2016 & …?

I have not blogged in ages.
I haven’t written in ages.

Poor Lenna!

As I mentioned in my last post, I did scribe the ending to Freewoman, the final book in Lenna Faircloth’s trilogy. Of course, all that did was garner a surfeit of queries as to when the book was coming out…

Well. My urge to kill Lenna is only mild at the moment, so 2016 is still looking ever so rosy. Mainly, though, I’ve been preoccupied with numerous Big To-Dos, like moving, the holidays, and getting the kittens to stop trying to maim each other. (See above: a rare moment of peace.)

I have set aside some “staycation” time so that (1) we can unpack the kitchen and pretend to bake like Mary Berry, and (2) I can stop fretting myself prematurely grey.

TL;DR version:

Freewoman is on its way; I am turning silver; I go to the gym a lot; I do not dance nearly as much as I should; three cats is a bit much for two people.

x

Tears…!? On Writing an Ending

I’m really rather pleased to be back on my game and exercising my writing muscles. ROAR!! Freewoman — I’ve probably mentioned this in past posts — is completely outlined and several chapters are done (my dad has the only copy of chapter one at the moment, shh!), but I still have a lot of work to do in cranking the rest out.

The ending is something that I’ve had in mind since book one, so what happens isn’t really anything new to me. I just felt like today was the day to write it. What I didn’t expect was for it to feel so personal or so final… after all, I still have a solid chunk of the book to write, so it’s not like I won’t be working on it. Still. Today, I wrote the ending.

To say Lenna doesn’t represent various aspects of my nature would be a lie. Writing anything without connecting on a personal level would, in my opinion, produce nothing but sterile content. But despite having known what was to come, what I was to write, I didn’t expect for me to feel so sad about penning the final paragraph of the arc that Lenna, that crochety librarian-cum-hero, took me journeying along as her companion.

I thought I was in charge the whole time, but looking back and forward, I guess Lenna was in command all along. My writing has developed for ill or naught, my imagination expanded twentyfold and, while there’s still much work to get done before Freewoman is even ready to be edited, it’s somehow rather tough to write goodbye. (Unless we see her again…)

Writing Getaway; Or: Writing, GET AWAY!

The boy had the sudden (whether it was opportune or not is debatable, since we had to wake up at 4:30 this morning) task of traveling for work up to Connecticut, and as I’ve been going a bit stir-crazy of late and may have been on vacation this week anyway, I said, “BAO GOES TOO.” This was very exciting, especially since it came off the back-end of pumpkin picking. Pumpkins are a particular… fascination of mine.

Punkin Time

Fortunately, despite the chilly weather, heated car seats and a Xanax meant I snored through most of the journey, and now I’m wandering about like a lost puppy in this giant resort. (I have had to ask for directions twice and already have been asked if Sunset Shimmer was my good luck charm.)

Good news is! While under normal vacation circumstances I would most likely be drunk or eating the entire time, I’ll be spending most of the week cranking out the first proof of Freewoman and working on two separate serials for my favorite magician, Jacob Orange. Productivity, here we come! (Mostly. Right now I’m having a Cosmopolitan and considering spa treatments.)

…oh, me.