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| Robert Ellis |
Happy to say that all
things are good! City of Echoes has
been proofed and sent to the typesetter. I love my editors, I loved working
with them. I've always been lucky, or maybe blessed, to have editors who care
as much as I do about the finished novel. This time around the entire
experience from start to finish was terrific. I feel that City of Echoes is the best novel I've ever written, so putting something
I cherish in the hands of such good people means a lot to me.
But there's more. Cover
art is in progress, and I've been meaning to take that new author photo since
the snow began piling up in February! Now, to my horror, it's begun to snow on
this first day of Spring, with 4 to 6 inches expected overnight! So I guess
I'll be waiting a bit longer to take that photo!
Finishing a novel is
always difficult for me. Because City of
Echoes is something of an epic thriller, waiting for the shine to wear off has
been more than challenging. Instead of dwelling on it too much, I'm making
every effort to blast through the haze and begin something new. A friend of
mine used to work as an assistant to one of the brightest producer/directors in
Hollywood. She always used to talk about how frightened her boss was when he
began working on a new film. I found everything she was saying something of a
shock because her boss had produced, directed or acted in more that forty films,
and won or been nominated for too many Oscars to count. So if an artist like that
(and I'm intentionally leaving his name out even though it's an easy enough guess),
if an artist like that can admit to experiencing fear when he faces a blank page, I
guess I can, too.
It may be the
difference between seeing yourself as a writer, and seeing yourself as a
storyteller, which has been mentioned before in earlier posts. Seeing yourself
as a storyteller may amplify the feeling a fear because there's so much more at
stake. I have always had that uneasy feeling when it's time to push the boat
away from the dock. But this time around things are a little different. This
new project will be something of an experiment for me because it picks up where
City of Echoes ends, and just keeps
going. Six weeks will have passed in story time between the two novels, and that's
it. Six weeks go by and the story continues. Even better, this new project is
more crime story than thriller, with an entirely unique set of story problems. The
experience feels like a breath of fresh air. It's new and exciting and I'm
pleased to say "all things are good!"
Sleep loose,
Robert
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