Pains of Writing Truth

I've been working on a novel I started some time ago. It's loosely based on some real, painful experiences. I find that after I've finished a truly emotional part of the story, I have to take a few days off before returning to it. While the work is draining, it is also cathartic. I find that as I look at the story from various perspectives, I am beginning to understand and forgive, to some extent, the actions of others.

Sometimes I wonder if there is any point to writing something contemporary, when I have dozens of science fiction and fantasy stories and novels that I could be polishing up to submit. Maybe those are good things to do on the days when I find the new novel is too difficult to aproach.

Bracer is a character from several stories I had published in Marion Zimmer Bradley anthologies. In the first story I had published, she and her partner are trying to force information from a dying soldier. All they learn is that the man may be the son Bracer abandoned as an infant. I later wrote the story of her abandoning the child, and after doing that, I realized she would have wanted to discover if the man was, indeed, her son. The story had twists and turns I didn't anticipate when I started. By the time I was finished, I had outlines for four novels. I only wrote the first two, but when I was unable to sell the first one, I gave up the project and turned to something else.

The other project also has four distinct stories outlined. This series was your standard D&D type quest, though I felt it had a few unique elements. Again, I wrote the complete first novel and much of the second. Not being able to sell it, either, I went back to working on short stories, since I had been having some success with those.

Every so often, though, an idea comes to me that is too complex to be a short story. My files hold several other novels that I could, and probably should, work on. I have two historical fantasies that involve a great deal of research. Sometimes research is frustrating because I go in one direction with my story, then later studies reveal facts that conflict with what I have already written. Sometimes, I wonder how important it is to be factual when you are writing fantasy.

Hello

In case anyone actually reads this, I have published several short stories under the name L.D. Woeltjen. Most were in anthogies edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I also was a contributor to Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three which was based on a filk song by Leslie Fish. I used to go to science fiction conventions, so I had actually heard her perform the song and jumped at the chance to write something set on the station.

Everything else I've published was fantasy, in Sword and Sorceress and Darkover anthologies. I moved away from California some time ago and miss being able to mingle with other fans of the genre. Some of my favorites:

TV

Firefly
Babylon 5

Books

Delan the Mislaid by Laurie Marks
The Shadow series by Orson Scott Card

Movies

Ladyhawke
Serenity
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Independence Day