They call it “Literary Abandon.”

I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. I mean, last November I participated in NaNoWriMo, which bills itself as “30 Days of Literary Abandon.” But I still wasn’t sure what that meant. Perhaps giving oneself completely to one’s art, trying to push yourself toward the goal?

In November, I used this year’s NaNo to start the first draft of the sequel novel in the Triangle trilogy, TRIANGLE: TAROT. But unlike last year, when False Mirror just flowed out like wine from a jug, this manuscript flowed like sap from a maple on a winter day. I barely made the 50K word challenge within the time goal, and was nowhere near finishing the novel. Even worse, the first draft went completely off the rails.

I tried for the first week in December to recover it, but I knew it was doomed. So I stopped and regrouped. Something had to be done. So I gathered my noted, and headed away. Away to the Seattle for the holidays. And I hoped for a Christmas miracle.

Luckily enough, on Christmas morning, I was actually granted one. The entire novel laid itself out before me, in glorious technicolor, in one of those beautiful flashes of inspiration.

And sure enough I was in no position to write it down. I was in the shower.

Sure enough, though, I wrote down what I could as soon as i finished, and started writing. I also decided to visit a couple of locations, as I’d seen them to make sure I had them exactly as I remembered them, for the book. Places you’re going to see really soon.

Since then, I’ve been hitting the word processor every day – an average of 1500 to 2000 words per day, in another month of Literary Abandon. And I’m having a blast. What does it mean?

It means times like today, when I sit down at the PC, start typing, and the next thing I know, it’s dark outside, it’s 10 p.m. and I’ve written 4,000 words and two chapters.

It means suddenly discovering characters and situations that branched off, as the cast of the novel take me t places I didn’t realize I was going when  first imagined the story – and thee story they’re telling me is better than the one I imagined.

And it means pushing hard to finish as quickly as possible, so I can get this into the hands of my beta readers, proofreaders and editor, all in hopes of getting it into the hands of the people who are clamoring for it most of all – my fans who are now asking for my next novel an almost daily basis.

So what’s literary abandon? It’s making writing the thing that matters most, I believe. It’s become not just my avocation. It’ become my passion. And I can do that now, thanks to you and your support. .

Thank you, everyone.