I’m sitting in a hotel room in Redding, California after about ten days of travel, sightseeing and author events. To say I’m tired after more than a week of travel is an understatement, but it’s only because this comes after an exciting year of ups and downs. UP? I got an incredible opportunity from Gallery Books to write the Summerset Abbey series. Down? I was diagnosed with cancer and my deadlines were insane. But as the year comes to a close, I look forward with anticipation and excitement on what the next twelve months will bring.
One of the things it has already brought me is an exciting sense of optimism and new ideas. For a writer, a shiny new idea is like a new crush. I’ve been married for 25 years, so it has been a while since I have felt that rush of excitement over a crush, but I can still recognize the symptoms when they occur and I have not one, but three ideas that are distracting me with their gleaming brilliance. Because I write both adult/new adult and teen historical fiction, I have the freedom to work on more than one idea at a time and man, I have some killer freaking ideas.
Like many authors, my contract commitments put one of the ideas on the forefront and so I’m playing with it in a giddy, joyful way that I’m finding completely intoxicating. I have coming commitments, of course, a novella for HarperTeens’ Impulse line and more revisions for my upcoming books, but I’m spinning with joy and a heady sense of freedom.
Each new book begins as a germ of an idea. As it percolates, other ideas join it and names and bits of conversations or sentences come to mind. As a historical writer, I then begin research and the more I learn, the more the idea grows. Then I send a few lines to my agent to gauge her reaction. And then I begin to write things down.
So. Much. Fun.
The idea I’m working on now takes place in the Edwardian era like Summerset Abbey, but earlier and encompasses both England and India. The New Adult/Young Adult I’m toying with takes place during WW1 and crosses several continents. What I’ll actually end up writing is still up in the air, but it is so exciting to just play again.
Brand new ideas, new characters, new research and new stories. Is it any wonder I’m happy?
On the blog: The author of the Summerset Abbey series, @teribrownwrites, talks about new ideas. (Click to Tweet)
@teribrownwrites dishes on what she might write after Summerset Abbey and Born of Illusion! (Click to Tweet)
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