It is Thursday. I have thoughts. My own, not the Universe’s. At least for this week. Today I’m going to talk about writing. Not so much the craft invovled, not about process or type of writer, ie. plotter, pantser, puzzler, etc. And I’m not going to talk about books in general but this book. Y’all know the one–the one with the working title of ARIEL’S DANG BOOK (that’s not what I call it in my head but keeping this safe for work. Anyway…

A short history lesson. I can’t remember when I actually started this book. Oh, wait…maybe I can. It was after I got out of the hospital. That was…what…two years ago? It was Ariel’s turn for a book. I’d set up the last Penumbra Papers book (GHOSTS AND THE ANCIENT STONES) with a book for Ariel in mind. I had a vague idea for his book–changling librarian, set in Seattle, Ariel sent to seduce her for…reasons, unclear at the time. Recovery took longer than anticipated. And I got distracted.

I’d been toying with a new book, had a full plot and characters and probably a third of the scenes already sketeched out. I concentrated on it and in Oct. 2024, I released MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON. And immediately went back to work on Ariel’s book. At which point, I stalled out. Mostly.

As y’all know from my Wednesday Words posts, I write a lot of scenes from prompts. My weird brain has a way of making sense of them all and figuring out where they belong in the whole story. Except this time. I know the scenes have a place, but no real clue about the story beyond what I started with. Except.

I no longer wanted the book set in Seattle. For…reasons. After some research and deliberation, I picked Rochester, NY. Again, for reasons. Slowly, the pieces started to fall into place. Things were happening that made sense for the story but that became the rub.

Let me digress. As mentioned, I’m a puzzler. I start with all the straight pieces put together as a frame. I know the setting, the characters, the beginning and the ultimate end. Oh, not the precise details of the end, but I always know where the story is going. The pieces all fall into place on the journey there. And therein lies the problem with this book. I had no clue how it ended. Note the use of “had” rather than “have.”

Here’s the weirdly fun part. As a way to occupy my mind when I kept hitting writer’s block, I started playing Bubble Shooter on my computer. It’s a simple game. You “shoot” colored bubble at rows of bubbles, matching colors. It takes 3 or more bubbles to get a “hit.” They disappear when that happens. It’s mostly mindless. Or was. It’s a game of angles and numbers of same-colored balls. My brain works in mysterious ways. It started seeing things from the book–scenes both written and not–instead of the balls. I started dreaming about playing the game during those chimerical moments between sleep and wakefulness. Finally, as I was playing the game for real, things fell into play. I saw the end of the story. I saw the reason for it all. And now, ARIEL’S DANG BOOK–which still doesn’t have a real title–makes sense. I know where it’s going. I know why certain things happen and why certing things are important.

The only problem now is getting real life to cooperate. That and enough coffee to drink. I have a roadmap, I’m tanking up on my fuel of choice and with any luck at all, I’ll get to The End sooner than later. 🤞🏼