The Missing Piece for the New Year of Writing

After much pondering, I set out three resolves for the new year that all have to do with allowing me to work more effectively and write with more freedom.

And I LEFT OUT THE OBVIOUS: finish my novel COBALT BLUE and have it scheduled for speedy publication by an appreciative editor with deep pockets for my advance and for an unparalleled promotion budget.

How did I manage to leave that out? It's a mistake I've made before: forgetting the most obvious and pressing and important thing. I discovered that finishing my book isn't on my to-do list either. Jeez! Well, that has changed.

Now I formally add to my resolves for 2006: finish COBALT BLUE, and get a terrific deal that will set the book up for next year's resolution about New York Times bestsellerdom.

And in the future,I'm going to KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. To the contrary of conventional wisdom, it's quite possible to miss it.

Now, ABOUT THE PICTURES: They show more samples of my cross-training in the visual arts--playing at it with no standards at all to refresh my creative engines. And being so bold as to have the results on display all around our house, even when company comes.

On our shed is the Buddhist image of the Eyes of God which I saw so often in Nepal, when I visited there after my winter in Varanasi to research SISTER INDIA. The way the boards were falling off the wall and door suggested this image, which has long hung in my mind.



The pages of squiggles are nothing but that. However, the impulse to make those marks is relevant, because COBALT BLUE is a novel about the mysterious rising of psychic energy called kundalini. Looking at them, I feel that I'm visualizing that movement, and I've had a strong impulse lately that has led to the covering of many pages with these swirls.

A NOTE ON CREATIVE CAPITAL STRATEGY RESULTS: The seminar I went to in December has kept me excited about running my writing consulting business in a way that is better for me and for my work. I've been putting the lessons I learned into effect as fast as I can.

I decided to make a comparison. How did my income compare this December with last December? the holiday season being an invariably slow month for me for any kind of business. Well, I can't directly attribute most of the improvement to the new strategies--or to my new-in-October office with my friend Carrie; but I am pleased to say that my INCOME INCREASE was 275%. That sure dashed the notion that the writing business is always slow in December.