The Long and Winding Road by Kait Carson

 Last month I shared my thoughts on the blessings and curses of being a full-time writer. When I stop to think about it, I realize that no matter what, I’m living my dream. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. The good, the bad, the ugly, it’s exactly what I want to do with my life.

 Editing. That’s a different story. Don’t get me wrong. I love editing. It’s where the dog’s breakfast of the first draft becomes a cordon bleu meal. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, it’s surprising, and if it’s a new book that is intended to be first in a series, it takes forever! Or maybe forty forevers. I’m still working through that.

 The immediate world (and certainly my blog family) all know that the woman who used the email name DiverMiss since the inception of email services is now writing a thriller set in the north Maine woods. Yes, it was a transition capable of giving DiverMiss a bad case of the bends. Be that as it may, I’m a Mainer now. I wanted to pay homage to my adopted state. Since I’m also what tropical divers call a warm water wimp, there was no way that homage would include underwater activities. Instead, I turned to my second love – the woods.

 
My great-grandparents had a farm in upstate New York, and I’m lucky enough to have memories of that special place. Anyone familiar with upstate New York knows that it is (or was) heavily wooded. My male cousins took advantage of that to drive my mother crazy. Mom wanted me to be a girly girl. That didn’t work out. First, there were my cousins who had me in the woods before I was out of high-top leather shoes. They taught me to fish, track, build fires, camp, and survive in any weather. Trust me, my cousins made Outward Bound feel like a relaxing vacation. Then there was my home neighborhood. I was the only girl. If I wanted to play, it wasn’t going to be with dolls.

 Rural Maine felt like home, and I knew I wanted to set my next book in the woods. My house is surrounded by them. In fact, if you walk a straight line from my back door, you won’t see paved road until you swim the St. Lawrence and power-walk your way to Quebec. There are some camps (Mainers’ name for rural cabins) and maybe some abandoned logging camps, but that’s all. It’s a magical place. And the perfect setting for a murder mystery. I grabbed it, sat down and wrote a novel.

 I won’t lie. With the Florida mysteries, I’m mostly a two-draft writer. I know my setting and the ins and outs of my story. Things are different when you change settings, characters, and I won’t even mention the law enforcement aspects. Writing the first draft took a year. The book came in at 60,000 words. Not unusual for one of my first drafts. Then came the editing. That was where things changed. When I performed my first read-through I ended up with more questions than resolutions. That meant more research. Oh, and there were several plot holes large enough to drive a loaded logging truck through. That meant isolating and drafting a synopsis for each plot point. Several went the way of the circular file. The rest were vamped or revamped until the loose ends were all tied up. That meant more words.

 At this point, I’ve been working on this novel—tentatively titled No Return—for a year and nine months. The bad news—I’m still editing. The good news—I’m almost ready to type the two most glorious words in the English language, THE END. How will I know when I’m done? Easy. I’m ten chapters away from my next (last) read-through. The book is at 70,000 words and the plot holes have been filled. Barring a catastrophe, all that remains is a final pacing check and finding those pesky typos that multiply while I sleep. It has been a long road. Almost as long as the road from the Florida Keys to Fort Kent, Maine.

 Writers, do you find writing is slower when you change settings and characters? Readers, are you willing to follow authors into a new series?

Kait Carson writes the Hayden Kent Mysteries set in the beautiful Florida Keys. She lives in the north Maine woods with her husband, four cats, a flock of conures and a cavapoo puppy. All rescues.