One month into 2010 I’ve managed to write most days that I wasn’t traveling or sick, and a few days make a tremendous amount of progress. Basically the more consistently I write, the happier I am, because I get to see progress on the page and get my thoughts out there to edit and revise even more. The challenge is to be focused and prioritize what I’m writing about.
1. A sequel
Fortunately No. 1 on my list if what I’m currently doing, so I have that going for me. It’s weird revisiting characters and continuing their stories but also fulfilling, because in the back of my mind I always wanted to see where the resolution would come.
2. Fatherhood
Not a book on being an expert on fatherhood or “Try These 10 Steps To Being a Perfect Dad.” But I’m in kind of a sweet spot of fatherhood/parenthood, where Katie and I have to be hands on with our kids almost the entire day. There are so many things I want my boys to be able to know about this time, where they are becoming their own little personalities and Katie and I are being shaped by how we parent and the dynamics of our parents. It’s just – where to find the time between diaper changes and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes?
3. Supernatural thriller
I’ve been tinkering with one for a couple years and am about done with the first draft. It’s risky to try something in this genre, and especially in the setting I have it in (the Civil War), but the story has been in my head for a decade and if nothing else it needs to be purged. But if Book One finds a home I’ve sketched out about six in a series and would absolutely have a blast writing them.
4. Wilder’s Brigade
I’ve collected the main books on this Civil War colonel, the Tullahoma campaign in which his brigade played a huge role in the success of the Army of the Cumberland, and journals of soldiers in his brigade. My next step is to interview some experts who could help fill in the blanks with the geography of the battlefields and personalities of the participants. The main reason I’ve been interested in Wilder since a college term paper I did on him is that during the collapse of the Union army at Chickamauga, his brigade could have plunged into the Rebel advance and possibly changed the outcome of the battle, and the war. Or not – it could have been a huge failure. But the decisions that were made, or not made, have always fascinated me, and I enjoy exploring those subjects, and writing about them even more.
