Child of the Mind

Child of the Mind            

 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

 

Now that I have finished the novel, I looked back and see that I started Misty Creek in September 2010. Simply stating that six years have passed since I began.  That is not saying I have devoted all my life to that book, I have a “real” job, if any job is real, and I have spread my writing time on many projects.  Yet all the same, Misty Creek has required a great deal of time, energy, and yes, money to reach this point. 

I face the next step…getting it out there.  The path that leads before me seems daunting.  A complex business of proposals and research.  Some might be content in the completion of the work…I am not.  You see Misty Creek and other works are “Children of the mind”…my children.  For me to just go “ho-hum” it’s done, that’s all there is to it folks, would be like leaving my child on its own.  I would not leave a child on the side of a busy thoroughfare hoping that, by chance, someone will kindly stop and take it to safety, feed it, cloth and nurture it, and see it reaches the potential God has for it.  No, that won’t do.  It is up to me to do the heavy lifting.  To carry it…physically if I have to…to promote it, to find an outlet for the story. 

Misty Creek is my child.  It is my story…sorta’.  Those of us that write understand that stories grow out of somewhere deep inside us…especially fiction.  Built up from personal experiences and people we know, yet shaded and shaped by those of us that put words to page.  But I contend that Misty Creek comes from a deep place within me that houses so many tales, but fueled by gifts granted me by the Almighty.  Believe it or not…your choice.  It follows that if I feel that I have been given the talent, feeble as it might be, to build stories like Misty Creek, I must use whatever other talents God has given me to see this through.  

So I begin the next step, and as so many next steps, everything in this one is new to me. So I begin by polishing my “pitch” and building a possible agent list.  Then the research begins as I sift through organizations and individuals to see which might be a “good” fit.  Rejection will not be if or when, but how many.  I read that Nicholas Sparks was passed over twenty-three times before he found a home for Notebook and I am no Nick Sparks.  I expect fifty…maybe more.  I think it is in the anticipation of stumbles that will make them less painful when I am cast to the wayside.  We’ll see.  But I will see this through…one way or the other.  Misty Creek will be published, one way or the other.  That is the goal, and having a goal will be needed these next several months.  

But I must find time between all these details to keep writing.  There are stories I feel need to be told.  I will begin revising Elizabeth’s Journey, the sequel to Misty Creek and make notes to begin Matthew Remembers the third book in the series.  Perhaps I will take a little time off to finish the first draft of My Name is Same Benton, That story calls me as well. 

Needless to say I have plenty of writing work to do, not counting this Blog and a short story now and then.  But how can I abandon…My child of the mind.

 

(604 Words) 9-22-2016