What I realized at SIWC is I CAN do this! I scrapped my previous story and have started a series which I started writing in January. I know it won't be ready to pitch when I go back to Vancouver for the conference again this year, but I'll be a whole lot closer than I was last year.
I was making slow progress in my writing, what with the holidays looming ahead, so I decided to put it on the back burner until January. When I came back to it, I realized that I had written my heroine from the wrong place.
Of course I had this epiphany at about 3 am so I didn't wake Rob up to tell him my new idea. Even though I wanted to. It's a really good idea, but I decided it could wait until morning. I did some preliminary research online and figured out where I wanted to reset my novel and went to bed somewhere after 4am.
As Rob was leaving for work at 7am, he gave me a kiss and told me goodbye. I sat up in bed and said "I've gotta go to Guatemala" then flopped back down on my pillow and buried under the covers. Rob asked for some clarification which was met by some mumbled nonsense.
When he called me at lunch later that day he expressed his concern about my morning declaration about Guatemala. "Have you given up on writing then and decided to become a drug mule? I'd really rather not go that route myself."
That man knows how to make me smile! I explained my idea and the driving need to go to central America for research. "Can't you set it in Cancun? I can sport fish & you can research. Besides, I don't think Guatemala is a big tourist destination, my love."
In the end we've compromised--meaning he acquiesced & is humoring me but I did add an element that will also take us into Belize so he can fish & we can both do some diving around the researching excursions. That's compromise, right? Either way, I'm going to Guatemala!
