Oh man, my brain is fried, as are my arms and typing fingers. But after putting in about 8-9 hours each day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I finished the historical fantasy baseball novel! The All Nations Team has been written! Woo-hoo!

Of course, it's not done-done. Just drafted. Which is a big deal because I've been wanting to write this novel since early in 1998, but haven't had the motivation or the confidence to do it. For one, it involved a lot of research (and Google wasn't around then -- I never coulda done it!), and for two, I think the idea's pretty cool, with some interesting themes I wanted to explore about the era when it's set, and most of all, I didn't want to screw it up!

With the Oregon novel workshop coming up in about a month, I had a perfect motivator, and I banged out about 80-85,000 words in nine weeks or so, from Memorial Day to Sunday, August 1st. I about lost it in the middle, in July, but this last burst of writing really crystallized what the novel was all about for me.

That said, I don't want to write another novel again QUITE so fast. Maybe drafting it in three months instead of two would be good...

At some point I'd like to write about the whole process of writing this novel, but I still have some odds and ends to finish up before the workshop -- I need to polish the opening three chapters first, and then write an interesting synopsis (not an easy thing to do).

But man, it feels great to be done! The last two weekends were pretty much a blur, and I'm looking forward to getting to know my wife again. She's been unbelievably patient through all of this. I'm not sure I would've been so patient... :)

And you know what the scary thing is? On the drive home from work yesterday, I started thinking about the NEXT novel project. I have three possible ideas already brewing, plus this screenplay idea I've had for a while... Sheesh. It never ends. But I'm not complaining. See ya later!