3 months from today!!

What my life looks like these days (although imagine more cardboard boxes and dust. Lots of dust.)

A few days ago I was cleaning out stacks and drawers of papers (writers have LOTS of random stacks of paper hanging around) and I found my very first draft of The Hideaway! It was like finding an old friend I’d lost touch with. Along with it was the first timeline I drew to figure out Mags’s life and random notes I jotted down on a piece of construction paper because I couldn’t find real notebook paper. 

I threw a lot of unnecessary papers away (like the foot-tall stack of edits from THE CARTEL (you know who you are…) but I’m not getting rid of these. It’s good to keep reminders of all the work that went into The Hideaway. As if I could forget! 

I’m going through all these papers (and closets and kitchen cabinets and under beds) because we are moving. As if digging into revisions on book 2 isn’t enough chaos in my life, we decided now would be a good time to move. Just kidding–a little. It is a good time to move–we are outgrowing our sweet little house and want more room to spread out–but I have to work to keep from panicking that I’m spending my time working on the house and not on revisions. I have started revisions though–the break from the story over the holidays was wonderful and I’m kind of excited to be getting back into the story, even though I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me. Three months until this second book is due to my editor.

And three months until release of The Hideaway! I’m still waiting on the advance copies and can’t wait to get them in my hands. If you have preordered the book, it’ll land on your doorstep on 4/11. I have no idea what life will be like as the day approaches, but I’m excited to find out. I have heard from other authors, however, that the actual release date is quite anticlimactic. You’ve worked so hard to reach that day then it comes…and your day looks pretty much like every other day! But I’d imagine it will still feel pretty unbelievable. 

A few links I’ve stumbled across recently that I enjoyed or that made me laugh:

This woman lived quite a life and had an extraordinary career (including seeing the start of WWII from under a flapping sheet of fabric that delineated the border between Poland and Germany.)

This article features authors talking about how you can write a bestseller and still hardly make any money–or at least, not for a long time. “At times, the entire fiction-writing profession resembles a pyramid scheme swathed in a dewy mist of romantic yearning.” 

Chris Stapleton? I’m way behind the times. I just discovered him today on Amazon Music and wow–he’s pretty great. I’m not generally a country fan so when I hear about a new male country artist, it tends to go in one ear and out the other because they all seem to be part of the “bro-country” trend (yes, that’s apparently a thing, and it perfectly describes the type of country music that really grates on my nerves!) But this guy isn’t that at all. He’s the real deal, a throw-back to great country-rock artists from decades ago , but also really fresh and new. Here’s a video of him performing on SNL. 

Lastly, Matt and I have been rewatching The Office and loving it all over again. I leave you with Jim and Dwight.