It’s amazing how much a difference how you decorate can make!

I’m on a roll, and I hesitate to stop and even take the time away from my book to compose a blog post. You all ought to have an update though, and I’m happy to share my joy and remind myself why I’m so pumped up.

“The loft” in our house has been a tiny, angular, common space with more in common with an attic than an actual room. With it’s slanted walls, there’s not even a lot of space that’s even tall enough to stand up straight. I’m tiny though, and it doesn’t take much space to write in.

As you can see from the picture, I’ve got my secretary desk at the window (the first actual desk I’ve ever owned…I used to write at an old folding sewing table. #StarvingArtistLife) and an awesome old-timey lamp. The bulbs lose power/connection if you thump anything in the room. My writing partner says it’s haunted. I just think it’s in touch with its sensitive side.

The rocking chair is super comfortable, the tv tray is a good place to stash my Valentines/Motivation chocolate, and I’m thinking about putting butcher paper on the slanted ceiling so I can reach up and make a living notebook out of the room. The poster barely clinging to the wall is Starry Night by Alex Ruis, one of my absolute favorite works of modern art, simply because of the sentiment it conveys about art and artists.

I’ve got a writing partner now too! An old friend from high school is currently out-of-country and returning in mid-March…she’s just sprung it on me that she’s writing a murder mystery novel and is already 35,000 words in! It is so neat to be able to give someone peptalks after honing my own ability to persevere through eight consecutive NaNoWriMos…especially someone I’m so fond of! I also got her going on the novel-writing software, Storyist, and am excited to see how that works out for her. (I don’t use it, but then I’m really good at keeping all my thoughts and plots in my head.)

Long story short, she’s trying to finish her last 30,000 before she gets home next month, and I’m trying to wrap up the last 15,000 or so of my novel before my birthday.

…next Friday.

I’ve been managing an average of about 1,500 words a day for the last week, so I’m closing in on the end of this old NaNoWriMo project. The sequel to The Neverland Wars should be drafted in a week’s time. You’ll forgive me if I don’t post much anywhere in the meantime!

It is a fantastically invigorating feeling, getting back into the flow of the story and finally figuring out how to charge through it with the same energy I started it with. Afterwards it’s just a question of getting it to my best beta readers, probably a few solid weeks of non-stop editing, and then seeing if my publisher thinks it (and the original book’s sales…) are in good enough shape to move forward with the project 😀

I have high hopes, and those are fuelling me right now as I try to push through this next week and conquer this draft, once and for all.