The more I immerse myself into being a novelist, the more my mind amazes me. When I came up with the idea for the first novel, I wondered if it would be the only one. Then the second idea came. Would it be the last?

My new idea came to me a few weeks before I finished the first draft of THE RAT QUEEN. I still have a couple others on the back burner, but I know this is the one I’m supposed to do next. The excitement of the idea and my desire to just think about it pushed me to get RAT QUEEN done, to free me up for this one. I’m still in the first few weeks post-draft, so I’m not ready for revisions.

I thought I was going to take a break between novels. But I’ve been writing down ideas and connecting the dots with my characters’ lives. The skeleton of the novel is already decided. Now I just have to discover how they get there.

That’s another thing. When I daydream about these characters, it’s like I realize things that are factual about their lives. I don’t feel like I make these things up, even though I know I do. It’s more like their stories already exist, but I’m just figuring it out. The other day I realized that Jacob (my main character) has a pastor for a father. It wasn’t like I thought, “Oh, his dad should be a pastor. That’ll add conflict.” Instead, I thought, “Wait. Is his dad a pastor? Oh gosh, of course he is! How did I not know that before?”

It’s crazypants.

So now I’m in this weird half-in, half-out place. I’m in love with RAT QUEEN, and I’ve love to get to sub it (the first chapter has gotten great reviews from critiquers) but I’m not sure I’ve gotten far enough away from it to really clean it up. It was the hardest novel I’ve written, and I’m not seeing it with unbiased eyes. Not by a long shot. But am I ready to start a new novel? Am I ready to go back into the cave? At least plotting and planning is relatively safe. I can keep figuring out things and putting the edge pieces on the puzzle without diving completely in.

I don’t have a witty ending for this.