Palate cleansers

June was a busy month for travel, some of it unexpected.  The latest was two trips to NH.  The first was to donate the last lot of Edgar books from last year to a library in Maine (the other batch went to our library here in Beverly), and apart from the pleasure of meeting up with my friend A (who is ferrying the books the rest of the way to Maine), I got to visit some archaeological friends out in the field.  It was a charming site, beautifully situated on a river, and it made me a bit nostalgic for fieldwork.  However, I was very happy to be in my air-conditioned office last week (it was 96–100 degrees F here, and a real steam bath).  The next trip was also to New Hampshire, with Mr. G’s family.  Since the trip was historical in nature and involved crawling around in rickety church towers and wandering through cemeteries, it was right up my alley.  Since the weather was fantastic, and the cops were involved only once, it was counted a success.

These trips were great, because they also distracted me from my WIP—works in progress.  I’ve mentioned having “Plan B” before, that thing to occupy you while you’re waiting.  Waiting to hear from an editor, an agent, a reader with notes on your latest opus can drive you crazy if you’re not carefully distracted.  For me, it’s not just a good idea, it’s my process.  A draft is always better once it has, well, composted for a while.  I get a little distance—and therefore, a lot of perspective—and I find I can do a really good job on the rewrite.  Plus, if you’re working on Plan B, you’re making good use of your writing and work time and we Puritan types approve of that. 

Okay, so if you read this regularly you know that I’m working on an espionage novel and waiting for notes back on that.  So, I started work on a short story.  With werewolves.  I was tickled to be asked because werewolves don’t figure in my work so far.  Not even a whiff of a wolf-pelt.  But I loved the idea that folks thought I could do it and I love trying new things and so I went and banged a draft out.  It was fun, and I can see all sorts of other things to do with the characters and that world.  Since it’s only a first draft, it also needs work, but I got some ace criticism from Toni.  Emailing back and forth with her taught me that it really is good to say out loud or print what you’re trying to do.  Being specific about what you’re trying to do lets you figure out whether you’re actually achieving it. 

So now I want to let that sit a while before I go back to it.  All the parts I need are there, just not in the right places, and like a washing machine full of wet towels, it’s a little unbalanced.  Ke-thunk, ke-thunk, ke-thunk.  With any luck, when I go back to it, I’ll be able to redistribute the key elements and it will be a lot smoother, and I’ll end up with a fluffy batch of warm towels.  Fluffy, warm werewolves.  You know what I mean. 

In the meantime, I’m occupying myself with another Madam Chandler short story.  So that means going back to Stone Harbor and deciding whether I’m going to finally do the project I wanted with pirates, or whether that’s a whole novel.  With any luck, by the time I finish that, I’ll be ready to go back to my werewolves and spies.