I am behind on my blogging, but I like to think I have a decent excuse.  I’ve had a very eventful couple of days.  One of my very best friends came down from Boston and stayed with me from Wednesday night until Saturday morning.  My friend and I (along with our other comrades in drinking) spent many a St. Patrick’s Day past doing the parade circuit (Belmar, Pearl River, Hoboken and NYC) and bar hopping.  (Some of us were actually Irish; most of us weren’t.)  But good times were always had by all and I probably have enough memories from various St. Patrick’s Days to write a novel or at least a novella.  Actually, one of my experiences inspired a scene in my second novel!  Anyway, it’s been several years since I took off from work to join in the festivities, but I hadn’t seen my friend in almost a year and we were both itching for an opportunity to perhaps visit the ghosts from St. Patrick’s Days past.  It is not possible to re-create history, but I’m pleased to report that we managed a sufficient amount of debauchery this past Thursday and I think our younger selves would be proud! 

In other news, since my friend wasn’t arriving until later on Wednesday night, I did not have to miss my weekly writer’s group.  I’m so happy it worked out that way, because I finished the first draft of my second novel that night!  I think.  Unlike my experience writing Just Friends With Benefits, I am not entirely certain the ending of my second novel works, so I plan to read the book from start-to-finish over the next few days and see.  But if I’m pleased with the ending, I’ll start my first round of edits.  It feels like I’ve been writing this second novel forever.  Probably because I stopped writing it several times to edit Just Friends With Benefits, once to add more description and once when I received the publishing contract.  But even with the interruptions, it actually took only about a year and a half to write the first draft.  That’s not too shabby considering I work full time as a trademark paralegal, have an active social life and cherish my down time.

I’ll be busy revising my new book for a long time as well as continuing to promote Just Friends With Benefits, writing blogs, etc. but I’m already concerned because I do not have an idea for a third book yet.  (My premature worrying should come as no surprise to those people who know me well.)  It’s just that I came up with the premise of my second book while writing my first.  I wasn’t even thinking about it and so I sort of expected it to be that way with Book No. 3.  But so far – nuttin!  While a few ideas have popped into my head, I’m not excited about any of them and fear I only have two books in me.  Say it isn’t so!  I am truly inspired by those prolific authors who seemingly release a new book every six months!  

I sincerely love writing books.  It is so much fun for me to step outside of my own life and create a fictitious world and characters to inhabit it.  I’m actually fairly confident there is another story somewhere in my overactive noggin.  But if I have to take off more days from work and drink beer for further inspiration, I’m pretty certain my friend from Boston could be persuaded to tag along!