Meet the Schnoodle

I’m the first person to say that being a novelist is a great gig. People pay you to make up stories–what could be a better job than that? But here’s the negative:  the frequent and extended periods of waiting. You turn in a draft to editors…and then you wait for a month or two or three for their feedback. They give it to you. You discuss and haggle and contemplate and eventually turn in a new draft. Then you wait a month or two or three to see what they think. And this goes on for somewhere between six months and a year (in my experience) before a novel goes to press. Keep in mind–about a month or two of that is actually work time for the writer. The rest is just sitting and waiting.

Granted, you can have other things to work on. Other irons in the fire.  But right now I’m in the middle of one of those waiting periods for my next novel, Ghosts Underground. I should get back the next round of editorial comments in early August. I have a children’s fantasy manuscript that’s finished and that I could start rereading and editing. I have another manuscript–about the 70-year friendship between two women–that I need to shape up. I could start a new novel altogether. But I do not tend to do these things. They’re big projects, hard to pick up for just a day or two or even a week or two at a time. I find, unfortunately, that during these waiting times, I’m all too prone to, oh, watching five hours of True Blood episodes (yesterday.) Or start wondering how the puppy would feel about sitting on top of my desk instead of under it. (Today.)

See results below.

My favorite desktop tool

Adorable, huh? Obviously I needed to take a few photos of him. Instead of writing. This is a schnoodle, by the way. A schnauzer/poodle mix. I highly recommend them. Our guy turns a year old in August. He loves laps, snuggling, extreme bouncing, and dead things. Also, he doesn’t shed.