Okay, I'm taking time off for Christmas

I feel somewhat relieved that I've actually completed my Christmas shopping, including the stocking stuffers, and the weekend hasn't gotten here yet.

Nothing is wrapped, though.

The poofy orange kitty sitting in my lap as I type this seems relaxed and content, a feeling I would like to experience more often with the new year.

Looks like we're going to have a rainy Christmas and that's just fine after a long drought and a year of water restrictions, probably with more to come in 2008.

Meanwhile, discovering what my novel Garden of Heaven is about as I clean up spelling errors and continuity problems prior to sending it out to prospective publishers has been rather like a gift to myself. Up to now, I've been focused so strongly on the individual scenes that I've had little time to look at the material as a whole. It's been fun.

It's time to step away from that fun, though, and go find the wrapping paper. (I don't want to get onto Santa's naughty list.)

Yule

This year's winter solstice will occur Sat., Dec. 22, 2007, 1:08 A.M. EST.

During this period of darkness, snow, and cold, one can sense the anticipation of rebirth and awakening. We gather around fires, light candles and yule logs and gather family and friends around us, and perhaps we talk of our hopes and expectations and wishes for the coming year.

My true intentions are born more out of these moments than out of the listing of new year's resolutions. It is tempting to make a list and tuck it away in late December, and then to bring it out again 365 days down the road and see all that has been accomplished.

I am at this point with my new novel Garden of Heaven. After working on the book off and on since 1993, I have finally grown enough and learned enough to push through to the ending. The characters and my intuition led the way. The book sits now in the darkness awaiting its moment of birth into the world.

Behind the action--set in Montana, Florida, the Middle West, Hawai'i, the Philippines and the South China Sea primarily between 1964 and 1983--the novel is a spiritual journey in the same sense that "The Odyssey" was a spiritual journey. Like Odysseus, David Ward is changed by each esperience, each stop on his literal journey. And then, assuming he survives the trip, he comes home a very changed man.

The novel will be making the rounds to prospective printers with the new year.

Wrestling With Outlines

My days of late have been largely spent creating an outline for my next novel. Now that the writing--not counting tinkering and editing--is complete, the outline has loomed for weeks as a necessary evil to be completed before query letters can go out to publishers and agents.

I tend to write where whims and characters lead me, so looking at the manuscript now is a bit of a pleasant surprise. Somehow, the 230,000 words have come together into a story, albeit a story told in a very non-linear fashion.

Outlining dreams, visions, and hunches has never been easy for me to do. If I could borrow Nora Roberts' staff of writing assistants, I'd say, "Look, outline whatever you find here, then write the synopsis and let me know when you're done." (This idea falls into the if-wishes-were-horses category.)

Notes of the Moment

• As Christmas approaches and I look for ways to tempt people into purchasing copies of "The Sun Singer" for the readers on their Christmas lists, I've been reminding folks that the novel is still less expensive than a good meal at Outback Steakhouse and that it will stay in your system much longer than steak, potatoes and onion rings.
• Congratulations to the nominees in Borders 12th Annual Original Voices Awards. I'll look forward to the winners announcement in January.
• I've just set up a profile on Authors Den. Stop by and visit.
• This evening, I'm looking forward to putting this book outline into a drawer this evening while my wife an I watch a rented copy of Ratatouille.