A few months ago, Adrienne, you said something about not having time to write because you were so busy at work, and I heard you, but I didn't understand. After a month and a half of working, I finally do. I have my whole Sally story planned out in my head, but by the end of the day I want to throw my computer out of the window and turn my brain off and zone out until bedtime. Why does real life have to interfere with my hobbies?

This is especially hard, because just yesterday I finally finalized (finally!) plans for my new novel. It took me so hard to come up with something original. I have the bad habit of reading something that I like, and letting that influence me. I wanted something original, and something fresh. I wanted to write a book that showed my love of reading.

Well, finally I came up with the perfect (in my quite modest--can't you tell?--opinion). I was reading through Jane Austen's unfinished novel, The Watsons, and I thought, suddenly, wouldn't it be great if I converted this to a modern-day New York--and finished it? It would be combining my two main writing genres: fanfiction and chicklit.

I have been so excited about this idea. Since you guys are Austenites, I can tell you what I have planned and you will understand. I am not going to stick literally to the five chapters Austen set out, but the relationships will be the same, and the ending she had in mind will still happen. I've decided to call my novel The Watson Women, and it will focus on three sisters. If I was going to write a book blurb about it, the kind that appears on the back covers of books, I imagine it would look something like this:

When Penelope Watson stole her sister Liza's boyfriend, Parviz, she did more than break up a relationship--she broke up a sisterhood. For ten years, the Watson sisters have grown farther and farther apart from each other. Liza married in haste, and now is repenting her hasty decision, and regretting her dull life as a wife and mother. Youngest sister Emma went to England to study and stayed. And scheming Penny is still the same selfish girl now that she was back then.

But when their brother, Sam, announces that he is marrying Maisie Edwards, the women are thrown together again. Emma comes home for the wedding eager to show off her British fiance, Osborne, only to find that she is drawn to Sam's best friend (her former high school classmate) Howie. As Liza sees her sister's interest in Howie growing, she decides that it's time to reconnect with Parviz, with disastrous results. And Penny worries that she may be reaping her well-deserved bad relationship karma: her playboy boyfriend, Tom Musgrave, has a chronic wandering eye, and seems less and less interested in her every day. Have Penny's past actions cursed her love life forever?

The Watson sisters aren't the only ones with problems. Bride-to-be Maisie is having second thoughts about starting a family with a med student who's never around. When she announces she is calling off the wedding, the Watson women must come together to try and protect their brother's chance for happiness. Can they convince Maisie to change her mind about Sam--and can they ever be friends, as well as sisters, again?

Like I said, it's not exactly the same as the Jane Austen book--I've deleted the other sister, Margaret, for one--but I think it could be a natural outgrowth of Austen's original story. I am ridiculously excited to start outlining--if I could only find the time! Stupid job!