"I thought you were going to have another book out in the summer."
"Didn't you say you were writing another book?"
Yes, indeed we did say that. In fact, my sister and I stood in front of a room of people at the beginning of June and said, quite confidently, "We should have Cat, Charmed done by the end of July."
Cat, Charmed is not out yet. And there are Christmas decorations in the store.
It just turns out that this whole writing-a-book-with-your-sister thing is a little harder than it looks. First, take the fact that you want to write a book. That in itself is hard enough. (Oh, you don't think so? Try it sometime.)
Factor in that we live 80 miles apart.
Further factor in that we have between us two husbands, six children, two dogs, and a grandchild.
Oh, and that we both work full time.
Now you see what we're up against.
We both can write very quickly. And have done so, time and time again. And we certainly enjoy bouncing ideas back and forth, discussing scenes and characters. Our passion for writing is only growing.
It's the part where we're tossing the incomplete draft back and forth that gets a little tricky. And finding time to meet up, where one of us can spend 3 hours drive time in the car, that is tricky too. Getting to emails or text messages. Phone conversations.
There are sports activities. Work meetings. Writing meetings. Real medical dramas, grocery shopping, exercising, watching childrens' sporting events, shuttling children to said sporting events, cleaning, cooking, and of course the extra cute, adorable, happy, I'm-so-cute-you-have-to-hold-me grandbaby.
What's that? You would like to just sit on the couch in your pajamas and watch TV mindlessly?
You. Don't. Get. Downtime. Turn on that computer.
I remember telling a fellow writer, "I would love to know what it's like to go home, change into "play clothes", and not have anything to do at night. To actually say the words, "I'm bored, maybe I'll rent a movie/take a nap/read for a while." (Well, actually I do read. And so does Jenny. And I have taken a nap or two.)
"Instead", I tell her, "I go home and I have this compulsion to write. To finish a blog, or outline a new story, or write a Prompt Club submission and look over others' submissions, or to just work on whatever it is that I'm writing at the time...short story or novel. I have to be doing something. But it's just that I wonder what is that like, to go home and not have anything to do?"
She laughed. Sadly, she didn't know either.
Well, for whatever it's worth, I think I'd rather have the compulsion to write. To know I'm creating something of value with someone I value. To marvel over the fact that despite differing opinions right on down the line on how our book should go, we both arrive at the end saying, "Oh, I just love this, and I cannot wait for people to read it." To share a story we love with people we love.
Back to Cat, Charmed. The book that we didn't forget about. The book that we have worked on from May of this year until now. We've been kicking ourselves for not meeting a self imposed deadline while ignoring the fact that this year, we have written two books!
Two books in one year! While doing all the other stuff!
At this point, the entire book is written. Not only that, we are half done with revisions. We have purchased the cover for Cat, Charmed, which we both absolutely love.
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| These are Cat's legs! And her stockings! |
Thanks for waiting. We love Cat. She enjoyed telling her story to us just as much as we enjoyed hearing it and writing it down.
You will see her very soon!
