On not being here for you

Sometimes I feel like this image -- walking in the winter in inappropriate footwear toward a destination that doesn't seem to be getting closer (and without a cafe in sight!!!). I don't pay as much attention to this blog space as I should. For a bunch of reasons. There's a new book in the hopper and I've been focused there. I have three 'short novels' in the works -- Churchill was once asked if he could give a speech for some event and the organizers asked him how much time he'd need to prepare -- he said "it depends. if it's a ten minute talk, I'll need a week. If it's an hour-long talk, I can start right now."

It's more work to write something succinct and pithy. A short novel is something I've been dreaming about for a while now -- something along the lines of Alessandro Baricco's Mr. Gwyn, (although, it may be only a short novel in my memory), and of course Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.

So, not a novella? A short novel? Yes: A work of fiction between 20,000 and 49,999 words is considered a novella. Once a book hits the 50,000 word mark, it is generally considered a novel. However, a standard novel is around 80,000 words, so books between 50,000 to 79,999 words may be called short novels.

Right now, I have three ideas I'm pursuing.