The unquiet creature in my computer

The battle is on! Each weekday (I think that's how it works) new results posted on SLJ's Battle of the (Kids') Books. Cheer your favs and lament those lost.  My own judging results will probably be up next week, or perhaps the week after. And the Exquisite Corpse Adventure continues on read.gov. M.T. Anderson's episode is the latest, soon to be followed by Linda Sue Park's. They are both too divine for words.

Still plucking away at the first draft of Midnight in Austenland. That book isn't under contract. It's nice for me to write in a void - no deadlines, no expectations...yet. I have no books with release dates. This is a huge relief to me, after the craziness of the last couple of years. The first draft of Daisy Danger Brown sits in its file, untouched since autumn. I think of her often. I will be very happy to return.

Here's something I've noticed about myself: I never consider a book written until I've finished the final draft. Sometimes I hear authors say, "I have seven unpublished books," and I say, "Wow! That's amazing!" Then I realize they mean first drafts. I never consider a first draft to be a "book." It is a first draft, nothing more. Maybe this is a safety mechanism in my brain. I can only tackle that horrid first draft by putting it in its own category.

I won't call it a book, I won't expect it to be anything so noble and complete-sounding. That would intimidate me. No, there's plenty of time to turn that mishmash of words and scenes and badly named characters (they usually get renamed) into a story worth labeling Book. For now, it is simply First Draft, neither art nor science. It's own species. A private creature, with transforming parts and drool and claws and lots of blinking eyes. Thank goodness it's shy and stays hidden in its muddy subterranean hole, or it might be considered a monster of Bedroom Closet proportions.