What to write?
Yesterday I sent the “final” draft of Understanding Hope to Wipf & Stock. They will probably find errors, but after corrections the published version will be almost identical to the draft I sent them. Their author guidelines are emphatic: no substantive edits after this! Coming after books about love (my dissertation), civility, and faith, Understanding Hope will probably be my last philosophy book.
I’ll retire from college teaching soon; a year or two, maybe three. I want to turn my attention to fiction. First step: I noticed that Wipf & Stock has a fiction imprint. Would they be interested in (re)publishing Buying the Bangkok Girl? When CamCat Publishing bought out SynergEbooks, they kept my fantasy adventure story, The Heart of the Sea, on their menu of titles, but they dumped Bangkok Girl because of its subject matter, sex trafficking. CamCat returned copyright to me, and I am free to find a new publisher. If Wipf & Stock isn’t interested, I’ll look elsewhere.
Second step: I’ve been editing Castles, with input from Sarah and her siblings. It’s a long story, so it should be published in three parts. The editing has really only started; much work remains to get Castles ready for publication. Most importantly, the ending needs sharpening. Sarah has planned another sibling retreat later this month. I hope Gary and Dawn have ideas.
Third step: well, that’s the question. The first draft of Castles was completed in 2015. The tumults of life have interfered—Karen’s cancer and death, meeting and marrying Sarah, a split in the church, new teaching responsibilities, faculty clerking, new church responsibilities—I haven’t written new fiction for five years. What should I write next?
There’s no shortage of possible projects. In 2016 I began a sequel to Bangkok Girl, but when Karen’s cancer resurfaced, I lost energy for it. A file on my computer labeled “Apple Two” is ready for me to pick it back up. I have ideas and a few paragraphs for a Christmas “ghost” story (stealing and adapting ideas from Dickens). Reading tales from A Thousand and One Nights for Honors 290 sparked ideas for a 21st century Aladdin story; I have a few notes on my computer for that too. Covid-19 reinforced an idea I’ve had for an Oregon located post-apocalypse story, and it also gave me the germ of a computers-after-humans story.
Just listing fiction projects increases my desire to get to it. Retirement? Not yet. I’m committed to teaching and serving as faculty clerk. God has called me to my work as a teacher; to borrow phrases from Robert Frost: I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.
