Plans, Goals and Motivations. Oh, My!

I feel somewhat at a loss, aimless and foolishly sentimental, and disconnected, when I’ve finished one work and haven’t yet become absorbed in another. —Marianne Moore, poet

The end of this year, the beginning of a new year is coming—faster than I’d like. The most labor-intensive holiday is finished and cleaned up. Every other Thanksgiving my family comes home for a home cooked Thanksgiving and I go all out, reproducing, as close as possible, the Thanksgivings we had when the boys were small. I made the memories and now, I want to pluck at them. Maybe, it’s just for me and my memories, but I hope it’s for them and theirs, also.

And now the Christmas season is in full bloom, but I’ve got most of the shopping done—only odds and ends to still pick up and Christmas dinner is simpler, more buffet, less sit down dinner. I don’t do as much homemade, going with deli salads, veg. and fruit trays with only a rib roast to rotisserie. My husband handles that, so I can enjoy the company a little more.

With most of December opened to some well-deserved fun and plenty of writing, with Ella and the Tie-down Man finished again, I’m ready to work. As I said before here, I pulled back on submissions after some critiques pointed out a few things that would make the reading flow better and did a quick edit for the problem. The book is done and ready for submission. That’s the plan.

The goal is to work on something else, right? I have mixed feelings about what. I have a series ready for submission mostly. I say mostly because there are four books in the series, two complete except for a final edit. The third book is roughly two-thirds done and the fourth kind of dead in the water. I worked on the three books over several years, but that fourth book has eluded me, for some reason. I, also, have two stand-alone books, each more than half-finished. I have a chapbook of poetry I’ve been working on for some time, but I really need a few more poems to complete it. Of course, there are always new story ideas nibbling at my mind, too.

The editing for Ella and the Tie-down Man was arduous, mostly because of the illness that sidetracked me and slowed me down even once I got back on track. I had so many starts and stops, frustrations and disappointments. It’s made me a bit gun shy to tackle editing again and yet, that’s what seems to float to the top of my what-to-do-next list.

And there’s motivation. You’re better off going with the thing that excites you, right? So, last week before I buried myself in stuffing, candied yams and pies, I dug out my old series (It took both me and my husband to excavate the file box. The research files, the printed up copies ready for the last edits, all put away when western historicals fell out of favor were too heavy for me), brushed off the dust and opened the lid.

I was a little afraid to look inside, fearful it would be too much like the last time I opened a file box. There was such a sorrow, of sorts, of a work interrupted. Not this time, thank goodness. This time felt less like being lost and coming back to a place I didn’t remember and more like coming home. Proof of how sick I was, testament to my complete recovery. (Yes!)

I made the right choice to start editing my Teardrop Ranch series. Wish me luck.