As an endless storyteller and futuristic dreamer, in 2002 I decided to try my hand at crafting a coherent, compelling, and potentially interesting novel. My first attempt was something titled Limestone Murders that was about a bacteria that escaped from a research lab, mutated, and created a pandemic that wiped out more than half of the earth’s population, and left all women sterile. I took many writing classes, joined numerous writing groups, and attended multiple fiction writer seminars. Life events intervened, though, and the unfinished manuscript lay dormant for nearly two decades.
During the beginning of the 2020 Covid lock down, I found myself thinking about my manuscript again. After digging it out in March 2020, I decided it would need a major overhaul and it just felt like too much work to resurrect it. Instead, with the Limestone Murders pandemic in mind, I started anew on Privacy Wars, a tale about the aftermath of the pandemic. I was anxious to start writing, but took the time to review my old notes from Raymond Obstfeld‘s classes. I decided this story was going to follow the Hero’s Journey model, at least loosely. I also tracked down Scrivener and spent a week outlining the entire story, scene by scene, something I’d not done before. Outlining gave me a path to follow and tracked my progress. I completed the first draft in early September 2020.
I’m now editing like crazy, sorting though literary agents to whom I’ll send query letters, and creating an online presence to support Privacy Wars, Book One. I can’t wait to get started on Book Two!
