Paris, My Cure for Writer's Block

As you know, I recently had the vacation of a lifetime—my husband and I went to Paris. (If you want to read more about it, click here, here, here, and here.) But now, it’s time to get back to the grindstone. So I’m editing again. (A fan recently asked when book three was coming out—he has another round of intense physical therapy coming up in the fall and wants the book as a distraction from the pain. Yes, Adam, I hope to have the book out in the fall.)

But it this round of edits, I’m doing something different. Something I’ve never done before. I’m working on two books at once. While I’m editing book three, I’m working on a new literary fiction. Two vastly different books and genres. When I first thought about doing it, I was nervous because I was afraid the books would influence each other—that the voices would bleed into each other and I’d end up with a romantic comedy/literary fiction and a literary/action adventure—not your typical cross-genre novels.

But I tried to write the lit fic anyway. (The story has been in my head for years.) It was horrible. The narrative was flat. I rewrote the first 2,000 words over and over. But they were still deader than dead. I told myself that it was because I couldn’t write two books at the same time.

I considered scrapping the book. But when a story’s been in your head for years, it doesn’t go away. I put the decision on hold when we went to Paris. And when we came back, I opened the document—I was going to rewrite those two thousand words one more time. So I did. And the two thousand words of straw changed to silver (not gold—that takes several revisions).

So the morale of the story: when you have writer’s block, take a trip to Paris. For my next book, I already feel writer’s block coming on. To cure it, I think I’ll need a trip to Venice or Florence. Or maybe both. That’s my cure and I’m sticking to it. 

Here's a photo of my husband and me in the gardens at Versailles.

Don't forget about the book swag giveaway. I still need some more reviews.
Here's a link to Screwing Up Time's Amazon page. And here's one for Screwing Up Babylon.

Victor Hugo and Me

I got just back from Paris! My husband and I had a wonderful time. While we were there Cal and I went to a restaurant called Le Grand Vefour to celebrate our anniversary. The food was fantastic, and the ambiance was amazing--gilt decorations, mirrors, plush velvet, etc. Interestingly, LGV has been a restaurant since 1784. And it has been a hot spot for writers, politicians, and those spreading sedition (not mutually exclusive categories). Napoleon, Sarte, et al. had their own tables. We ate at Victor Hugo's table!

Here are some photos. If you want to read more about our Paris trip, click "Really, I'm Not French."

Paris Vacation

I'm sorry I didn't get a post up on Tuesday. But I'm in Paris!!

My husband and I are celebrating our anniversary.

Here's a photo to enjoy.

The Shakespeare and Company bookstore is just around the corner from the apartment we're staying in.

The New Year, the New Book, and Paris

Happy New Year!!

I’m a bit swamped right now, but I wanted to give you a quick update. The first draft of book 3 in the Screwing Up Time series is now over 60% done!!  The end is in sight both in words and in my mind. And I’m really excited. I love the new character Nin. And she and Mark are about to get themselves into a disaster. And right now, I have no idea how they are going to get out. *Squee*

My goal is to have the first draft finished by the end of February. That way, I can get at least one or two revisions done before my husband and I go to…Paris! For Christmas/my birthday/our 25^th wedding anniversary, Cal is taking me to Paris. If you want to know the whole story about how my amazingly sneaky family kept this a secret for months, I wrote about it at my other blog—click here.

Photo by Alex Sims, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.