Hello all!

I never know how much to talk about my personal life on this blog. It’s really hard to find the healthy balance between writing related stuff and just life in general. I get demotivated because the actual process of writing novels and sending out query letters can get pretty dang boring, but then again…so can life. I journal religiously, why I can’t I blog worth a darn? I just don’t know yet where to draw the lines between private and public. I should really work on improving my ability to sort through that.

Long story short though, life’s been throwing me a lot of curve balls between sick family, suicidal friend, and general romantic angst. It’s funny how even in the wake of mortal tragedy, we still find a way to feel heartbroken about lovers. I’ve taken this new approach to life that involves not beating myself up over what I want or do though. I think I’ve finally found the mythical anti-Catholic-guilt paradise that my mother left the church for all those years ago.

However, as I’m not allotting any of my time for crying, I have a lot of free time on my hands as well as a lot of unexpressed emotions. With little alternative, I find my best option is hitting the keys and pounding out as much fiction as I can.

I’m happy to have a draft of The Immaculate Memory of Megan Reed, and my goal is to have it edited well enough for a beta reader by the end of the week. I just finished rewriting the last thousand words of Eden Sleeps (NaNoWriMo ’14 winner,) so I think that’s ready for beta readers too. Zaq is waiting on me for Common Law (NaNo ’12 winner,) which should need about 2,000 words in changes, before it’s passable. I’ve spent too long on this book. I need someone else’s opinion on it before I’m able to give it substantive help at this point. Those are my editing plans.

I’m going to do my best to reboot my social media scheme and get back to peer-reviewing fellow writers on Book Country, and hopefully find the chance to print up some free copies of my book after winning NaNoWriMo back in November.

As always, my first priority is The Neverland Wars, but that’s with beta-readers right now, so I’m kind of just sitting on my hands and trying to stay busy until I can send off (what I think is) a final version of the book. Since I only made substantive changes to the opening, I think some of my buddies on Book Country will be able to help me out and go through the first few thousand words to confirm/deny this optimism.

Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up though, so check back in with me in a week and I’ll have my July plan lined up…I know everything I just spouted off seems like a lot to get done in a week, but fortunately I’ve got a very marginal “life” right now, so I should be fine. I’m trying to live in the moment. And by “live in the moment,” I mean avoid not only thinking about the scary ambiguity of my future and the regrettable past, but also avoid the present by throwing myself wholly into my writing.

This post probably sounds super depressing, but trust me when I say I’m actually doing very good and spending the vast majority of my waking hours extremely happy. I can’t believe how well I’m learning to deal with and channel my emotions. Is this what growing up really is?