"I'm sick of sitting 'round here, trying to write this book." --Bruce Springsteen
The feeling of typing "THE END" on a first draft is something I won't even attempt to describe. You know it'll come eventually (especially if you've already signed a contract), but the emotional, instinctive part of your brain doesn't really believe that until it sees those words at the bottom of a screen.
Now, both logical and emotional sides know full well that this is hardly the end of your work on this manuscript. In fact, the difficult part--fixing all the stuff you tried to fudge the first time with the hope that "maybe nobody will notice"--is looming on the horizon. Especially if, as in my case, your editor is really good at what she does and disgustingly right about what needs to be improved.
But you don't think about that right away. You exhale, you smile, you sit back in your $89 Office Depot "executive" chair, and you revel in the sense of accomplishment. All those weeks/months ago, when you typed "Chapter One" at the top of a screen, and noted that the Microsoft Word counter at the bottom of the screen registered, "Words: 2," you could envision this moment, but you didn't know how you'd get there.
Now, you can't really explain how you managed it, but the evidence is beyond argument. The draft is done. Pop open a bottle of bubbly (in my case, caffeine-free Diet Coke, because I know how to live), order in for dinner and make plans with your significant other. You deserve it.
Then, get to work on the next book proposal. I'm 7,000 words into now, and flailing.
On a completely other subject:
If you've never read one of Chris Grabenstein's terrific John Ceepak/Danny Boyle mystery novels, get off your butt and go get one! The latest (and, as with each successive book, best), MIND SCRAMBLER, publishes tomorrow, and there's no excuse for not buying one.
Ceepak, for the uninitiated, is an ex-military policeman (who bears NO resemblance to Lee Child's Jack Reacher) who lives by the West Point code of ethics: He will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do. If you think that sounds easy, try getting through a day telling nothing but the truth, or calling absolutely everyone who can't do so on every lie they tell. It's hard.
But through the series, Ceepak has gained some humanity, thanks in a great part to his new-ish job as a policeman at the New Jersey shore town of Sea Haven, where he has partnered with Danny Boyle, a party kid who took the job to attract girls, and has learned through his partner about responsibility and ethics. Danny is growing up before our eyes.
And in this book, he has a LOT of growing pains: Danny's ex-girlfriend Katie, (who left after Book 2, Mad Mouse) has shown up in Atlantic City, where Danny and Ceepak are doing some police work, mostly involved with Ceepak's father, a man who should not be discussed, since yesterday was Father's Day, and he really doesn't deserve to be honored. Read the book; you'll find out.
Anyway, Danny runs into Katie, now working as the nanny for a famous magician (sorry--illusionist) working at one of the A.C. hotel/casinos. And within hours, Katie is found dead, in compromising position and equally compromising clothing. And it's up to Danny and Ceepak to find out why, and how.
To tell more would be unfair, but suffice it to say nothing is what it seems, except the bond between the two Sea Haven cops who are teaching each other about what it means to be a man and an officer of the law (Ceepak teaching Danny) and what it means to be a friend (in reverse).
Grabenstein, who is a friend, is also a very good writer. His dialogue sounds like people talking to each other, his plots are clever and convoluted in ways that make me envious, and his characters have depth and dimension.
Go out and get a copy of MIND SCRAMBLER. You don't have to read the series in sequence, and after you read this one, you'll want to read all the others. I, personally, can't wait to read the next.
