The Next Novel

Last week I turned in the latest revision of Bones & All. Now I get to sink into the new book! (For your purposes, this will be novel #4, although it is the sixth novel I'll have written: Practice Novel, Mary Modern, Petty Magic, not-yet-sold-children's-novel-which-is-my-favorite-so-far, Bones & All, this one.)I treated myself to a new notebook at Trident......I unearthed a mind map from more than two years ago (this idea has been marinating for at least six years! It's the project I was working on when I stayed in that hilariously awful hotel room in Hyderabad. It amuses me greatly, by the way, that I've already come up with the last line)......And I've started gathering my research materials. (Geek out!)I used to be afraid of giving too much away by showing you my reading piles or mind maps, but then Sarah reminded me that you do not have access to my inner workings (lucky for you). I could hand you one of my notebooks, you could skim through the whole thing and still have only the faintest idea of what a new novel is "about." ("Something to do with Catholicism...?")(This widget is actually making me feel like I have all the time in the world to write this thing, hahaha.)