books I have yet to write

Back in September of 2004 I made a list of writing projects that were in various stages of gestation in my mind. I went to find that post because I was just over at Beth’s, commenting on various things, including her posts about her relationship with her mother.

In that old post of mine I mentioned that every once in a while I think about writing something semi autobiographical, a memoir of sorts, about my childhood and my mother. I don’t think about this for long, because while I recognize that it would be a good thing for me to do for my own peace of mind, I’m not really nuts about the idea. If I needed a root canal, I’d go, but would I look forward to it? Nope. So someday I may write about my mother, who was not so good at the mothering thing. And not so good as a person, either. But that’s not a book I’m going to write anytime soon.

There are other books I am going to write. Here’s a list of things cooking in my head:

1. Pajama Jones (okay, I’m writing this one now. I put it here to give myself some motivation.)
2. Nurse John (working title: this is a contemporary retelling — maybe forward telling is a better word — of how Mary Bennett makes a life for herself after all her sisters go off and leave her to take care of a widowed and cranky father.)
3. Good Genes (working title: about a woman who reinvents herself in a big way (and at significant cost to others) at age 40. Revolves around a small commuter airline, where she ends up working as a flight attendant.)
4. The story of my paternal grandfather’s generation (Italy–America). this one needs no amping up, there’s a huge amount of drama in it without any help from me.
5. Nuns with Guns (the screenplay): we’re going to turn it into a novel.
6. a secret project I can’t talk about yet, which may turn into something big, and may fizzle. And it has nothing to do with the Wilderness series, okay?
7. You remember the Bronson/library/last will and testament thing? I’m going to use that as the structural framework for another novel.

So that takes me through the next (approximately) 12-14 years.