I've been rereading two of my novels and trying to decide how to proceed. One clearly has very little happening. Oh, I thought it had plenty happening when I was writing it, but I can now see it ain't so. Heroine runs away from glam life, takes a wrong turn, and ends up in a tiny town on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Hero is a navy guy on leave. Hero has plenty of internal conflict to carry him along, and enough external as well. Heroine has, well, not much other than her desire to escape her old life for a while. Oh jeez. Cue a cabin romance, and the sparks fly.

But are they real sparks, or contrived ones by yours truly? I think the potential is there, I truly do, but I have to admit that I forced it. Not only that, I fell back on the first thing that came to mind when I wanted to introduce day-to-day conflict. Yes, the dreaded ex-girlfriend. OMG, what was I thinking?

On the other hand, I have a soft spot for this story. I conceived it in Germany. And I wrote the ending scene, which is very rare for me, after only about 30 pages. The final scene takes place in Hawaii. The spooky thing is that I had no earthly idea I'd ever live in Hawaii when I wrote it. I just saw the scene, clear as day, and wrote it. And I've never wavered from it either.

But how to fix a book like this? Clearly, it needs to be ripped apart and rewritten. I'm just not sure I have the vision for it yet.

The other book I'm looking at is my contest finalist, Seducing Evangeline. Yes, with an editor request in the wings, yours truly hit the brick wall of fear and procrastination. Some of it was brought on by the thesis, of course. But not all of it. I kind of feel like Jennifer Apodaca over at Murder She Writes, though I can't really compare not revising and finishing a book to her dilemma. It feels the same to me, but of course I can admit that hers is bigger and more interesting. Turning down a chance to appear in an anthology with a NYT bestseller? But, her reasons are understandable, and it all works out for her in the end.

I could wish for such a choice myself, but it's obvious I'm not ready for that kind of challenge just yet. It is my intention to be ready, though, and every day is a day I need to work toward my goals.

I read a quote recently in one of hubby's resume books: “People who wait for all conditions to be perfect before acting, never act.”

Yikes.

(Yes, I changed the blog again. I was tired of looking at the dropped Gs hanging there in the header. No doubt, I'll change it again and again. It's the Virgo in me, and also, sadly, a hint of my character when it comes to my fiction. Never happy. Never.)