The rainy season should have tapered off last month but - it didn't. It poured over the holidays. It poured yesterday; on the way home from work after the deluge the upper air was clearing up but the side valleys were crammed with white cotton. Today it poured again. Great weather for writing or editing, one would think, but did I spend the cosy hours constructively? Nah. My son made the mistake of sharing a website that has links to all the TV shows and I've been pigging out on Desperate Housewives. Yes, you read that correctly.Since I started the day job a little over a year ago my writing has suffered. I finally finished the edits to romance #2 in December but did I spruce up the digital copy and send it off to the agent? Nope. I asked my sister to read it through and tell me her thoughts. She brought it back today and she likes it a lot, much more so than Café au Lait. She did not like one character's story arc, however. I told her I'd actually written him differently in the first draft but changed it after some feedback from the agent. My sis preferred the first version. I thought it was too predictable; the current one adds a bit of a twist to the end, and I think it trumps the first. I'm leaving it as is.
She doesn't see the story as romantic suspense, though. It's romance, but on the dark side, with a compelling subplot that she loved. (She's not a fan of romance novels generally, and would love to see me get back to work on my other projects, the ones that do not fall into the genre. And the truth is, so would I.) My present quandary is: what is this novel? It's romance, but one of the subplots is pretty strong, probably more so than the lovey-dovey stuff. The other subplot falls right into the suspense arena, but it's not enough to make the story romantic suspense. So where does it fit? Where will it fall in the marketing scheme of things? I know - I should send it off to Susan and let her do the worrying. I will, I will. Soon.
I've been doing a lot of avoiding and procrastinating, but I've got to get my act together now. I have the day job. I have the writing and promoting. And I made a commitment to my son to help him manage his fledgling business. Yes, he's struck out on his own. So, I either do some serious structuring of my time or I'll (continue to) get very little done. Time to slap myself out of the inertia, which I think is a result of my worrying and obsessing over stuff. In the meantime, it's back to those Housewives. I've got five more episodes to get through, you know. Don't you just love that Longoria girl? And Marcia Cross is awesome. Oh dear. Do I have a problem? I watch episode after episode - me, the one who's always avoided TV. Maybe watching it on the Internet doesn't count? Yeah. Right. Am I obsessive-compulsive or something like that? Or is it just the prolonged rainy season that's bogging me down in all this sticky broodiness, avoidance and self-indulgence?
