I’m lining up my next project. It’s been awhile since I’ve written a novel (I’ve been focused on novellas, plays, and spoken-word pieces) and I’m looking for a project that has the potential to get me back into a major publisher. I haven’t written a novel since the late-lamented monster-hunting barista project (which never seemed to jell) and I think I’ve been a little reticent to tackle a novel again. I also had the problem of not having a novel project that really thrilled me. I kept poking at the Spear of Destiny novel, but I can’t work up the level of enthusiasm for it I need for a longer project.
What I really wanted to work on was the rural fantasy novella. You know, the one about a haunted abandoned school, small town secrets going back two or three generations, a class reunion, interfering ghosts, and lost loves. That one.
But I really felt I needed to get back to writing novels and this was shaping up to be a longish novella. I put it aside and started poking at my ideas folder and at completed but unpolished drafts of other pieces. A couple of the ideas and bits of free writing revealed themselves to be part of the rural fantasy story. I added them to the folder and closed it again.
So you guys remember that contemporary non-HEA romance coming-of-age novella I wrote a little while back? The one I had no idea what to do with and what the hell am I doing writing a mainstream novella anyway project? I finished it and had a couple of different endings, but was never satisfied with any of the endings I’d written. There was a lot of good stuff in the pieces, but not much of a payoff.
I reread it this week and realized it was part of that rural fantasy. The damned thing is two or three interwoven novellas of various lengths that make a novel length narrative. I’ve already written about 30K of the novel.
I’m outlining and brainstorming and thinking hard about what I want for this story. Once I’ve got some good stuff, I plan go back and rework the weird west novella so I can get it to market and then jump on this rural fantasy story.
Sadly, I’ve already had one set back in that a fairly rare and low-print run reference/history book about the Oney, Oklahoma community from 1901 to 1980 that I wanted to buy was already sold by the dealer who had listed a copy. I’ve found other copies, but for about twice as much (or more) as I am willing and able to pay. I could try to borrow the book through inter-library loan (it would have to come from either the Southwestern Oklahoma State Library or the Great Plains system in western Oklahoma), but I really wanted the book at my side during the whole process.
Alas, we all know what the Rolling Stones said.
Still, I shall carry on. Because this is a project I’m excited about.