It would be remiss of me to avoid the sad truth: I have not put effort into remaining vigilant in regards to this site. Which is an injustice to myself and anyone who may have been interested in my writing journey. I will not list the countless excuses for why I have been absent, but just know that life is hard. It’s busy. Sometimes we must let go of something in order to retain our grip on others. For me, this blog and website was what I had to let go of. But I have reached into the shallow pool where all relinquished threads end up, riffled around in the cloudy waters, and rescued this one.

So, what have I been up to in the past year? Well, I’m glad you asked!

First, let’s start with my writing journey. After 8…maybe 9 drafts of revisions, tears, laughter, and so, so much love, I sent my manuscript fto a developmental editor. I got wonderful feedback, made some changes, crafted a better story. So draft 10 (or something) was sent off to have a Manuscript Evaluation, because I wanted to see if the changes I made helped the story feel more complete. It did.

I then sent it to Beta Readers (after another draft or two of course) and got the feedback every writer wants to hear. They loved my story. They gushed about characters—debating who their favorites were—what theories they had for the coming story, the plot twists I’d agonized over. In fact, they had a fan cast ready and waiting for me, already envisioning my story as a television series or movie! I mean…this thing I thought up over a late night phone call with my friend, and nurtured into the fully realized project it is now, was something these strangers were excited about!

Once this life-changing feedback was complete, I finally felt I had the confidence to send it off to agents. So, my last update is that I’ve begun querying. Two batches so far (meaning I’ve sent two batches of five queries spaced apart by about three weeks, for those who don’t know the writer jargon), and even though I’ve gotten two rejections and nothing more, I’m still hopeful.

On a personal note, outside of the writing world, life’s hard you guys. I mean, with inflation, this recession, continuously rising gas prices, and my job refusing to pay me a livable wage (because yes, I’ve been writing a book while trying to juggle working full time), I had tough choices to make. I work in human services and behavioral health, with the homeless, with those struggling with mental illness, with minority communities. I love my work, but it was coming at the expense of my own stability.

So, I’ve earned my health and life insurance license and will be transitioning to a hopefully higher paying position that is remote. In the comfort of my own home, with my pets beside me, in comfy pants and my own food and no gas prices to worry about for a 30 minute drive to work everyday. This was a hard decision. But sometimes, we can’t help others if we ourselves are near drowning.

This has been a very long-winded, sluggish return to my blog posts, but I hope to dedicate more time to this in the coming months.

Thank you if you’ve read this far. It means more than you know.

And if you keep coming back, even better!

Some things to come: Writing Groups and Critique Partners: Necessary or Not?, Character Profiles for A Fury of Blades, Beta Reader Best Practice, Snippets from A Fury of Blades, & maybe some book reviews!

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