Sunday, January 10, 2016

What's on your plate for 2016?



by Kristi Belcamino

Later this month, when I hand over the Shitty First Draft of my new standalone novel to my writing group, I'm going to finally have one month to let a draft of mine sit and simmer, as Stephen King recommends.

The past three books I've written have been on super strict publisher deadlines (basically six months from conception to submission to my editor). Now that I have the luxury of a month off, I'm debating what to write.

My first book, Blessed are the Dead, was inspired by my dealings with a serial killer while I was a reporter in the Bay Area. For more than a decade I've carted around dozens of reporter's notebooks with my interviews of him in jail or on the phone. In addition, I have a packet of letters he wrote me from prison and jail.

I'm thinking about writing a novella about this time in my reporting career.

My only hesitation is immersing myself in that ugliness again when I finally purged that fucker from my head. But I think it will be good to write the novella and then basically throw away this giant copy paper box, get it out of my basement and out of my house and out of my life.

Besides polishing my standalone and writing this novella, other projects I have planned for this year include writing the fifth Gabriella Giovanni book, "Blessed are the Peacemakers."

So it's going to be a busy year. I can't wait.

What is on your plate for 2016?

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