I’m on a Sweet Salt Air roll, so this blog won’t be long.  But I’m asked this question often.  Do I feel what I write?  If my characters are shocked, do I feel the shock?  If they’re heartsick, do I cry?  And yes – someone recently asked this in a blog comment – if they’re aroused, am I?

You wouldn’t ask any of it if you’d seen me this week.  I’ve been writing three consecutive scenes in Sweet Salt Air, each pivotal to the plot, each filled with high emotion, and I’ve been wringing my hands, pacing the floor, writing with my heart in my mouth, waking at night with my characters’ worries.  We’re talking betrayal, heartache, and fear.  You may read it in passing, but I live with it.

I’m going to sound arrogant here, trusting that you all know me better than to believe it.  But here is a truism about writers.  Writers write the kinds of stories they like to read.

So I started 2012 by rereading the first 125 pages of Sweet Salt Air.  And it wasn’t only that I wanted a sure bet.  To the contrary.  I wanted to make sure it was a sure bet!  One of the most embarrassing things is when you write something on, say, page 110 that contradicts what you wrote on page 50.  Or when you inadvertently change a character’s name.  Or when you make a big deal about revealing a “secret” after it’s already been revealed.