It’s been a while since I posted. My excuse is that I recently moved from Alameda to Tiburon. That sounds simple and straightforward. It wasn’t. The move took a huge amount of mental and physical energy, not to mention the emotional toll of leaving the home I shared with Mary for eleven years, and the challenge of dividing a lifetime of furniture and other possessions among the kids, friends, charity, and my new home. Now that I’m settling in, I know it was the right decision – a new start in a new place.
I am excited to announce that I have finished my novel: The Spy Who Came Home. It is 72,000 words, much trimmed and tightened from the sprawling version that was over 100,000 words a year ago. This effort was helped immeasurably by my partner, Melinda Cross, who also happens to be a terrific writer and editor. My next step is to polish my query letter and send it to a few literary agents I know. I’ll do that after Labor Day, as the publishing world largely closes down for August. I’ll keep you posted on responses. Fingers crossed.
Finishing a multi-year writing effort is quite a personal milestone, but I already have an idea for my next project. It is just taking shape but will be a departure from my past writing: a literary novel. It’s too early even for a working title, but the premise is contained in the opening sentence: On the morning of his seventieth birthday, John Di Grazia awoke to discover that his wife had died. I am going to try to channel my own loss and subsequent struggle into the story of a man who is quite different from me. Fiction offers the opportunity to explore real people, events, feelings, and relationships, transforming them into a compelling story that moves the reader. That’s my goal.
This project, like any at this early stage, may go nowhere, but I have to try. Also, I am taking a different approach to the writing process. In the past I simply began writing and let the characters take me where they will: no outline, no character biographies, no key tension points plotted in advance. While this approach was quite freeing, I inevitably wrote myself into corners I then spent months digging out from. This time around, before diving in I am creating a biography of my protagonist and outlining key scenes and conflicts that will get me to a satisfying conclusion. Stay tuned.
Great news! My first chapter at www.davidlapiana.com under “Works in Progress.”