Friday, February 14, 2014

Finishing my novel

I am feeling terrific.

Finally, finally, I have completed my novel in linked short stories,  How To Make A Life.

It is the story of four generations of a family over one hundred years, from 1912 to 2012.  The book traces the lives of the family members, sometimes through their own voices and sometimes through the voices of outsides, as they confront mental illness, accidental death, unfaithfulness, old age and illness, while they learn to love and forgive one another.  The stories interweave as we learn about the fate of one character in the story of another and all are impacted by the events of the times.

I started writing this book with single stories, about six years ago.  Gradually, I realized that I was writing about  people who I felt were  connected to one another,  much the way family members are connected.  I began to think about them as a family.

About three years ago I began to write stories that were deliberately linked, that followed the decades chronologically and over time, traced the children and grandchildren of the original characters.  I got enormous satisfaction out of determining their fates, and writing their stories.

Now I will have to go down the long path of trying to publish the book.  I will keep posting on the process, here.