Spending the entire summer finishing the rough draft of my novel-in-progress LEFtTurn was a gruelling process at times. I often felt myself losing focus and literally just planting words to at least create a cohesive and continuous narrative, with the hope that the magic will come with the edit. I'm pretty confident I can make that happen, but I think I was pretty near my saturation point with the novel and I need a wee break from it before diving in and cleaning up for a next level draft.
But like I said in the long bio of my newly launched website keeskapteyn.ca , the obsession never rests.
I've turned my attention to finishing a novella that I had started some time ago, telling the story of two fraternal twin brothers on a road trip down into the United States. It started as a short story, but after finishing it, I kept seeing other avenues I could take with the story that would give it a non-linear narrative that I have been trying to perfect, owing to my influences from such authors as Mike Blouin and Mark Anthony Jarman. It's a challenge to make such a plotline work, but also immensely fun to consider, inhabiting an improvisational mindset, exploring detours and twists to a satisfying end.
Once the novella is finished, I plan to publish it myself, dedicating my own funds to creating a quality hard copy that I would be proud to display at small press fairs and expos. If it succeeds, I'll consider publishing more pieces this way, while still trying to get my short fiction collection, and eventually my novel, published traditionally.
It feels natural now, getting these things done, writing, publishing, networking and promoting. It feels good to be on this path.
