The Hiatus

After an extended hiatus, I’m back. Not that I actually traveled anywhere, but this is a testament to why I allow myself to slide by not even attempting to have a regular ‘blog posting’ schedule. It’s not that I haven’t been writing at all. I have. Too much. It’s just that there are other projects going on beyond this simple little corner of the internet.

During my absence since my previous post (Oh my, that was March 24th!) I have completed a 103K+ manuscript. I’ve done some editing since then, and while there is a lot that still remains, I do retain a feeling of accomplishment. The goal wasn’t to strike some book deal or be some sort of best selling author, but to rather to sit down and hammer out a completed project that I was personally satisfied with. I feel I’ve done that. In the past I’ve started various book projects, but as many I’m sure will attest to, life has a way of seeping in like dry rot and scuttling even the best intentions. It has really only been over the last two years that I’ve had an opportunity to actually sit down and commit to hammering out a pair of manuscripts. The original was an autobiography because there were some things I needed to explore within myself. This particular project was not, and at this point I have no intention of it ever being, intended for public consumption. Once I had completed that juggernaut I had made the decision to make another attempt at fiction, but with certain parameters for my writing sessions such as structure: dedicated time and focused to achieving a goal for each chapter. By committing to such a regimen I was able to (somehow) produce more or less a manuscript that I didn’t personally despise.

Now the question becomes, of course, what to do with it? Find a literary agent? Try self-publishing? I just don’t know. There are many different avenues to select — many of them seemingly dark and foreboding at this point. The unknown always is. It most certainly requires additional editing, but the summer is here, the sun is broiling the landscape, and so I think I’ve earned a small break away from manuscript editing for the moment. It is probably best that I take a step back from the same prose that has preoccupied me these many months. Which doesn’t mean that I won’t write — it’ll just be smaller entries such as this blog to fulfill that creative need when necessary. Then the manuscript can be picked back up with fresh eyes and an alternative perspective.

Suffice to say I’m back. At least for now. Assuming, of course, that another project doesn’t snatch me away into some wresting match. That’s how these things seem to happen. They pounce like bobcats, and you’re left grappling with them until the bitter end.