April 6, 2005
Today's been a writing day. Spent most of the morning writing an article about a Phase III clinical trial for breast cancer. I've been dithering this afternoon. Rewrote, invoiced and sent off the article, then spent some time on the American Medical Writers Association website applying for jobs that were posted on the jobs board. I'm putting off writing the first draft for an article about peculiar genetic things that have been discovered since the completion of the Human Genome Project--stuff like alternative splicing and A to I RNA Editing and protein regulation of DNA, though I'd better buckle down and get to work on it soon.

I also quickly started on another synopsis as a possibility for the follow-up to Serpent's Kiss, only this one doesn't involve Derek Stillwater. I like the nugget of the idea, but it's going to require a lot more thinking to turn it into something usable. It's a kidnap story, but a kidnapping with a particularly ugly spin.

That's kind of where I am these days. For years I got an idea and ran with it. Most of them were probably pretty good, but I wasn't able to sell a lot of them. Now I think my writing technique is good, but I'm working more to develop stories before I write them. Not outline, but try to develop a story concept that is more well-rounded.It's like looking at a block of marble and going, yeah, there's a great sculpture there, but maybe I had better draw a couple sketches before I start chipping away. At one time or another I would have just said, "To hell with it," and dived in, and maybe I still will, but I'm trying to work on the assumption that Irene can sell Serpent's Kiss (ASS U ME is Assume), and that requires a slightly different mindset. Also, I don't want to waste time on projects that my agent isn't interested in marketing. I've been down that road before and I'll pass on the re-run, thanks.

Well, back to work.
Best,
Mark Terry