Family of writers

Wow, watching a documentary about Usain Bolt and his misery over the false start in Daegu, South Korea, makes me think how important it is to know how to fail without giving up on your dreams. He might have problems but Usain will be back in London. Unfortunately, many people start and after just a light tremor in their careers never come back again. I'm not talking about myself of course but it is wise to remind oneself that you should never give up (Yes, I mean you as well!).

And I am trying to pass the same message on to my daughter who is now writing and drawing her first book for children. She sometimes feels the process is too slow but I wonder where she's got this from... Anyway, 16 drawings away she is plodding along and learning Photoshop painlessly through her book too - and she isn't even 10 years old yet.  I keep encouraging her and she is really enjoying it and it really excites her that she will be able to show her new book when back in school in September (whatever keeps her going).

My wife doesn't need the encouragement and her baking book is now almost finished. Some copy editing, proofreading and Kindle formatting, and that will be it. So, yes, it seems we have turned into a family of writers and 2012 is already proving to be a monumental year for us (including the fact that we will - for the first time ever - attend the Olympic Games). After my first professional book in March, three more are coming along nicely too and all of this from a single family within a year. I am proud, I am happy and we keep going on so watch the space.

New Book - old passion

Just watching Forrest Gump and Lieutenant Dan inspecting their first catch. What a movie, what a story - the hell, what a soup of stories and messages. A fantastic platform to think about new book titles. Wait, no worries, I am not trying to write another Forrest Gump story here, it's just some kind of epiphany or something - I guess.

Anyway, I am now pulling together branches for a new fiery novel but this time around the dough for it will need to be kneaded, the recipe followed to the dot. It's interesting, I got an inspiration last year and my first novel poured out of my memory - already there, already structured. Yeah, not a perfection but nevertheless. This time, it's fiction in its purest sense - I am not engaging with my past experience and everything in its entirety is made up. I'm fleshing out characters, painting scenes, sewing plots and approaching writing with scientific rigor.

It's a test I guess but I love writing, I really do and even this new, much more systematic approach that the story demands from me is not going to defer me from continuing living my passion - something I dreamed of for so long but never had the fire in me to get past a couple of sentences.

It's a different genre from my first novel but I don't care - as long as my brains entertain my fingers into producing something of decent quality. In the mean time, I am still waiting for the proofreader to get her job done and enjoy every moment with my family. I am blessed and grateful for that every single day of my life.

Keep going

I took a break last weekend and moved on during the week but my day job took a good part of me so I left the working week on Friday completely drained. My daughter got an ear infection puncturing her ear drum so I decided not to write anything during the weekend. I need to be with my family and take some more break before completing the novel.

Despite the setback, the story keeps unfolding into a set of twists and turns poised to keep my readers glued to the book since anything can happen to my characters, and I'm not just talking about the main character here. All of this makes me very happy and yet another short break is proving more productive than I originally dared to believe.

All in all, 10 more days to complete the first draft but now, I've got to focus on my family and my daughter in particular, poor little girl. It will take 2 months for the ear drum to heal itself and her daily routine has changed overnight but I still remember the nightmares of childhood diseases so nothing new on one hand but a terrible feeling when it comes to your own child.