I’ve been thinking about trying the November Novel in a Month. Would this take time I need to get cover letters, outlines, queries, resumes, market analysis, and sample chapters ready to send out to the thirteen possible publishers I’ve identified for my Mary Colter book? They do need to get out because replies take anywhere from one month to six months.

But writing a 50,000 word draft of a novel in thirty days would be a challenge – one that might be the very one I need to jump start my publishing – however doubtful. The topic would be my life as the wife of a Protestant minister. It would start while I was still in college and declared to my friends that I never wanted to marry a minister. It would continue through my marriage to a US Navy man, university, seminary and four ministries, three in upstate New York and one in Warsaw, Poland. I’m not certain it would be exciting or memorable, but it would document Richard’s fifty years of ordination and how ministry affected me and our family life.

In writing magazines, I read about lack of ideas for writing. I have two unedited novels on my shelves. A middle grade novel in first person about a young boy rafting logs to market on the Delaware River in the 1700s in my head. It would be fun to research and write. My computer holds about a third of a middle grade sequel to my completed novel “A Long, Long Summer” (which also needs marketing). I need uninterrupted time to finish it. Then I have an idea for biographies of noted women composers. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and other men are celebrated, but what about Amy Beach, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, and others still living.

I must decide how I should use my time, which seems to fly into the wind. Do the needed marketing, or try something totally new? I’m tempted.

What do you think?