I write. At length. Every day.
My last completed novel was finished at the beginning of 2023. Once I finish my first draft, things are just beginning there. It goes through the dicer after that. I edit and edit and edit. And then, when I think things are tight, I hire an editor. And it goes through the dicey process again.
Once it gets back, I sit alone and edit that book at least a couple more times. Finally, when I think it is pretty right, I begin the pitch to find an agent or a publisher.
For my first four novels, no one was interested. Not in a single agent or publisher. I’ll tell you. It’s not easy to hear those words. That your novel “isn’t right for them.” I have received hundreds of rejection letters. But I pressed on. And by pressing on, I self-published the first four.
This one, the fifth, was picked up by a publisher. The process since that time has been a long one, and the book isn’t due out until sometime in 2025.
For those who care, it is about a scientist, a chimp, and lots of mystery, and challenges for the two of them.
At present, I’m writing my sixth novel. This one has been especially hard. But it is coming along slowly.
And then, of course, is the blog. Which I write and have written, every day, since 2009. That’s 15 years.
I often wonder, why do I do this? Because I’m driven to. And really, I don’t know why. But it calls me every day.
And I always answer.
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“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.” – Buddha
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“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman
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I write. Right?
