Scalpel...Suture...Suction...Clamp

It's been a while since I've written here.

Truth be told, it's been a while since I've written anywhere.

To update the last couple months, my agent put me in touch with an independent editor that read the manuscript. I spent 45 minutes on the phone hearing his comments and suggestions, all the while playing back the other comments I received from the publishing houses.

All of the advice I have received is different.

I'm so confused where to take the novel.  It's been a down few months. The market is getting worse.  The publishing houses more selective than ever, and everyone is telling me to turn in a different direction.

So, I hung up the phone facing the task of rewriting the novel for the summer.

Since the phone call, I've spent hours poring through the manuscript seeing where to cut, where to add.

I've come to the realization that slight tweaks here and there aren't going to do it.

Surgery is needed.

Major surgery.

So, for the last few weeks I've been in a mental trance trying to summon some inspiration, some light to illuminate where I can unearth the real story behind my story.  Nothing. Nada.

Until the other morning.  I awoke with the words on the tip of my mind.  I had traveled to that magical place where writers sometimes go, the one between half-sleep, half-awake.  A new character was born.  Inserted in just the right spot of the storyline.  A new thread in the tapestry, yadda, cliche, yadda.

I'm letting the characters take control.  Letting them change the story.

So, suddenly, in the last few days I find that I'm through chapter five.

The Mist, redux.

We'll see where this goes.

~Ciao.