The Next Story

I decided the other night that it's time for me to put Justin & Emma's story away for the time being and focus on the next story. Until I hear back from the publishing company--whether or not they are interested in publishing 'The Reunion'--there isn't anything more I can do.

So...moving on.

I'm very excited about the next story. It's one I started writing when I was 16 years old. Every study hall of my junior year, I would feverishly write in my notebook. Homework? Fughettaboutit. I even worked on it quite a bit during my early college years. And then, unfortunately, it was lost. The notebooks were thrown away. The old computer system it was written on became obsolete.

And so I'm starting from scratch, but not entirely from scratch. I still have the names of the main characters, the setting, and the main points of the story line from when I first conceived them over 20 years ago.

Like my last story, this one will take place in Cancun, Colorado, a fictional suburb south-west of Denver. Some of the characters from that story will even find their way into this one. We may even peek in on Justin & Emma and see how they are enjoying married life. I will say that this will not be anywhere near as emotionally intense as my last novel. It will be more of the kind of Christian romance novel I enjoy reading.

'The Roommate' tells the story of a woman named Adrienne. She leads a well-ordered, perfect life. The perfect career. The perfect fiance. The perfect home. The unexpected or unplanned rarely happens to her. Until she meets Devon Hunter. An artist whose devil-may-care lifestyle masks a mountain of pain and anguish, his presence threatens her perfect world. Each of them has something the other needs...if they'll only be brave enough to give the other a chance.

Edited to add: As it's good to have a goal, my goal is to finish this story by the end of December. In order to accomplish this goal, I have to write a little over 200 words a day. About a paragraph. Now, while this doesn't sound like much (indeed, it truly isn't), I know there will be crazy schedule days or writer's block days when I don't get anything written. In reality, I know there will be days I read back through what I've written and actually lose words previously written instead of add to them. It took me four years to write my first novel. I'd love it if I can finish this one in a fraction of that time.