Personal Journey Story Category

Red Hour is fully drafted!

Time to celebrate by editing it. Despite the curveballs this fall threw at my family, I am so happy to have completed a major 2024 writing goal. Red Hour is finally fully drafted. This story surprised me. Sam’s voice came through strongly, the world was grittier and the violence was a little rougher than my […]

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Closing out spooky season…          

And returning to SFF books. I’m still working through some of my spooky season stack, but soon I plan to return to the library to grab the last of the books I selected back in January for my 24 in 2024 challenge. As a writer, it’s important to stay on top of what’s new in […]

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It’s time for spooky season!

Check out my mystery TBR for October. As a fantasy writer, I mainly read SFF novels and don’t prioritize mysteries, which I also love, often enough. For the past couple years, I have been grabbing a big library haul of detective/crime novels, cozy mysteries, and thrillers in honor of spooky season. It has been fun […]

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Creativity…

Has returned! I reread/edited Red Hour and finally finally finally started writing a new chapter to bridge the gap to the previously written ending. After several years of wanting to finish this book but not knowing how to connect everything, I’m so excited to be close to the finish line. These new scenes may not […]

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Writing Update…

Um, there’s not much to say. Summer ended, the kids went back to school, and the next day my husband was hit by a car while bicycling (see more at the bottom), so there has been little to no writing accomplished this past month. We were living day to day, moment to moment for a […]

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Time to embrace summer…

or get back to work? So far this summer season, I’ve read a lot, had some pool and zoo time, and took a fun girls’ trip to Savannah, Georgia, but I haven’t gotten much work done in terms of writing goals. A few queries have gone out, I’ve dipped into Red Hour a bit, but […]

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Setting aside time to imagine…

Is just as important as writing. Right now, I need to take some time to brainstorm and daydream about the final chapters of Red Hour. I’m so close but not getting over that finish line. I wrote the ending a year ago, but there is a gap before those final scenes. I need to fill […]

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School is ending…

Welcome summer! Another change of season and routine is upon us. Summer break started last week for my high schooler and kicks off in two days for my fifth grader. This spring has been very busy for me and a bit frustrating on the writing front. I’m proud of my completion of major edits to […]

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I’m drowning…

In ARCs. Last month, I took a break from reviewing Advance Reader Copies and gifted books from authors/publishers so that I could focus on my personal reading goals. I grabbed a big library haul of anticipated reads and cleared out a couple old nonfiction books I’d had on my shelf for a while. It was […]

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Variation in writing style…

Can be exciting to explore. Last month, I finished major rewrites for my 4-book adult fantasy series, Dreamcatcher, and while I am still submitting chapters of book one to my writing group and making small edits, I have spent most of this month working on Red Hour. This new adult standalone fantasy novel—dare I call […]

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