Filling Up The Plates

Eventually, I'm going to post more blogs than my current average of one a month. It just so happens that I'm a very private person who doesn't want to disclose but the most limited, shallow details of what goes on in my mind and life. Today, I will briefly share thoughts on two new projects I'm working on, in addition to the novel I'm already working on and why I've added more on to my plate. It won't be in that order.

It occurred to me that having one item on my plate just wasn't that appealing. It doesn't satisfy my creative palette. I'm not sure which food group I would fit my first and primary novel into, since it has action, love, a little sex, humor, science, politics, horror, and lots of religion in it; it wasn't filling me up. Since I've been gradually moving closer and closer to "health nut" status, I'll call the main course of my meal, my super hero novel, my super-sized salad. I needed more than a salad.

(So, here comes the salmon...)

The first of my new projects is a post-apocalyptic piece where the world is in shatters. Yet, the story is of a journey of two young people and a dog through the devastated and changing remains of the old US to a safe haven while the world comes undone and becomes anew. There's a little bit of everything to satisfy everybody.

(and here comes the mashed potatoes...)

The second of my new projects is a love story, where two people meet under the most unexpected circumstances and get to reveal themselves and relate on their personal experiences, sharing them with the other person in a very different way. It's a dramatic, inspiring, and sometimes horrific story about the pains of love, family, friendships, life, and finally letting go of it.

The more I think about it, I honestly feel like each project is a full course meal on its own. Perhaps I'm eating from three full plates like an undercover fatty, a cognitive glutton. On the other hand, when I run out of thoughts for one project, I'm quickly tossing out ideas for the other. That's what I needed. I was pressing my mind hard on one, running into writer's block and procrastination. Three stories, maybe more? Oh yes. My mind is firing from all cylinders again and it's right on target.

(and to wash it all down...)

Assuming the world doesn't end, and the light on the other side of the door doesn't come a' knockin, I'm going to try to read 24 books next year. There's nothing like a refreshing glass of romantic, horrifying or tear-inducing fiction every day.

The next books on my list are 'D.C. Dead' by Stuart Woods (a gift from a stranger) and 'Salem's Lot' and 'On Writing' by Stephen King. Who knows, perhaps some more Stone Barrington novels depending on how much I enjoy D.C. Dead.