The (Extremely Tentative) Return Of The Shade Of The Moon

When I was a senior in college and interested in getting a job in publishing, I was told one way of entering the field was by writing a book. Even if the book didn't get accepted, the publishing house would be so impressed they'd hire me.

I decided to give it a try. Only I knew how easy it is to say you're going to do something and even begin and still not finish. So I told my friends and my family and my professor that I was going to write one, and since the fear of humiliation of not finishing outweighed the pleasure of not working, I wrote the book.

I'm kind of doing that now. For much of the winter, I've been playing with a whole different approach for a fourth moon book. I finally worked out one I really like, and I've begun writing it.

I do mean begun. I've written a grand total of 7 pages. I haven't gotten a work rhythm down, and I won't for the next couple of weeks, since next week I'll be obsessively watching the World Figure Skating Championships online, and the week after that I'm going to Texas for the last of my school visits.

It's been my dream forever that the brain could somehow transmit a book to paper while leaving the fingers out of it, but that hasn't happened yet, so I guess I'll actually have to work to get the book written. It won't be easy, given the temptations of a March that thinks it's June, and a cat who thinks I should play with him on demand, and a 647 game FreeCell winning streak. Not to mention my mother's laundry and other such obligations.

I'm not going to indulge in spoilers, but I will tell you that I'm holding onto the title The Shade Of The Moon, that the book takes place two and a half years after the end of This World We Live In, that the setting is in and around the safetown of Sexton, that Jon is the main character, and that we learn what is happening with Miranda, Alex, Matt, Syl, Mom, Lisa, and Gabe. Although I don't think we'll actually see Syl, and I'll probably avoid writing Gabe scenes, since he's 3 years old, and I don't do 3 year olds very well. And naturally, there'll be new characters to meet.

My friend Princess Summerfallwinterspring, who is pretty much the only person I've told any of this to, commended me for my extraordinary persistence (although she may have worded it a tad less nicely). The truth of the matter is I loved writing Life As We Knew It, The Dead And The Gone, This World We Live In, and all the various incarnations that never got published. Their characters and the world I created for them have been a part of my life for over 7 years now. And I guess I'm just not ready to give them up.

Oh well. I'm rapidly running out of excuses not to work. The Shade Of The Moon, here I come!