Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. I enjoyed reading your announcement for The Pastor's Inferno yesterday. How are you today?
JOE: Well, thank you. Yesterday I went up to visit Aunt Lucille who is in grave condition and will probably die in the next day or so. I'm not sure she recognized us. But at least we got to see her one last time.
CALLIOPE: You sound resigned.
JOE: We all are. She has had a good life and told us she was ready to "get the show on the road."
CALLIOPE: Did you have time to work on anything yesterday?
JOE: I did. I was quite busy in fact. I wrote a newspaper column for Saturday. I also worked on a eulogy for Aunt Lucille which she asked me to deliver at her funeral.
CALLIOPE: Any time for working on your books?
JOE: Remarkably, yes. I redesigned my web sites in keeping with marketing information I have been learning and published them. I also sent them to all my contacts who have expressed an interest in my writing.
CALLIOPE: You have been busy. Any work on Marital Property?
JOE: Unfortunately I ran out of time before I got that far. I plan to get back to it today. I did write a chapter on Monday, a family scene around the dinner table.
CALLIOPE: How do you plan to proceed from here?
JOE: I will get back to my regular schedule of working on marketing in the morning and writing in the afternoon. The publication of The Pastor's Inferno has energized me. I'm ready to go.

(Fireboat)

On Completing a Novel

I recently completed seven months of work on my novel, The Pastor's Inferno, and have sent copies to my small band of critical readers. Although I did not have to undergo labor, I feel like I have given birth in some ways. I am protective of my creation, a little nervous about how my readers will accept it and hopeful that it will make a contribution to those whose paths it crosses. I also feel the separation from a work which has been an integral part of me for so long and now has to stand on its own. I want it to do well, but I realize there will come a point where I will have to let go and allow it to survive on its own.

(Scene from Dante's Inferno)