mixed feelings

More snow outside my window today, but even though the wind is freezing cold nothing is accumulating.

My editing has gotten a few chapters ahead of my posts, but it's in for a major slow down next week, about which I have mixed feelings. I'm enrolled in a six week training course starting next week, which hopefully will lead to me landing a job. Alas, finding work in a new country (and a pretty economically depressed region of it) has been harder than I'd hoped. On the one hand I've had loads of time to write and share my work with others these last months, but corollary to my availability to write has been a fruitless search for employment.

It has been great being able to set aside large blocks of time for my book in between job searching. I've loved it, really loved it. And while some day I'd love to write for a living, or even half a living, for now I'm facing yet another test of resilience as a writer. I intend to grab time whenever I can to get the rest of this book edited, but probably this process is going to take several months.

The air outside my window was swirling with snow this morning. I've not had as productive a week as I have lately, but I did get another chapter edited. I'm a bit distracted lately with an idea for another book. I think the closer I get to finishing The Black Dionysia the more eager I am to feel my imagination running free again.

You see, I started work on The Black Dionysia about four years ago, during the autumn of my last full year in Canada. Essentially I locked myself in my room for about twelve hours a day, and while the sky darkened and the air dampened outside, I devoured novel after novel, letting the words of other writers create echoes in myself. I called the process 'tracing', by which I meant I was searching for paths presented to me through novels I had been drawn to read. I don't know how best to characterize this 'tracing'. Was it a metaphysical exercise or a religious ritual? Or was it primarily a way to occupy myself through a challenging season of life? Of course it was all of this, but the most substantial thing to emerge from that time was the skeleton of The Black Dionysia. And for the last four years I have kept my creative world centered around The Black Dionysia.

Even when ideas for other books suggested themselves to me I kept my mind focused on this one novel. But all along, especially in the last couple years, I have looked forward to re-embarking, re-tracing. And about two weeks ago I suddenly felt this urge stronger than ever. Too strong to resist, in fact, and as a result I have begun spending my odd minutes and hours on a new project. I'm not ready to share anything about it yet, and probably won't post any of it until the editing process for The Black Dionysia is complete.

halfway through

Beautiful sunny day today. Got some background writing done on a new project. Having reached its midway point, I'm moving into a new stage with the editing and posting of The Black Dionysia. I'll still be posting chapters here, but not as often as I have been. Instead I'll be working backwards from the ending at the same pace as I'm working forward from the present location, just to make sure I keep on top of the repercussions made by my edits and revisions.