Note the date folks. Sunday, June 27, 2010. I finished my second book. It's a sequel to the first book -- I'm referring to it as the Second Book in the Kate Monahan Series.
I started this book FOURTEEN years ago. Yep, you read that right. Fourteen years ago. 1996. If you're familiar with the story of how my first book OPTIONS came about (if not see my website www.rosemarie-damico.com) you'll know that I wrote that book in "three months of Sundays". About twelve days of writing. Shortly after finishing that book, I started on the second one. I got about 60 pages in (about ten chapters) and stopped. 1996 was a long time ago and I cannot for life of me remember why I stopped writing at that time. I know there were other things going on in my life at that time (change of jobs, three kids, my husband and I owned our own business, busy, busy, busy). I do remember being very discouraged by all the "No thanks" rejection letters I was getting from publishers and agents for my first book so maybe that contributed to me laying down my pen at that time.
Fast forward to January/February 2009. If you've now read my story about how OPTIONS came about, you'll know that I was about to self-publish the book. I barely remembered the other book but for some reason, I decided to dig it out. That's a story in itself. We had moved houses and I had changed jobs so did I have a paper copy somewhere? Did I have a soft copy on my computer at my current job? I nervously started looking and lo and behold I found it. On my computer at work. It had been sitting on the hard drive for fourteen, lonely years.
Excitedly, I clicked on the file name in Word and lo and behold, the computer told me to enter my password to access the document. I had password protected the document and did I mention that fourteen years is a long time??? I had no idea what the password was. I spent the next two days trying to find software that I could get (cheap) that could break the password. That was two wasted days!
I called my sister in Washington. Did she have a paper copy? She didn't think so but she would ask Dan, my niece's better half who was one of my inspirations for self-publishing the first book -- but you already know that because you're up-to-date on my "story" (see above) LOL. Why Dan would have a copy I wasn't sure, because I do know he wasn't around when I started writing the second book....
While I waited to hear back from my sister/Dan, I called the document back up on my computer screen, and when it asked for a password I typed in a word, and it worked. Duh?! I'm not sure how I remembered it, but I did. I quickly removed the password and read the first 60 pages. And I liked it! I liked it alot.
About a week later I was scheduled to fly to Vancouver (about a five hour flight) and was privileged to be flying Business Class. I took my laptop with me and spent a solid five hours writing in the book in my wide, leather seat, uninterrupted. I was stoked!
I've spent a lot of hours over the last 17 months finishing this book -- way more time than it took to write the first book. My first book clearly fit in the category of "write what you know". This second book is a little of that and a TON of new, undiscovered area. I did a lot of research for this book. Many days I would sit down to write and hit a point in the story where I was asking myself all sorts of questions, so I would change direction and spend hours researching. For this book I found out a lot of information about the Food & Drug Administration in the United States, the Securities & Exchange Commission in the U.S., the New York Police Department.
Last July I took a trip to Manhattan with my son Jordan to scout locations. We had a blast touring around and because of that trip some things changed in the book.
In between writing time, our family has expanded. Our oldest daughter had twins in September so they (along with their older brother) have taken me away from writing for short spells. Is there anything more delicious than spending time with grandchildren? Recently, that same daughter broke her ankle, requiring surgery and many, many weeks on crutches, so we've spent more time with her and the babies. Sometimes my job gets in the way of writing, sometimes the garden calls me. Recently, the swimming pool has been beckoning.....
Today is Sunday, June 27, 2010. 405 pages, 112,155 words, so far untitled. I feel a serene sense of accomplishment.
Stay-tuned for updates on the next steps. Editing with my trustee sidekick, Sheila. Cover artwork photography, modelling, and design with my uber-talented son, Jordan. And my 'you-know-who' model.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
