Hi Everyone:

Have you missed me? I've certainly missed you. I can't recall how many times I told myself that it was time to write something on my blog to let you know how things were progressing for this writer, but somehow, things often intrude to force me to put my efforts to some other purpose. Sometimes, it is the need to get out one or more queries to Literary Agents to replace those nasty rejection letters that virtually all writers receive, that is unless your name is John Gresham or Stephen King. Then there is the need I feel to write another chapter in my current project, a novel whose working title is: Where there's a Will . . .There's a Relative. Sometimes, it's some chore on my wife's Honey-do list, although to be honest, that's pretty rare because, for the most part, she is one of those rare people who would rather do it herself. No, it is more likely to be our dog, Cookie. She comes into my office and shoves her muzzle into my thigh to let me know that it is time for me to take her out. At any rate, it has been a while since I added to this blog, but I'm here now and ready to write.

Daylight Savings arrived yesterday and today the last of our many timepieces got changed. The only one that I changed is the one on my wrist. Like I said, Danielle would rather do it herself. This morning the alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. because it's Monday, one of the three days each week that our son goes (at 8:00 am) to, what he calls, work at the Habilitation Center. Shortly after 7:00 a.m. Cookie and I were out the door for her long walk and I must say that it was barely light enough for me to see without the aid of a flashlight. All this is leading up to observe that with more daylight hours, there should be more time for me to be productive or few excuses for not writing. That, of course, assumes that I can get my brain to kick in and begin to chart my way through the next twist in the plot of my novel. It is a family saga, so there are plenty of threads that need to be woven in and out of the main storyline.

This is especially daunting now, because I am writing this story pretty much as it comes to me. For those novels where I start by developing a detailed outline, keeping all the threads moving is less of a problem. I'll let you in on a little secret; sometimes, when I am having trouble deciding where I want the plot to go, I revert to writing a brief outline, (one of my teachers used to say that writing causes thinking). Outlining is really just a mental exercise of thinking ahead as to where the many characters in the story are going. I think I read somewhere that when Mario Puzo was writing The Godfather he kept a big piece of paper tacked to his wall and diagrammed the various mob-families to keep track of what happened to all the various members. Some authors use 3 X 5 cards to keep track of each character and to write down their physical characteristics, interests and quirks. Right now, I'm using notebook paper to keep that kind of data straight (I keep everything pertaining to the novel in a notebook so nothing gets lost, but I'm thinking about switching to cards for my next book. I've even thought about switching to the card system for this novel, but I'm 40 chapters into it, which means I probably will finish it in another 20 or so chapters. I think it's a little late to change systems. What do you think?

That brings me to the realization that it is time to get busy on the next chapter. I need to get at it while I still have a firm grasp on who the characters are, what it will contain, and just how it will move my story forward.

          Josh