The Shift

The shift has started. It occurred right after Labor Day in my part of the U.S. Like it always does. Like the weather gods know the Gregorian calendar.

The sun comes out and stays out. The stickiness of summer is over because the dew point is lower. Instead of all the heat and humidity pressing in from all sides, the air feels crisp and fresh. At least where I am in Central Virginia.

It’s because we’ve hit the Autumnal Equinox. The Balance of Days. When day and night are of equal length. When we start gently sliding toward Winter. Which also means I’m closing in on finishing my latest novel.

I write on the computer and do a few drafts like that, going over them on screen, but there’s nothing like a change of environment to read the whole thing on paper. Here I am below sitting outside my house under a couple of hickory trees and reading what I’ve written to date:

I like to print out the entire manuscript draft at my local Staples store and put it in a binder. For checking, fixing, and asking myself questions about the story. And I use lots of sticky pads, pens, and colored markers to jot down what I have to do to prepare a better version for sending to my editor in the first week of October.

Once I’ve considered the editor’s suggestions and made the necessary changes, I flow it all into a paperback design and send it off to Amazon to print a single “author’s copy” so I can read it again as it would look and feel in book form. That’s the beauty of Print-on-Demand.

Then, after another round of fixes and improvements, it’s off to my trusty “early readers” for yet more feedback and possible alterations before finishing it up.

The new book will be out around the end of this year. The title and premise are still secret—notice how I’ve cleverly obscured the title in the image above—but I might do a cover reveal or another hint at some point before then.

Another Shift

With this book, I’m also shifting my writing genre. I started out with historical fiction (NEW YORK 1609), then moved into sci-fi/time-travel (the NEANDER series), and I’m now writing and publishing my first suspense thriller. It’s a genre populated by some of my favorite authors—Lee Child, Michael Crichton, John Grisham—and I’m really enjoying it.

A Final Shifting Thought

The autumnal equinox also marks the coming end of my outdoor swimming season. Time to put away the Speedo and put on some real clothes!

— Harald