Hey guys, welcome back! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know we here in the Northeast for the most part had great weather. Of course, we here know that can change hour by hour so we revel in it when it’s good. Especially this time of the year!

I’ve personally still been sick. I had posted a few weeks back that I was dealing with something and this has been with me since. Ironically, it’s been going on just as I hit the anniversary of when my life was changed by illness. If you’ve read my ‘Bit of Personal History’ page in the About section of this site, you know that I’ve had quite a health journey over the last 9 years. (Ok the page still says 6, but that’s because I wrote it three years ago.) Well, this particular illness now is hanging on and it’s been frustrating as hell. Not that it is stopping me from writing and working on my book, but still, this happening at my favorite time of the year is really pissing me off. Sorry, but it is. But on to other things…

I’ve mentioned several times that I’m in a cycle of reading and rereading and rereading my manuscript. I’ve become rather obsessive doing this and again I want to drive this point home…YOU CAN NEVER READ YOUR OWN WORK ENOUGH! 

Even with going on more than several times of reading this book, I keep finding things to fix, to add, to cut and of course, the dreaded missed typos that I may have missed the other eight or nine times I’ve read the thing. That’s ok though. What I’m finding, is that the jokes are still landing. The tears, both happy and sad, still fall in the right places and I’m genuinely surprised at lines I’ve written several months ago. I go into each read through fresh and I think that is helping the process.

I just finished another one right before I started to write this post. Sure enough, the last few chapters (not the ending, I’ll get to that in a minute), had me all over the emotional map and I was feeling all the feelings. I’d been waiting to read these last few for days, having been stuck on a few previous chapters for over a week, reworking them quite a bit. So when I got to these last ones, I surprised myself with what I had written. It had been a while since I read them and while I was dreading them, I ended up being happy with what was on the pages.

Let me go back a second…not dreading them in the sense that I thought they were bad. Just that they were the newest I had written and so little had been edited. Plus, to be honest, I hadn’t read through the last five or so chapters. I honestly forgot a lot of what was there. However, I’m glad I did because I really am happy with how this story has progressed and now that I’ve done this latest read? It is time to start gearing up for the finish line.

I’m not looking forward to finishing this book. I know I’ve said that several times that I don’t want the story to end. However, the past couple of days, I’ve come up with what I think will be the ending for this one and how I can bring these characters back for a sequel/series. It is finally starting to come together in my head and the only problem with that of course, is that I want to start writing the next book! Of course, I still have to finish both this one and finish editing my first novel. And that one needs a tremendous amount of work. Plus, I don’t want to leave these current characters. If I go back to my previous book, I will lose the momentum of this current one…really I’ve written myself into a vicious cycle.

This is the problem that I know a lot of us have. We get more story ideas and soon, our files are filled with started books, while very few are finished. That’s me. Right here. If you were to go into my docs, you’d find quite a few novels begun and only one fully completed.

I’m so determined to finish this current one and get it sent off with my query letter as soon as I can. I’m getting excited for it now. I really am. I know there’s still a lot of formatting, cuts and more to happen before I can send it off, but just knowing that it’s getting close is keeping me going! (It also makes me a little nauseous as well from nerves, but hey that’s life right?)

I would love to say what a great thing it is to have so many ideas. In many ways, it is. But it can also be more than overwhelming. For myself, it reminds me to take a step back. Reevaluate what’s important right now. I’m big on pro/con lists. I’m also big at writing down new ideas until they are out of my head, thus the several started novels in my docs files. (Insert head slap here.) This is where I should mention that I also keep reading a ton to get my mind off of all of this. The beauty of that of course is that it clears my mind for what’s next. So whether it’s reading, going for a run, watching a ball game or binging a show, doing something else can clear your head and find the answer you need. For me, while reading another book, out of nowhere I was sparked with the idea for my ending. I know a marketing guy who used to get his ideas from running. Creatives need other outlets to fuel their work. Right now, if my other outlets could help me get to my own finish line? I will be forever grateful.

And that is where I will leave you for today. Thank you so much for being here and following! Until next time…Cheers!

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If you’ve gotten this far, I appreciate it and will see you soon! Thanks all. ☺️