My Novel

Twenty-nine more working days until I will be off for at least a year.  I will be taking maternity leave two months early from my fabulous job in the banking industry.  I will then extend my maternity leave until Nr. 2 is at least a year.  So therefore I will be off for about one year and three months. 

Now that I've booked Deer Park I have something to look forward to and I am pumped about it!  We ended up renting "Butternut" and not "The Hutch".  Still so full of memories. 

During my senior year in High School I wrote a novel titled "Deer Park" about the weekend that I met Nathan.  It was a very accurate recollection of that weekend.  I didn't alter or add anything to it.  It's funny that there was enough drama that weekend to fill 100 pages of a "coming-of-age" novel.  And I am happy to say that there's a happy ending to this novel. 

I've also been thinking about writing a sequel.  Although I met Nathan that weekend at Deer Park, we did not start dating until a month later.  Another drama filled weekend.  My story with Nathan has been nothing short of a fairy tale.  None of the drama was caused by him but rather a manipulative ex-boyfriend and girlfriends that wanted only the best for me but were terribly wrong in their advice.  Unfortunately, the ex-B was invited to our spring retreat at Deer Park.  He showed up; much to my surprise.  The ex-B detested Nathan only because he could tell that we were completely captivated by each other.  And then again one month later when Nate and I started dating the ex-B was right there in the middle of it all.  I was part of a youth choir at my church and we were putting on a big production.  Nate came down for the weekend to visit me and take me out a few times.  My friends thought they were being nice when they invited the ex-B to this event too.  Boy were they wrong, again. With his super mocho personality and martial arts fighter instincts he was like a pit-bull.  Nate was completely innocent and loving and only at my request did Nate not engage in the confrontations the ex-B was prompting.  My skin goosebumps just thinking of the details.

The more I think about it (the memories are still so fresh) the more I feel inspired to start that second novel.  I have a friend that has her own publishing company and has promised to be my editor and publish my novel, even if only 10 copies or so!  How awesome would that be?!

The only problem is that I wrote Deer Park during the age of the floppy disk.  The electronic copy of this novel is "gone with the wind".  I have one of the paper drafts kicking around somewhere.  I would have to re-type it.  Which may not be so bad since I wrote this novel at the age of 17.  Some slight grammatical or narrative changes or additions might not be so bad.  I still want to keep true to the story as it happened.  It really was so romantic and perfect.  There is not need to embellish it at all.  Our story is so great.  It needs to be shared.  It's a story of love at first sight (no joke!) but also of friendship, innocence and most of all coming of age. 

When "The Notebook" came out, I though "Well look at that - they stole my idea."

Maybe I'll use be able to use some of my year off to publish Deer Park and complete my second novel.  I am now busting with excitement (and with baby!)