Well, out of the blue, and appropo of absolutely nothing I had planned, I sat down to look at an earlier completed novel.

Not the GRIMM book, which is out on submission, but the werewolf book I’d trunked a year or so ago. SHADES OF GRAY.

The reality was that I’d looked at my notes for the sequel, because I’d had a random idea about one scene, and trying to turn it into a new project, maybe a short story. I got it in my head that the section I’d been looking at had something similar in the first book, so I opened up the file and began looking. I couldn’t find it.

But then I started reading.

And it doesn’t suck. In fact, I’m liking it, a lot, all over again.

Oh, sure, I’m doing a bunch of editing. Oh, sure, there are things getting changed. Definitely making some adjustments.

But I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that it’s not as broken as I thought it was. Don’t get me wrong, there was a big plot problem…but the fix is not as involved as I’d worried. And I’m seeing the solution, which I hadn’t been able to figure out before.

After four days of reading and editing and futzing and changing, I’m not even close to done with it; but am at the halfway point in the novel. And this is a three day weekend, due to President’s Day on Monday closing my office and the courthouse.

I’m researching places to send it.

I think my frustration with it was a bit of blindness, because I’d looked at it and edited and re-drafted it so much that I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Yes, I’m in the midst of a new project, THE CORPSE BEHIND THE CARAVAN. And that’s stalled for a bit while I work on on these edits. The plan is to do the edits of the novel, to do edits on the query letter and the synopsis for the earlier book, and then work on submissions, before returning to the CARAVAN project.

Definitely surprised at myself. Didn’t think I’d look at that novel again. And I’m surprised about my reaction to it.

It just goes to show you that time and distance from your writing isn’t a bad thing.