Hello I Must Be Going

Well, technically I choose to be going.

I'll be leaving Thursday morning for a four day vacation, which is probably of little interest to most of you, but I'm trying hard to stay up to date with blog comments (which I love) and e-mails (which I love), and since I don't have a laptop, I'll be out of touch until Monday.

So this is the equivalent of one of those automated e-mail messages that say the person is out of the office and don't expect to hear back from them for years and years. At least that's what those messages say as soon as they realize the e-mail is from me.

Meanwhile my brain and I (I'm starting to think of them as separate entities, since otherwise I can't understand why my brain is being so difficult and contrary) have been hard at work on The World We Live In. Every time I think I have it under control, my brain (bad brain) says, "No! That won't work!" and offers seventy five different reasons why it won't.

I should send my brain one of those automated e-mail messages telling it I don't want to hear back from it for years and years. Although I'm really looking forward to a nice long plane flight with nothing to distract me, while I work through the plot yet again.

The current plan (for the book, that is) is to have alternating chapters- Luke, then Eden, then back to Luke etc. I have killer first chapters for both of them. I decided about an hour ago that Life As We Knew It and the dead and the gone really don't have plots. They're both incident driven, rather than plot driven. WWLI is going to be plot driven, so it might as well have normal chapters (I perpetually forget that LAWKI and d&g have chapters, since they were my editor's choice and not mine).

In any event, if my brain goes along with it, WWLI is going to be very different from LAWKI/d&g, which, given that it's a non-traditional sequel, it might as well be. The important thing, as I was told in an e-mail that I loved, is that the readers care about the characters. I'm working hard at making both Luke and Eden flawed but vulnerable, which should make them sympathetic.

d&g, by the way, is getting wonderful blog reviews. And the audiobook of same is officially coming out next week. I haven't gotten a copy yet, but maybe it'll be in my mailbox when I get back.

Have a great weekend. I certainly hope to!