A Work In Progress

On my playlist: Fantastic Baby-BigBang (no, I don't speak Korean, but I adore K-pop. Their new song Sober, off their Made Series D album is also among my favorites right now.)

Morning Lads and Lassies,

Alright, so I'm basically the worst blogger ever. We've already established that. The summer has gotten super busy with the kids getting older and wanting to do more things that require me to leave the house, working on re-writes and edits, work on other jobs, and church callings that have taken over our lives. Sometimes it's difficult to get priorities right when it feels like there are so many things that need to get done. A moment of clarity came when a friend's son passed this last week. I've spread myself too thin, tried to accomplish too much and as a result I've only succeeded in wearing myself out.

The re-write for BRIAR is taking much longer than I anticipated it would and it's my own fault. In this particular case I'm my own worse enemy. I loved my original idea for BRIAR and spent quite a bit of time writing the original. Re-writing it has forced me to tear apart my baby and stitch it back together. As I near the end of the re-write and head into editing, I realize that it's not so much a Frankenstein monster, but a well put together and seamlessly efficient robot. It's funny how attached we get to some things and how difficult it is to let go. Being an author, in that sense, requires outside input. People who are willing to say, you did a great job, but this could make it a million times better. Finding the plot of the re-write was never the problem. Letting go of what I'd already done kept me from moving forward. With the help of my friends and writer's group, I'm hoping to be done by the end of the month and have the edits with Cate. Fingers crossed!

As a tribute to moving past my own self, I've decided to post a couple excerpts from BRIAR, as is. For those of you who don't know what BRIAR is, it is a YA Sleeping Beauty/Robin Hood role reversal.
For tomorrow's post I have a Q & A from author Wren Michaels introducing her full length novel debute, VEXED. Tune in for more info, the latest deets and more sneak peaks into my writing as I finish editing.