Reblogging

So if anyone’s been checking this site, you’ve noticed that I’ve been absent for some time. It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to say it was more that

A) I had too much too say and

B) I was just too busy

I made a promise to myself that I would be putting the finishing touches on my Novel, Opening Day, before I logged back on. I thought that that would be in January. I was wrong. Then, too, we’re opening a new restaurant. That takes a little time and attention. And last but not least I was feeling guilty about spending time writing a blog because I was trying to get things going with another one of my current projects, the story of the daughter of Chicago crime boss Diamond Joe Esposito. After a few weeks went by, I just didn’t know where to start. Then the longer I dallied, the more intimidating it became. And so here we are.

Then too, I wasn’t really happy with what I was producing on this blog. It was a lot of self-indulgent crap that wasn’t really relevant to anyone but me. And that doesn’t warrant the kind of time and attention that writing a blog requires. So I took a little time off to think about it. Now I’m back.

The content from here on out is going to be whatever is on my plate that day. It may relate to writing and it may not. Frankly, I think that reading about work on the new restaurant – another Sheffield’s – would be a lot more interesting than drivel about finding plot points and character motivation. We’re deep into construction on that project with a target opening date of early June. It’s an exciting and kind of scary time. My partner and I have put everything on the line for this business. If it doesn’t work I have to go and find a job. I haven’t had a job in like twenty-five years. I wouldn’t know where to start.

As far as writing goes, I finally put those wonderful, satisfying words The End on the final page of Opening Day. Now it’s in the hands of the kind and generous Scott Hoffman of Folio Literary Management and the lovely and talented Barbara Poelle if Irene Goodman Literary Agency. They are both very busy people so I don’t expect to hear anything for a while. It’s enough for me that it’s done, that every spare moment I have there’s not some small nagging voice in the back of my head asking what I’m doing having a beer and not working.

Not like that voice isn’t still there. My current writing project, a biography and memoir based on the life of the daughter of Chicago gangster Diamond Joe Esposito is on a hard track for completion. Last week I hired a research assistant to keep me on course. Since the new restaurant is slated to open in early June, I want to have the proposal in a publishers hands by then. It’s an ambitious goal but totally achievable. As long as I don’t sleep.

Jeanette Esposito-Braun is ninety-three or four, or maybe even five. She knows the clock is ticking. She’s been incredibly patient with me, but now I’m giving her my undivided attention. She’s got a great story and it deserves to be told. And, humble guy that I am, I think that I’m the one to do it justice. So I’m bearing down, at the detriment of all else and writing this. And working on the new Sheffield’s. And rolling out the new menu at the original Sheffield’s. And…. Oh never mind, you get the idea.

I’m going to try to put my thoughts out once a week again. It helps to keep me on track. And it’s good to look back and see where I’ve been, and to note what lies I told myself about where I was heading. If anything, it gives a prospective publisher something to look it if they’re wondering about my intentions. I’m going to open the new Sheffield’s and then I’m going to go off and write books. That’s the plan. At least until a new one comes along.

I’ll keep you posted about my progress. I don’t know where this is going to go but sometimes it’s best to just start traveling and not worry about the destination. Sometimes it’s all about taking that first step.

— Ric Hess, Apr 3, 04:08 AM

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