WIP: No, I Haven't Given up Writing

After silence on this site for more than a year, I feel like I need to update everyone. But really that's sort of exasausting, and maybe one of the reasons why I haven't posted. Jacob is doing much better. We have had an almost normal life since last August. Life keeps on happening.

But for now, after telling you Jacob is doing better, I think I'll just focus on the writing updates.

I'm fighting to get back to my writing. People say: "You should write about the cancer." And I suspect I will. Some day. Just not yet.

In November I tried to do Nanowrimo. I was supposed to write a 50,000 word book. I got about 10,000 into one, started another that got 30,000 words and wrote an essay for an application for college. (I'm going to go back to finish my bachelors.)  So I kind of got the words, just not all on one thing.

But I did wake my fingers and my writing brain back up. It was a small moment when I really felt it, finally the words were connected to me in a deeper way, finally I was interested in my character and what she wanted. It was a scene set on a dark night. My character had gone stargazing with her grandpa. They were riding back on a ATV, her sitting behind him, and it just sank into me. I remembered why I loved writing and I finally realized this book was about my character and her grandpa all along. I'd been trying to outline and everything, but this was the moment I finally saw where I was going.

So that's in the works. This is meant to be a smaller book, only about 40,000 words or less. It's a little bit of a travel back in the timeline of my teen fiction series set in Kanab, to when the parents of the characters in Break and Run were teenagers themselves.

I've also been working on my new teen fiction website that features books with religious characters. There are a few books up and more on the way. (Reading hasn't been as much of an issue for me as writing.) I hope you check it out.

I'm also planning on wrapping up the ending of my fantasy book, the first in the series. It's grown quite a bit and I'm hoping to have it finished by May for Storymakers Conference. Mostly because I'm going to some classes that are on plot and I'd love to be able to work with this book on an editing level instead of first draft level.

That's the big stuff with writing. I haven't given up, just been detoured a little by life. I hope you are also still working for your dreams and passions, even if you get a little side tracked sometimes.