Book Recipe

You heard right.

Writers: Want an interesting "recipe" for writing a book? Here goes:

Ingredients

1 book
1 decade (give or take a year or two)
Twenty some-odd other books you've written over the course of that decade
10 years' worth of experience
A heaping of enthusiasm

1) Lose, deep-six, burn, leave on the New Jersey Path train (well, maybe you don't want to do that, but you get the picture) all traces of the original manuscript, leaving only the concept and a couple of memorable characters.

2) Combine the experience of that decade with what you've learned from writing the other books and pour it into a large heaping of enthusiasm.

3) Write and develop the new version of the original, bake well with love and generous doses of caffeine. As with any book, stir from Page 1 all the way to the words THE END.

4) Pray, pray, pray (to be done often during the whole process).

5) Edit, polish and publish.

Servings: Unknown, but it does go a long way. Absolutely no fat, cholesterol, carbs, or calories.

The result is a dish that is entirely new and uniquely different from the original. I haven't stressed about making it like the first book, which I don't remember as well except for certain events and, as I said, two VIP characters. One was a man in the original; she is now a female character and, in my opinion, readers will take to her even more.

It hasn't been easy. This has been a book like ONE SWEET DAY, which took longer to write, as well as more development because of the cast of characters. CRYSTAL WAVES has an even larger cast.

It's a journey that I never thought I would be taking again as a writer. I've enjoyed it and am really looking forward to sharing it with readers sometime next month.

So to the writers out there: If you've got a "lost" book like this somewhere, don't be afraid. Stock up on the coffee and jump in headfirst!