The deadline for getting my fifth Home Crafting Mystery to the publisher is approaching. I'm at that stage of the game where I'm editing and proofing, looking for continuity mistakes, and getting feedback from other people.The whole book is in my head. It pushes a lot of other stuff out.
Yesterday I momentarily blanked on my cat's name. The coffee mysteriously appeared in the vegetable drawer instead of the cupboard. My ability to construct a meal is rudimentary, and we're eating a lot of leftovers out of the freezer. I am a less than scintillating conversationalist.
The book in my head opens at night, and the characters escape into my dreams. They do things they wouldn't normally do. I wake up in the morning and briefly wonder if I really wrote it that way. Or if I should have.
Sometimes I lug the book around with great fondness, like a sweet-smelling baby. I don't want to let it go. Other times throwing it out altogether seems not only like a good idea, but utterly necessary.
At the same time, I'm working on promotional activities for Something Borrowed, Something Bleu which will release on July 1. (You can preorder it now, though.) See, I wasn't kidding about the promotion. But there's no room for the plot of that book in my brain right now. There will be by the time I'm actually out there talking about it, though.
I hope.
9 comments:
This is a timely post, Cricket. I am in exactly this same space, minus the book promotion part. The deadline for Octoberfest is June 1, and getting it done and now deciding whether it's worth reading or not even fit to be toilet paper is consuming my every thought. We're a lot of fun to live with right now, yes?
Can't wait to read both of yours, btw. :) I know they're gonna be brilliant!
Having only written three complete books (I'm in the thick of writing the fourth), I wonder at what point you simply can no longer remember the plots, the settings, the different characters, and so on for each book? Would that be about book ten, do you think?
[This morning I broke a vase -- one of those slow-mo accidents where you see the thing starting to fall but are unable to stop it. I'm sure it's because my brain was elsewhere, inside the latest book.]
Jess, it's nice to know I'm not the only one. I'm sure Octoberfest is awesome -- and congrats on your new cover designs!
Gin, I wonder if we're more likely to forget details in series books or standalones?
Bummer about the vase. :(
Cricket, Nice review in Library Journal for Something Bleu: "Fans of Rosemary Harris and Maggie Sefton will appreciate McRae's crafty series."
When it come to forgetting, I've done two lulus in the last 48 hours.
My cure for book brain is to drive. Not because it takes me out of story world but because it pulls me fully and completely into it. Honestly, I find it a better place to be! (Scary, huh?)
Thanks, Keith! What an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as those two laudable ladies.
Darrell, I find driving conducive to creativity, too. Of course, that means half the time I get to my destination and have no real recollection of the journey. Common enough, but disconcerting nonetheless.
My husband and my son both told me things today that apparently I acknowledged as hearing then immediately forgot. I'll take the book brain excuse. It's preferable to early onset Alzheimer's.
Book Brain - I finally have a name for my ongoing condition!
Lisa, that happens to me all the time. Usually I'm just not listening, though. ; - )
Kathleen, it looks like we all have it.
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