Two Times The Maturity

Article 10 - June 8, 2017

They say Number Ten is often the one worth celebrating for. To me it’s just the tenth installment, I mean if we had fifteen fingers on each extremity we would be celebrating issue number thirty.

Good morning.

Because a special someone is moving in next week I might as well be productive from time-to-time.

It’s a very different feeling when you felt like you have summited another mountain. That’s right, when Blue Days looms large over the horizon in less than two weeks, it’s only appropriate to pen my thoughts. Grab a chair, sit next to the digital fireplace next to me, and I’ll channel ol’ FDR as we make emergency war proclamations on what I think about the second novel.

With every novel it’s always a grind. With me, at least. I don’t have that kind of get-up-and-go mentality. I write at my own leisure. It’s almost like I handed my writing controls off to a DJ. I don’t control how much I write. But lately wrangled myself into a bit of a schedule. So far it has worked out for me, and I have been able to keep track of time.

But with the second novel, it’s such a different feeling. Many have asked me what does it feel like to pen one, and for a guy who’s done it twice, I’ll tell you. With Fool Me Twice it almost felt I was living a dream. Initially you don’t believe you have completed such an achievement you don’t stop to care about the story itself.

You just wanna tell all of San Diego that you have, written a novel. And that is okay too. The first thing I did when I was done with Kayla’s little manuscript was play video games. I let myself forget. Of course I am still shaking from the excitement and overall euphoria from actually finishing the damn thing I thought I will never, ever finish.

Then you calm down. You slowly process it. You round up plot holes, you fix the errors, you start to really finish up so it goes into print on your accords. Without a physical thing to show someone else is pointless in my head.

Going in it twice is different. Because you have finished one prior, you don’t get that much of a high. Still a nice feeling but lack the excitement. It’s about stacking your chips and building a profile now. It’s no longer a “something I did, please be proud of me” type of affair. Then you go back to work with people just like you did last year once again. The art styles you made everyone else familiar with slowly sets into stone.

If the first novel is an achievement, then the second is the beginning of a long uphill climb we endearingly call “maturity”. Do I still have a tremendous passion for what I love to do? Yes. But am I doing it just to show people I’m actually doing it?

Well, not really.