Solving the puzzle of my novel

I spent a good part of the last half of December working on a 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle called Packets of Promise. At 3' x 4', the puzzle took up all of my dining room table and the bowls of pieces--sorted by color--took up the buffet. A few hours each night I'd choose a side of the table, grab a bowl of color and hunch over the chaos I was trying to tame. Some pieces I could identify and place in seconds; others I must have touched 10, 20, even 30 or more times before realizing where they fit.

When I was working on my first novel, Adrift on the Dark Sea of Memory (aka Twilight), I'd often describe the writing process as putting together a jigsaw puzzle where every piece could fit everywhere. (That's what I get for writing a book with five POV characters, three of whom are ghosts who are not tethered to a linear timeline.) There was no "right" way to finish the puzzle of Adrift; instead I needed to focus on whether I had fit everything together in the most beautiful way possible. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, making it even trickier.

As 2012 launches me into yet another year of work on Seeking Troy Donahue, I'm determined to hunch myself over this project like I did Packets of Promise. Yes, the pieces that are left to fit in are the trickiest, but those give the most satisfaction when they finally find their correct orientation and lock into place.

The next puzzle I plan to tackle is The Color of Money. But I think I'm going to hold off until the book is finished. It's the perfect puzzle to be working on as I'm selling the book to the highest bidder! ~ Victoria Tirrel