Writing Life 15

This is the very beginnings of my latest novel, The Whole Sky Full of Stars. On the Post-It note is the original idea that eventually became the longer story. I was working at a Barnes & Noble in Atlanta while I was working on my PhD, and standing behind the register, when you get all your extra duties done, and when there aren't any customers waiting to get rung up, well, this is what I did, I wrote. Not long stuff, obviously, but short little things, cositas, I'd say in Spanish. Later, I expanded on the Post-It, this time directly into my journal. When my editor sort of rejected my novel, one I call The Good Long Way, I asked for another 6 months, at the end of which I would submit something different. I had no clue, though, what I was going to write for her, so I pulled out the journal, started flipping through it, and came across this entry. And it was a go from there. Though there are changes from these first drafts and the actual book, not much changed really.