Never give up! Never surrender!

I have been working on the coffee house book (sort off and on, I suppose) since November 2005. The idea behind it has changed quite a bit, and I'm very happy with the outline's current incarnation. But it's been a long, frustrating path to get where I am in it. There were many times I wanted to just walk away from the idea altogether, convinced it would never work, or that I wasn't good enough to do it justice, or that pursuing writing a novel at all was a colossal waste of my time.

I'm so glad I didn't quit. Because I really am excited and passionate about the coffee house book, and the other books that will come with it. (Collection. Not series.) In fact, I'm passionate enough about this project that I'm willing to devote as much of my writing career to the collection as is necessary to make it complete, whether it takes another year or ten.

I will not give up on this collection!


There's something strange that happens to writers when they get an idea they're supposed to write. It sticks with them like nothing else. I'm serious.

For the past seven years, the coffee has been rattling around in my mind almost nonstop. No matter what else I've worked on, what other job I've held, that damn book won't leave me alone. I smell the characters' favorite drinks when I make my own coffee in the mornings. I dream about the characters. When I play at writing other stories, elements of the collection creep into the narrative.

And so, for seven years, I've worked on the coffee house book. It's developed into a collection. I've got pages and pages of (necessary) background notes. And I'll keep working on the collection--starting with the coffee house book--until it's done.

There's a reason the coffee house book has taken over my brain. I honestly don't know what will happen once the book is done. Of course, I would love for it to be published, and my intention is to seek publication. But if that doesn't happen, I'm still going to write the rest of the books in the collection, even if no one else ever reads them. It's the only way to get these characters out of my head: tell their stories.

Never give up. Never surrender. And by Grabthar's hammer, the collection will get written.