Three such small devices: my original Nook, my newer Nook, and my iPad. The Nooks are for my Barnes & Noble ebook purchases, but that old Nook also contains many books I downloaded from Kobo using my Murder By The Book account. They’d then get a portion of the sales. I can still do that as a way to support a local, independent bookseller, but now I can do it using the Kobo app on my iPad. My iPad also has a Kindle app.
Three little devices packed with hundreds of fiction and nonfiction books. There are many I haven’t read because I bought them just before the pandemic or during the pandemic, and I haven’t read any fiction during those months. I’m not sure there’s a reason for that or what the reason is.
Maybe I’m just too lost in the world of my own fiction.
Those pages are the draft of my newly completed third novel in the Neverending Saga. I’m pausing here, because I’ve moved back into the home office from the writing sanctuary. I’m going to do a thorough edit of all three books at my larger desktop computer.
The first book needs better chapter divisions and the storyline needs scrutiny and a few enhancements due to many things I’ve come to understand about the characters over the course of the second and third books.
The second book is way too long. I have good ideas about where to trim it without losing any story.
By the time I’ve finished those edits, I’ll be ready to read the third book again with fresher eyes. Then I’ll hit the ground running with Book 4, which promises to deliver some fun, some growth, and some changes to these characters I love so dearly. Even the ones who aren’t lovable, because sometimes they’re fun to explore.
Yeah, I know people think my fascination with dolls is weird/silly/a waste of time. Longtime readers know dolls were my first characters as a youngster. I wove stories for them in my head long before I put pencil or pen to paper or used Daddy’s typewriter. Letting dolls stand in now as characters often amuses and inspires me. That’s a good thing. I realized when I put them all together to shoot a photo, five really important characters are missing, but it’s only because I haven’t surveyed my inventory yet to match them to dolls.
People can be driven and/or comforted by a variety of passions. Mine is creativity. To get to creativity, I draw from art, music, nature, and my relationships and life experiences. Through creativity, I examine, contemplate, explore, reason, feel, advocate, and speak my truth and my conscience.
Will my Neverending Saga ever be on tiny devices? I have no idea. The first time I ever saw the phrase below, it was on a wedding gift to Tom and me. It still makes sense.
“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”
Arthur Ashe
