Book #3 is Officially Done!
I’m making mood boards for books a thing.
Yes, I write books! We are on a short hiatus from renovating while the kitchen floor is being replaced. I’ll explain that in another post. (barf) So I’m going to talk about the book today.
My third book is officially done! Now comes the hard part of debating another attempt at traditional publishing or if I should just self-publish it like I did the last two. I’m not in a hurry so I’m exploring my options. I just started looking into querying agents and it is a horrifically scary process if you’ve never experienced it! I don’t know how “commercial” my book is but you just never know. Who doesn’t want to read about a clairvoyant former nun who has lost her faith and now must save the world from a coven of murderous teenage witches?
I know you have questions because I have three fans (and my Mom) who have been asking!
Yes, this is the nun book I’ve been talking about forever.
Yes, I interviewed real nuns and a couple of priests.
No, I have no idea how authentic any of it is because it is fiction and not meant to be a real representation of nuns or any specific church. I did interview real people but the book is 100% fiction.
Yes, the book has a playlist. I noticed a few agents request them so they can read sample pages along with the music and my books are always based heavily on music and FOOD so I love love love love loved this idea! Every book should come with a playlist!
Yes, nuns are actually super cool! My favorite nun that I interviewed had no interest in becoming a nun. She was from a low-income family in a rural farm community and she couldn’t afford college and she didn’t want to get married so she became a nun to get an education. She’s in her 70s now but imagine those being your options. It’s such a brave choice.
Yes, I know religion is an odd thing for a gay man to be writing about. The book isn’t technically religious but I know a nun as the heroine is an unexpected choice! I’ve always been interested in faith and how people can believe so strongly in something you can’t see but we do it all the time. Relationships, love, electricity, gravity, how the hamburgers at McDonald's are created, etc.
What took so long?
Well… the book ballooned up to 400,000+ words because of the back story and interviews and just because I’m bad at cutting things out because I feel like I’m killing my creations. I tend to write and write and write and then I have to piece it into a story. Also, we moved to Iowa. Then COVID. I’m lazy in the winter. There are so many excuses, but it was mainly hard to let go of this one. It was very therapeutic. I’ve had a really odd three years. I guess we’ve all had a really odd three years… In happier news, I now have half of another book finished because I cut an entire storyline to make this one work. The book is down to 95,000ish words and I love it.
What’s it about?
Murder, Friendship, and Hostess Donettes. It’s definitely horror, but all of my books end up being love letters. THE QUIET RESURRECTION OF SISTER EVELIDA LIVINGSTON begins with the ritualistic murders of two teenagers in a small-town Halloween corn maze. Deputy Sheriff Henry McGinty and his team have no leads so he contacts his estranged childhood friend Eve to assist him with the case. Eve is a retired nun who left the sisterhood after an unknown attacker shot her in the head and mortally wounded her mother superior. She didn't see God when she died and then miraculously came back to life, so a crisis of faith and the fact that she was falling in love with Father MacArthur caused her to shut the world out. Eve agrees to use her psychic powers to review the evidence, leading her and Henry to suspect that a group of local teenage girls may be to blame for the occult crimes. Along the way, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young deputy (the fabulously gay Fink) that teaches her about true faith and unconditional love.
I won’t spoil the rest for you, but now you understand how it ended up being 400,000 words. It’s super campy and has the off-the-rails third act I’ve been dreaming of for years!
The inspiration?
I have recurring nightmares. One of which is about a Polaroid camera and being stabbed. I won’t bore you with the details but it happens a lot.
There’s also a song by the Lumineers called “Big Parade” about a priest who leaves the church because he’s in love. It’s really beautiful.
I was also struck by the way that teenage girls speak to each other. I was sitting on the couch one-night eavesdropping on our fabulous daughter and her friends in our kitchen and I was amazed (at the foul language!) and at how they could bounce from one conversation to another and back again without missing a beat. Teenage girls speak in an algorithm like nothing I’ve ever seen. It is truly an enigma.
Reese Witherspoon gave this incredible speech about storytelling where she talks about how female characters are always written as these damsels in distress where they are given the dreaded line of a woman turning to a man and saying “What do we do now?”. As a man, I can assure you I would never ask another man what to do in the event of an actual emergency. I wanted to make sure that the woman was the hero in this book.
What next?
Fingers crossed for a publisher! This book was actually written as part one of a trilogy but I am kind of loving the ending as a stand-alone book. I’ve already started my next book which is about a shamed interior decorator who falls in love with a ghost. 12:06 AM to come!
I’ll keep you all posted. Or at least I’ll keep my Mom posted!