsess. It's all I can think about. Everything I see and hear makes me think about it. My whole world revolves around it.

So here's to June 1st and new projects and falling in love. Again. 

And so on this June 1st, I begin a new affair, though this is no love story this time. I can tell you that there's a traveling carnival, some really bad people, some really good people, and a twelve year old girl named Rainy.