Uh oh...

I think I've started my next book.

While this might sound like great news, it's a mixed blessing. I have a revisions to finish, and I'm contracted to finish another book -- not to mention the other one 60% written...

But this "new" one has me by the throat. I wrote a bunch of it (77,000 words + hundreds of pages of notes) years ago, meandering all over and finally throwing it aside. Okay... that's not entirely true. It threw me aside, like a rodeo bull tossing a lightweight rider.

A couple days ago, I was thinking about it, though, and the old light bulb went off, and here we go again. The last couple of years, I've spent a lot of time thinking about structure and characters, and returning to the old book, I'm seeing huge (but fixable) problems with both of those aspects. And after a couple days of pouring through the pages, I'm seeing how it could be a much, much better book, while still retaining the stuff that kept me coming back to it.

One piece of which is disturbing levels of violence...

But mostly it's the characters. I've never slept quite soundly, after abandoning them. I really like them. Even if the protagonist and point of view need changing, I think they're the best characters I've ever written.

So here we go again. I've packed my 60%-finished novel into mothballs. While I wait for the editorial letter that will direct my revisions on the finished book, I'm going to jump into the "new" one, which is called Perils of the Road.