Quiet Hours

The thing about the quiet hours that spin out, sometimes feeling endless, between published work is that it only looks from the outside like nothing is happening.

Even in the quietest (or busiest-doing-other-things) moments, the engine continues to churn somewhere deep inside. The imagination is never idle, whether it’s busy at a given time working a problem, like character or plot or organization of ideas, or lost in simple everyday fantasy. And the latter is usually the source of the best ideas, the moments when your imagination runs completely free, discovering connections that only become apparent when your conscious mind calms enough to allow your subconscious out to play. Those moments are the source of the connections that surprise and provoke and delight.

It’s been rather quiet on these pages over the past few months, to be sure, and it may well continue to be for some time yet; my crystal ball is a little fuzzy on that point just now. But underneath, the engine continues to fire at a steady clip.

First there’s the completed sequel to Believe in Me. Revisiting the world of Tim Green and company has been an amazing journey and I can’t wait to share the new story with you. At this point, I have only myself—and my obsession with lyrics—to blame for the delay in publication, as I continue to wait on permission to use one particular lyric quote that’s both the perfect summation of a central element of the story, and the inspiration for the book’s title. Patience, my friends. This question will get resolved one way or another before too long, and when it does, and the new novel moves into publication mode, you’ll be among the first to know.

And then there are all the other ideas that are currently in various stages of coming to fruition…

• At some point last year I realized that in 2016 I’ll be celebrating 20 years as a music writer. I’m not going to carry that thought any farther here today—it’s a whole ’nother post in itself—but that number 20 definitely felt auspicious. Looking forward to sharing more about the related project(s) soon…

• Meanwhile, back on the fiction front, I tinkered a bit last summer with an idea for a third novel, building a rough outline and playing out a few scenes, but the narrative wasn’t getting traction for me, so I set it aside. And then, the other day, in a quiet moment, a critical element of the story fell into place like the key piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Yes. That works…

I’m not saying quiet hours are over—not by any means. They’re essential to the process and must be guarded jealously. I’m just saying, don’t misinterpret them. The quiet hours are the golden moments when everything happens.