"In a hole in the sidewalk, behind a parking meter, there lived a Kobbit."

"In a hole in the sidewalk, behind a parking meter, there lived a Kobbit.

This was not a dry, comfortable hole like those of his country cousins --no, this was a wet, slimy, smelly hole."


I have started a new story, and this one I'm going to finish. I don't know how much I'll talk about it here, but I'm pretty committed to actually seeing it through to the end. I've got a work schedule worked out; a plan of attack. I'm conscious after so many false starts of the pitfalls. I'm trying not to underestimate the difficulties.

On the other hand, after the last few months of dabbling, I think it can be done. I'm more or less financially secure, the store is stable, I have the time, energy and health. The creative juices seem to be there, under the surface.

All I really need is the Commitment. My life has to be given over to the project entirely. Like a marriage or a good job, I can't enter into it lightly, thinking "I'll see what happens." It is going to turn parts of my life upside down, so I need to be absolutely certain I'll see it through.

What's changed is, that I now have an outlet that I can be certain will be used -- online.

So if you run into me, and I seem sort of absentminded or distracted, it's because my head is in the story. If I go on about it here on the blog, forgive me. If I jump into a project fully, I can get pretty intense.

I'm not really sure, though, that I will in fact talk about it here.

For one thing, I've come to realize that I need be nearer to the end of the novel, than the beginning, before I start posting it, because things that happen later in the story can completely change things earlier.

It's not like a blog entry, complete in itself.

It's more like a big, messy jigsaw, always incomplete and changeable.

Actually, I probably will talk about it here, but I probably won't post much of the story until I'm certain I've got a firm outline.

Wish me luck.