We're back! It has been an extensive (and explosive) six weeks since my last blog. With the final hand laid to the first draft of 'Simon & Sally' (working title) my wife Nancy, my son Alex and I packed our bags and headed out for some downtime in the United States of America. While we enjoyed our vacation away from everything and anything, back at home in Bangkok the state of affairs did not cool down - in fact they heated up and reached a boiling point. The result of this was a death toll of 75 people, over 20 buildings set to flames (among which the famous CentralWorld shopping mall) and an unresolved political and social climate that may have been tempered, but by far has not been doused.
And so after three weeks of intended vacation, we got another three weeks of unintentional vacation handed to us. Nancy's new job required visas that were simply not made available until the dust back at home had settled. I could have taken up redrafting the novel at that time, but instead chose to spend quality time with my son, who missed his friends terribly and kept on asking when we would go home again. Well now we are and guess what? He didn't want to go to school this morning. Talking about living in the moment by direction of snap decisions. Which brings me to my own decision I need to make.
My extended absence shaved off a whopping 45 days off the deadline of getting the book accepted by an agent to shop around. In the meantime I still need to:
- redraft the first draft
- get Nancy to edit it down even further
- while she is doing that create the illustrations for each chapter
- plot and possible draft the second book of the series.
Even if I leave out the drafting of book 2, I still need to completely redraft book 1 and possible rewrite a lot after Nancy is finished editing it. Do I start immediately, reading and rewriting or should I first research the various 'How to Write' guidebooks out there so I know what to look for when I redraft? I have four books, one of which is Stephen King's 'On Writing' and one is a very concise 'Elements of Style' my dad gave to me a few years back. I feel like I should read these, however I'm not sure if it will actually help me or bog me down with rules an industry might not even be paying attention to anymore. One of the more memorable examples of this is the rule that one should not use more exclamation marks than one every hundred pages. Reading Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' the other day I found several on one page and he has no problem selling his series.
There is an added problem to my dilemma and that is that after my last IT-project ended in November 2009 I have not been working, other than flexing these new writing muscles of mine. So I will also have to reserve time to upgrade my computing skills, update my resume and website and start looking for work. Of course, if I actually do find a new gig, when will I find time to write? Hmmm, something to think about. Just not too long, because time is ticking.
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