The Book's Finished; Now What?

Lordy-mercy, talk about post-partum. I finished CLOG! Monday and simply can't let it go. I've read it, re-read it, given it to others to read, corrected, revised, added, subtracted and finally sent it to a potential agent. She wants to know if I'm finished.

I really don't know if books are ever finished, though. Stuff keeps coming into my head. I've even loosely mapped out the first half of a sequel, but I don't want to start writing until this one has found a home somewhere. The sequel, like this one, would be pretty easy to write. Don't know if it'd be done in 28 days like this book, but it wouldn't be all that far off.

I'm happy with this story and it is one, as I told my friend Keith Ferrell at lunch today, that I wanted to write. It's my story, one that has bounced around in my head for a good while, growing up to the point that when it was born, it came out in a hurry. I felt more like a channel than a writer.

I talked for a good while with my pal Roland Lazenby, who has made a good career writing books, yesterday and he had all kinds of advice about what I need to do next and was even willing to ship it to a couple of agents he knows who represent this kind of story.

So, now we'll see where it goes. Even if it goes nowhere, I'm happy with what I wrote. I think it's a good book, a fun book, one that people can (and I hope will) read in one or two sittings.

(Painting is a detail from Hillbilly Barn Dance by Kelly Fitzpatrick, painted in 1945. If anybody knows where I can buy a copy, please advise. I just love this work.)