Uh, hello. I've been lurking for a while, and have now stepped out into the light.
I've been a writer by vocation and avocation for a couple of decades. I've done legal writing, technical writing, film criticism, and general essay-writing. What I have never, ever done is fiction. Until the better part of a year ago, at least. Some persistent, unaccountable bee got in my bonnet last summer, and since then I've been working on what I think I can now safely call my first novel. It is completely absorbing (despite a demanding day job), and possibly the most emotionally flaying experience of my life.
The novel is - or rather, I hope it shall be - a literary historical, about lesbians in the McCarthy era.
I have a 22-chapter outline, some of which is fairly rich with detail and some of which is in need of more. I also have a first draft of the first 10 chapters, 50,000 words, give or take. And, I have a list of ideas on how to rewrite, improve, or otherwise change what's already there. But I have pledged to keep moving forward for now, and save those ideas for the first comprehensive revision. Oh, and the research! There is so much lovely research.
As for who I am, and how my brain works, I'll say this: I thought "dilettante" would be an apt choice of screen name, but it was already spoken for. So Lakey it is.
I've been a writer by vocation and avocation for a couple of decades. I've done legal writing, technical writing, film criticism, and general essay-writing. What I have never, ever done is fiction. Until the better part of a year ago, at least. Some persistent, unaccountable bee got in my bonnet last summer, and since then I've been working on what I think I can now safely call my first novel. It is completely absorbing (despite a demanding day job), and possibly the most emotionally flaying experience of my life.
The novel is - or rather, I hope it shall be - a literary historical, about lesbians in the McCarthy era.
I have a 22-chapter outline, some of which is fairly rich with detail and some of which is in need of more. I also have a first draft of the first 10 chapters, 50,000 words, give or take. And, I have a list of ideas on how to rewrite, improve, or otherwise change what's already there. But I have pledged to keep moving forward for now, and save those ideas for the first comprehensive revision. Oh, and the research! There is so much lovely research.
As for who I am, and how my brain works, I'll say this: I thought "dilettante" would be an apt choice of screen name, but it was already spoken for. So Lakey it is.
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