Transitions

Cricket McRae

I do love the transitions between seasons. Nothing like a Christmas cactus in bloom right next to the last green tomatoes ripening on the window seat. I count myself lucky to live in a place with distinct seasons. Just when you get tired of heat or cold or wind or Indian summer, it’s on to the next thing.

Wait. No one gets tired of Indian summer. What was I thinking?

And I love the transitions between projects. One of my favorite things about my years at The Mother Ship was the cyclical nature of software development. The writing of a book has a life cycle, as well, made up of all kinds of different pieces. The inception of an idea, the sketchy plans, the implementation of those plans, replanning, writing and rewriting and playing with language and fine-tuning effect and arcs and, in the case of books that are part of a series, planting the seeds that will germinate in the next one, or even the next one after that.

Then there are editor revisions, acknowledgements, asking other authors you love to blurb your book, covers and back copy and dedications. There is the marketing in anticipation of release, marketing around the release, and constantly being on the lookout for signing and interview opportunities, blogs to guest post on, and all the rest.

The cycles overlap, just like the cactus and the tomatoes above. That can be tricky, but being at the end of one project and at the beginning of another is a great feeling. I’m there right now, and it’s heady stuff indeed. It combines the satisfaction of completing one project and the anticipation of moving forward with another.

Where are you in your projects, be they writerly or otherwise? Do you like beginnings and endings best, or do you enjoy all the bits and pieces of the whole process?