Working on a new novel already :)

It’s percolating. That’s what I’m calling ‘working’ in this case. 🙂

In the drive through at Chick-Fil-A the other night, I was looking out through the windshield of my mini-van with my girls in the back singing songs and I remembered a quote that my Dad always used to say:

Nothing good ever happens after midnight.

I’ve used this little 6 word line in a number of other pieces of writing (flash and even a novel) but it did get cut from the latest final edit of that novel.

Anyway, sitting there thinking about that, my thoughts trailed…

What if it was after dark and that’s when life came alive?
What if you had to live both during the day and at night (awake) but were two different things during those time periods?
What if one day you’d have to choose your ‘poison’ … which would you choose?
… add in a few more what-if questions and I got to: How can I make this a novel?

As I waited for the car in front of me to place their order and their red tail lights shined back at me, the thoughts started to ramble, roll, run into each other and eventually, the singing in the backseat became a muted sound and an entire ‘synopsis’ of a story hit my psyche.

Sure enough … that’s how every other story I’ve written has come to me (only one came to me while I was actually asleep).

I drove home with my Peppermint and Chocolate Chip milkshake in hand, grabbed my laptop, spent 5 minutes writing up my synopsis and hit ‘send’ on that beautiful New Mail message to my writing budding on the Pacific Coast who sent me back some additional plot ideas. 🙂 After that it went to my writing buddy in the UK, who sent me back enough questions to add in several story arcs, flesh out a few ideas, add a few twists and now I have the basis for an entire novel.

Yes, another one.

After Dark will be novel number 7 (between this me and my other me).

I am going to try hard not to write it before I finish edits on 2 current ones, which the way I work, means I’ll have them done by Christmas and can spend Christmas – New Years writing After Dark (if I don’t start before hand which I’m sure bets have been placed on my ability to withhold).

Now if that’s peaked your interest enough … wait a few days … I’ll post my early pre-synopsis for what popped into my head in a drive-thru line in the late evening on a Monday. 🙂

See you in a few days (’cause you know you want to hear about it)!