EXHAUSTING OR EXHILARATING?

I was recently invited by a local book club to give a reading of Caleb’s Window, after which there was Q & A. I find that readers are often interested in the writing process and tend to ask similar questions. Typical queries include: how long does it take to write a book?; where do you get your ideas?; or how many hours a day do you spend writing? Well, An Important Day was five years in the making, Caleb’s Window just about three. Short stories are a complicated breed, which is my focus at this time. The collection I’m working on, The Particulars, is now into its second year. For me, ideas do not come from a draft or outline of topics. An Important Day sprang from a short story I had written about the relationship between a grandfather and grandson. Caleb’s Window was inspired by a number of stories I had heard from the Irish side of my family, as well as years of professional experience with nurses. My Mom was also a nurse. I found the most thought-provoking question of the afternoon to be, “Do you find writing exhausting or energizing?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” When I step away from my desk, more often that not, I am tired. Usually, exhausted to the bone. But it’s a kind of good tired, if you would forgive the hackneyed turn of the phrase. Yet, there’s the irony that it’s never not been exhilarating at one and the same time. And it can be incredibly absorbing. There are occasions when three, four, or more hours pass and it seems no more than a half hour. I could elaborate, but that assumes you, the Goodreader, want further detail. And I do not make such an assumption. Rather, I presume your life is a busy one, and you already have a hand on the doorknob. On that note, thanks so very much for visiting. John