Bad blogger!

I know, I know. My day job is done until late August and my class ended the other night so I am in full-time writing mode, which includes coming here and pontificating a bit.

The novella that I finished the first draft of back in February just had its second draft completed. My goal is to have the next (and final) draft done in two weeks and begin the process of marketing it. We’ll see how that goes. Now I’m jumping into editing/revising the novel, Echoes on the Pond, which has taken far too much time. I may also work on something new. I haven’t written many short stories for a while and I have several first drafts sitting here, so I may go into short story mode for a bit, while I work on Echoes on the Pond.

Now, I’ve never needed a FAQ section because, to be honest, I really haven’t heard much from readers. However, this spring I received two emails from two different readers who read and enjoyed Shadowed. that led me to decide to do a little FAQ here. Since this has a minor spoiler for Shadowed, I’ll place it behind a cut.The readers said they would be interested in knowing what happens to Gina once she enters the shadow world and whether I’ll go there.

The answer is maybe.

Originally, Shadowed was a short story that ended pretty much how the novella ends. A few years after I’d written it (and tried, unsuccessfully to publish it), it dawned on me that maybe I should try to bring Gina out of the shadow world and this might work as a novella. About a year after that,  I re-read Carrie and thought that maybe I could turn Gina’s story into a novel.

In 2006, I wrote a draft that was about 60,000 words. And I hated everything that happened after she became a shadow. So I set about rewriting it, getting to the point where she’s in the shadow world again…and the novel stalled. I had about 50,000 words of a story that I wasn’t entirely happy with. I set to working on Echoes on the Pond (this was about 2008 by now) and figured Gina’s story was a lost cause.

Only I didn’t really believe that. She kept coming to me, and I realized that her story was supposed to end with her becoming a shadow.

At this time, I don’t know that we’ll ever see what happens afterward. However, writing the version of Shadowed that has been published exposed some new elements that have planted themselves in my mind. They’re planted seeds and they may grow. So, without seeming coy or like I’m dancing around the answer, I really don’t know that we’ll ever follow Gina, but there is a small possibility. If so, the tone of the story will be very different.

So that’s my FAQ. I’ll catch you later.