Out of a deep sleep ...

Life can't defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death.
-- Edna Ferber (1885-1968) US writer

The phone rang at six o'clock this morning, startling me out of a very sound sleep. The WGH was calling to vent - one of his employees had called in "sick" (conveniently, after having yesterday off) and it's going to screw up his whole day - and to let me know he doesn't have any idea what time he'll be getting off this afternoon, which in turn will probably screw up my whole day.

One of the things about being awakened from so far under is that at first you're not sure where you are. Or even who you are. After I hung up I lay back down, but my mind, which had heretofore been blissfully unaware of anything going on around it, started working. My first thought was that I had to run uptown to the grocery and buy a gallon of milk. I actually got up out of the bed ... for about 30 seconds, which was how long it took my brain to put on the brakes and wait for the rest of me to catch up, at which point my body crawled back into the bed, telling my brain that we'd go in half an hour, when the kids were up and getting ready for school.

It all worked out, of course - got the kids up, ran to the store, ran the kids to school - and as I was pulling back into the driveway at 7:30, my brain was finally awake enough to remind the rest of me that I actually have the entire morning to work on this book.

As usual, life intervenes. After checking email and a phone call from the WMVR, it's 9:15 and I'm just getting ready to dive in. But progress is being made. I worked on one scene yesterday that had been problematic and managed to smooth it out to some degree of satisfaction. Today, I'm working on the end of the book - the BMWs don't know this yet, but we're only about two meetings away from the end of my first draft. After all they've been through with me on this book, I think it's only fair that I include them in the rewriting - so (and I can hear the groans now) over the next few months I'll probably be bringing in rewritten scenes, to see if they measure up a little better with the group.

I told you, it's a process. Funny how some readers actually labor under the misconception that writers can crank out a book from beginning to end, start to finish, with no vetting, no critiquing, no second, third or fourth drafts, no endless hours of research, no blood, sweat or tears, no sleepless nights, no deadlines, no demanding editors ... oh, such a place exists, of course. It's called Fantasyland.

Sometimes, even our spouses don't get it. Tess Gerritsen did a great piece on her blog back in late July about how hard it is to be married to a writer. I'm one of the fortunate ones. The WGH doesn't quite get what I'm doing, but he understands the whole pursuing your dream thing - we had a pretty frank discussion one day about our finances and how we're moving forward, saving for college and retirement, and how my quitting my full-time job has affected that. I made a comment to the effect that I knew he probably didn't understand my wanting to pursue my dream. He gave me this incredulous look and said, "You married a musician!"

Yeah, I said, I guess you do get it.

I may have told you that story before. If I have, please forgive the repetition. It's that short-term memory thing. That, and I'm too lazy to run back through the archives to check.

Right now, I have a dream to pursue.

Read a book. Remember how much effort went into it. Hug a writer today.

That's good for you, too.

=) JB