Getting Started

The next China Bayles (#17, due out in April 2009), is called Wormwood, the old-fashioned name for Artemesia absinthium. This is the third of the "out-of-town" books, set elsewhere than Pecan Springs, TX, China's home base: Rueful Death was the first, then Bloodroot, and now Wormwood. I like writing out-of-town books, not only because it gives me a break from the usual settings and cast of characters, but because it gives me a chance to explore a different setting, different characters, a different plot problem. Some readers don't like this kind of alteration in the "natural order" of things, but I learned long ago that I need to give myself a break, or I won't be able to stay engaged with a long series. My attention span is pretty short, as it is.

You probably know that the authors of your favorite series books are at least one, sometimes two, books ahead of you. In the China series, Spanish Dagger was finished in January 06 and published in April 07, Nightshade was finished in January 07 and will be published in April 08, and Wormwood will be finished (the writing gods willing) in January 08 and published in April 09. If all goes according to plan, that is. According to my plan, and the publisher's contract.

For several years, I've been promising myself to set a book in a Shaker village. The Shakers were the most important growers/marketers of medicinal herbs in America in the 19th century, and the villages I've visited are lovely. I might have done it a couple of books ago, but I got involved with a trilogy within the series that started with Bleeding Hearts and ends with Nightshade, involving China's reluctant investigation (with her half-brother, Miles) into her father's death. Once I started that, the Shaker book had to wait. But Nightshade is done, China can get on with her life, and I can get started on the Shaker book.

Yesterday, I set up the file and put in the standard pages (title page, acknowledgements, etc.--some of which are currently blank). Then, guessing that a great many readers won't know a lot about the Shakers, drafted a brief introduction: 800 words, unedited. This is the sort of thing I usually save for the end of the book, like the historical notes I write for each book in the Cottage Tales series. But in this case I want it at the beginning of the book, to give readers some historical background. Otherwise, I'm afraid they won't be able to figure out some of the backstory references, which might otherwise be too oblique.

I've already done some plot work, mostly in my head, but also in some notes I made a couple of weeks ago, while I was driving back from New Mexico and listening to Bloodroot, which is my favorite of all the Chinas. The contemporary plot of Wormwood involves at least one (maybe more--I'm not sure yet) of the characters in Bloodroot. There'll be multiple plots in the book, as usual: a backstory plot that's set in the 1870s and a plot that focuses on what happens when China visits the reconstructed Shaker village, Zion's Spring.

I've never blogged a WIP before, so I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing here. Let me know what you'd like to hear more about, less about, or whatever, and I'll try to fit it in--maybe not right away, but eventually.

And thanks for reading this, and my other blog, and all your comments. People used to say that writing was a lonely occupation. Not anymore!

Reading note.

Go work with ardent courage,
and sow with willing hand
the seed o'er barren deserts
and o'er the fertile land.

And lo! earth yet shall blossom
though the brighter morn delays
for God perfects the harvest,
yea, after many days.

--The Life and Gospel Experience of Mother Ann Lee
(East Canterbury, NH Shakers, 1901)

Comments

[Dawn]

Susan,
I am very excited about your new book WORMWOOD. I have had a fascination with the Shakers since my husband and I visited the village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. In fact we have been there twice. It is a very beautiful place. Can't wait to read the book. Reading the blog will help pass the time until the book becomes available.

[Linda in Maine]

Hi Susan, this sounds great! I've been interested in Shakers since visiting the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community here in Maine.

I'm always amazed at how productive you are, and it delights me when a writer shares the creative process this way. I've "bloglined" this feed, to go along with Lifescapes which I came to through your occasional knitting content.

I "met" Paula on Shelfari and have been enjoying her shelf and her blog; she helped me out with some suggestions for an Amazon List I was making.

Someday I'll share a funny story about my new (tiny) local library and your books, but not here.

Again, thanks for all your varied and interesting contributions to our reading life!

[Pam]

Wow, Susan, it's hard to believe you're working on book #17! I'm intrigued with your backstory plot set in the 1870's because I love history. I didn't realize your favorite book is Bloodroot. Hmmm, I'm curious which character(s) you're going to use from Bloodroot.
Hearing your thought processes as you progress in writing this book will be very interesting.
I love the Shaker quote at the end of your post.