As any of y’all know who read this column regularly, I have been on a bit of a sabbatical from writing since I didn’t manage to even get a manuscript request in the Pitch Wars mentoring contest. One thing about this whole author gig – it keeps you humble.
That, combined with a new website launch we were working on, made taking a break seem prudent.
I have missed writing, though. It feels… weird when I don’t write regularly.
So I am easing back into it, starting with the reworking of a story called Autumn Leaves. It’s a cute coming of age story between a young cowboy and a young man of the Hopi tribe that was originally published in a small local journal and had maybe five readers. It’s a bit like seeing an old friend again after a long time apart.
It was also written before I knew cultural appropriation was a thing, and honestly I didn’t take a whole lot of time researching it. It’s a fairly innocuous tale, but who knows how many toes I may have stepped on by not taking the time to vet it in respect to the Hopi culture?
So before I rerelease it, I am re-setting it as a sci fi tale on Tharassas, the world from my “The Last Run” story. It’s fun to go back to it and move it into a sci fi setting. It’s also one of my older stories, so I am enjoying updating it to my current writing standards.
After that?
I haven’t decided. I do want to complete a few more short stories I am working on, and then I have to decide which way I’m gonna go for my latest novel.
But for now, I am content to be where I am over the quiet holiday period, tinkering with this old friend of mine, hoping to make him shiny and new.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, whatever you celebrate!
To my writing friends – have you ever recast an existing story in another genre? Why? How? And how did it go?