Flat. Tired. A Bust.

Market Day today was a bust. No sales at all. Just a rain shower in the morning, and then hot, hot sun the rest of the day. Made for a humid time for all.

The rain was not unexpected, it was heavily and soddenly overcast all morning. But when it DID come, it was not a happy time. People everywhere were scrambling to get their stuff covered up. I had to wipe covers of my books, before the water wrinkled the pages.

And I got the message, again, that I really need to rewrite my first two novels. One, Artesia, needs to be rewritten from a Christian point of view – complete with all the references to The Lord and God and all that. Which is fine, I just don’t hold with all that constant prayer. Then again, maybe constant prayer might be exactly what I need…

But I definitely gotta rewrite it. I’ve read the story again, and have come to realize I need to just start over. What I have is a great start, but I gotta put it aside and redo the whole book – story – novel. I’m going next door this week and get a couple of the Christian romance novels from the three sisters, so I’ll understand how to set up the dialogue. I also gotta rebuild the plot line, so there’s a continuous argument going on with the protagonist, to have the denouement at the end when Avie gets the park built, at last. Have him fall to his knees in supplication, praise and Hosannas. I actually think I like that plot a lot better than what’s there now.

So, there’s a pile on my plate. The joy is, when I’m done rewriting it, all I’ll need do is upload the story, and the cover will suffice. No need to change that. Save time and money and energy, don’t have to rebuild the cover.

Problem: I bought 27 copies of Artesia! Got the price break on that quantity, but now I’ve got all these copies I need to unload. I’m thinking of holding a fire sale, letting them go at $10 a pop. I lose money on them that way, but hey! I’ll be clear of another box in my living room.

Then there’s Choices. It's 75 short short stories about the steps a guy takes in getting from a lowly copywriter in an ad agency in Detroit to being head of an agency in Houston. And his realization that simple little choices make all the difference. Looks like I gotta rewrite that to cut out the X-rated sex scene, modify the R-rated sex scene, and try putting more metaphysical stuff in it.

That’s another thing. There’s a whole huge knee-jerk reaction around here to anything that speaks of metaphysicality. I think that’s because there’s so many fundamentalist churches here, that go strictly by the Bible and absolutely no deviation. Well, I understand that when people are scared – of what’s going on in the world, what’s gonna happen to them as they age and death approaches, what’s happening in the world they see on TV, etc., that often religion is the only thing they can fall back on, that doesn’t change all the time.

Problem is, they get all hung up in a preacher whose interpretation of the Bible is what they like, then suddenly some of the members get a wild hair because they disagree with some interpretation and WHAMMO! They’re off to start a splinter church, doing the same thing, but with a different pastor. Happens all the time around here, and works as long as there’s money to pay the storefront rent. When the money dies out, so does the church, and I suppose the remnants crawl off and join another church – which they should have done in the first place, instead of starting a new one.

At one point there were 107 different churches in this area. That’s for a city population of 22,000 people and a county-wide population of 56,000. Amazing. And they all wanted the local paper to put their meeting times in the Friday paper. Well, some of those churches only had 12 members! The paper sent out feelers to see who would get included in the roster, and that’s how come we know that there were only 12 people or less in many of those churches.

Since then there’s been a wholesale drying-up of the plethora, and now there are something like 56 or 57 churches, most of whom run about 25 members. I mean, that show up on a given Sunday. And of course some of these congregations only meet on Wensdy night or Thursday night, leaving their members free to attend the other church of their choice on Sunday. Strange.

So, I have trouble getting the word “metaphysical” across without someone screaming “ABOMINATION! HEATHEN! ATHEIST!” I met a woman today who teaches Sunday School at one of the largest churches here in town, and she told me she puts in lots and lots and LOTS of metaphysical thought in her lessons. “They eat it up, it’s such a refreshing change from the hellfire and damnation they get up front.” So, there ARE people trying, and making it work.

So I’m gonna rewrite Choices and make it palatable for this crowd. That way at least I can sell books here at home.

Now I gotta go to bed. I’m tired, boiled out, and need to sleep.