Look at the calendar.

I am.

When a new book of mine comes out, I generally take a peek at the calendar.

It’s a good time to reassess work and/or money that’s in the pipeline. Get a broad view of what the following twelve months are likely to look like in terms of the ebb and flow of both labor and lucre.

The two are linked in the writing game because there is no such thing as a paycheck. I get paid when I submit work or when that work publishes or, from time to time, when that work earns royalties.

Looking at the calendar I can get a general idea of where I am in my current work in progress, when I might finish various drafts, when I’ll be starting the next one, when the previous one will publish, and get an idea of when I’m going to be flush or broke, when I might squeeze in some extra work, when I’ll be insanely busy, when not, etc.

generally the publishing cycle for a novel takes about a year. So when one of my books hits the shelves, that’s about when I’m getting the next one finished. Because I’ve mostly worked ahead of deadline, “finished” for me means a final draft.

There is no final draft this year.

There is no first draft.

There is no draft.

There is no work in progress.

Put simply, that means I will not have a new novel publishing at this time next year.

That’s no the end of the world. In fact, it’s probably for the best. After blasting out 11 books in 6 years, 10 of them written in that span, I’m not the only one who needs a break.

It’s fair to say I’ve saturated the market. Modest though that market may be, it is quite soaked through.

Time to wring it out and put it on a line to dry a bit.

This is what I’m getting at: back up a bit I mentioned that there is “no work in progress.” That means that even if I started a new novel today, this instant, I would not realistically turn in a draft for a minimum of 6 months. And that would be crap. I would not turn in a draft that wasn’t crap for at least 10 months. Safer to say, if I started writing a new novel today, it would not be properly done for a year.

I can write one in much less time that that, a good one, but not either of the ones I want to write next. They will both need some months to develop and be written properly.

So look at the calendar.

I am.

And I am realizing that even if I start writing today, I will not publish a new novel for at least two years.

And I am not starting to write a new novel today.

Folks, my friends, and generous and kind people who read my stories and pay my bills, it is going to be a few years before we do this again.

I didn’t plan it this way.

Less than a year ago, as I contemplated the end of the Joe Pitt series, I was wondering how I was going to fill that gap in my work calendar. You don’t just write any old two books a year. You need the proper combination. There has to be a market for two books a year. And you have to have two big stories a year to tell. It’s not like a carry series concepts in my ass.

As I was contemplating the void and wondering how is might be filled, I was also thinking about my future as a crime writer. How I wanted to proceed. In what direction. This created a natural lull in my writing. A step back to see the landscape.

It was also about this same time that I had a chance to start taking seriously the TV development opportunities that had come my way.

As it was, I’d banked some hard work the last couple years and had the flexibility to take working holiday from novels and speculate a little on some other stuff. By the time the fall rolled around and those speculations both paid off, I was nowhere near ready to start a novel, and suddenly over my head in pilot-writing duties.

Having just now come up for air, I’m looking at the calendar.

Over two years, it tells me, you will not publish a novel for over two years.

Here are the scenarios as I’ve read them:

Quite soon I will know if the secret cop pilot I’m involved in will be picked up. That’s a network gig so they still run on a fairly conventional schedule. If it goes, I’ll work on the pilot and it will be at least several more months before I start a new novel. If it were to be struck by lightning and series episodes were produced, my level of involvement is TBD and I might start on a novel at that point, or whore out in TV land for awhile.

At the same time, the Mystic Arts pilot is being reviewed by HBO. As their development schedule is dictated by the project itself, I may know quite soon, or several months from now if a pilot will be shot. My involvement in a pilot would delay work on a novel, as would any series episodes produced.

The most likely of these scenarios is that neither show will go to pilot and that in a few short weeks I will be working on a novel. Which will not publish for, at the very least, two years.

This seems an enormous amount of time to me. It seems both very right and terribly wrong.

Already a long shot bet, SLEEPLESS is giving no indication that it will be breaking from the rear of the pack and making a hard run to the finish. Yes, we’ve yet to hit the first turn, but you can sometimes see it in a horse’s stride that today is not the day.

I love the damn book. But it wore me out. And that was before I had to sit right back down and write MY DEAD BODY.

At first the breather was just a breather. Then it was an opportunity. Now it feels like the right thing to do for the books.

Two years plus will maybe give some folks a chance to find the books, give some folks a chance to catch up. It will certainly give me a chance to catch up. Catch my breath. Already the experience of working in TV is reminding me of how good life is as a novelist. Making me miss terribly the feeling of being alone with my story with no one to answer to but myself. When I turn back to the work in a few months or a year, I think it will show in the writing. In a good way. I hope.

And hey, you readers who pick up every book the day it comes out, thank you. I can’t say more than that without crying. I can’t. I’m sorry I won’t be there for a couple years. You’ve been there for me and it feels like a dirty trick to slip on the arrangement. Hope you’ll be there when I get back.

In there meantime I’ll be here a little more often the next few weeks while things sort themselves out.

I’ve recently received some emails asking about my writing. How I work kind of stuff. I generally discourage “How to do it” questions about writing because I have so little to say on the subject, but I can certainly answer questions about my own process. So if you have any questions, email over the next few days and I’ll handle them all in one post.

till later,
-c