Work-in-Progress

If you’ve visited my blog over the past couple of months, you may have noticed one subject has been missing lately: progress on my current novel. One reason I haven’t talked about it much is that whatever I’m working on today won’t be on the store shelves for a year. Whew! As fast as time flies for me, that’s a long time from now. It’s difficult to talk about this project knowing anything I say these days will be forgotten by the time the book is released.

However, I just typed “The End” on the first draft of Book Three in my current series. Finishing even the rough version of a project always brings a myriad of emotion. Relief, of course (beat the deadline by a couple of weeks!). A bit of sadness. Some excitement, too, since I enjoy the revision process—especially when my editors become involved. They’re great about positively reinforcing what’s working, even while making wonderful suggestions for improvement. Some of their suggestions will make me wonder why I didn’t think of it myself. Every book I’ve written has been the best I can make it (that’s what God wants us to do with the work we’re assigned, right?). But even with my best effort, it can still be made better with another set of eyes on it, especially experienced eyes.

This book, titled Springtime of the Spirit, has been a special kind of challenge. It’s set at the end of the First World War, in Germany. A challenge right there, to write something with a bit of hope in it. We all know the results of that war, and that in many ways it led to the Second World War.

This was a time when Germany had to redefine itself, when political struggles raged. And while I’m happy to talk about current events with my family, or perhaps with some close friends, this book forced me into learning about the politics of 1918-1919. I had to boil down what I struggled to learn into something non-scholars like myself can understand, picking out only the elements that meet my story needs. Oh, and work it into a romance, too—no small task!

The politics of post WWI Germany included lots of “isms” — socialism, communism, capitalism, to name a few. Surprisingly enough, these are words some people talk about in today’s politics, so it was interesting to see a few parallels. Publisher’s Weekly called Look to the East (my October 2009) release a “cautionary” tale, but this is the book that feels like that to me. We’ll see!

A shared theme, beyond the war tying these three books together, emerged as I saw more clearly the elements included in this Great War series. I’ll talk about this more in the future, but for now let me just say this: they’re all about freedom.

Look to the East (available now) is about personal freedom, and what it feels like to lose it when an invading army takes it away.

Whisper on the Wind (available in Sept. ’10) is about freedom of the press, and how powerful words are, how vital it is to have that freedom.

Springtime of the Spirit is about societal freedom, being free to define what society should and shouldn’t be allowed to do in an individual’s life.

Of course, all three of these stories revolve around a romance, making such serious material a whole lot more fun. 🙂

Doesn’t it sound like I’m feeling a bit nostalgic about the series already? See, this is why it seems silly to talk about current projects here when you won’t be able to see what I’m talking about until the next two books release. Sigh.

We’ll just have to revisit these topics then!