I’ve recently done two author interviews, which both asked about my current writing project. In each case I managed a three sentence response that included some plot and some theme and an accelerated heart rate. I get nervous telling strangers what I’m working on. Or anyone besides my writing group and boyfriend. The novel is giving me the jitters. A year ago I was fine telling people the title, now I have to get around a jolt of paranoia before I speak the words. I think this is a case of writing impatience. These novels take a long time to write. I want to be writing everyday, but I have a full-time job and usually only eke out a couple half days of writing a week. This will not do. Also, I’ve been working on the new novel- no titles here- for over three years. I’ve been referring to the draft I’m working on as a second draft. But I recently had a paradigm shift that its actually the third and fourth draft. Without boring you with the details, I can attest that the math works out. So, if this is the 3rd and 4th draft underway, when I get to the end, again, it seems reasonable to show it to my agent. I’m starting to brighten up.
Which leads us to Ganesh. Yes, the new novel deals with a Hindu deity or two and Buddhism gets a lot of page time. But, novel aside, I’ve come to receive comfort from many a Eastern tradition and from the mere sight of Ganesh. I’ve been surrounded by Ganesh my whole life, starting with a red, wooden elephant on wheels, with a string, that I pulled behind me for years as a toddler. I have many elephants, and although not all elephants are Ganesh…they are. My new novel also contains a tribute to my grandma who died in 2001, but remains with me each day, intensified by her appearing as a character in this novel. I’m quite certain my grandmother never heard of Ganesh. When I moved back to New York at the age of twenty-three, I brought one or two elephants with me that had always been with me. I immediately noticed something. My 83 year-old grandmother’s apartment on the Lower East Side was full of elephants. Her collection now lives with mine- quite a stampede.
The Remover of Obstacles and Lord of Beginnings does help me fight the writing impatience and on some days, like today, he also trumpets- “Get on with it!”
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