Monthly Author Check-In: Summer 2018

What I’m Writing: Who’s Afraid of Amy Sinclair? (Hopefuls #2)
What I’m Reading: The Summer of Jordi Perez (And the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding
What I’m Loving: Right now, nothing competes with the glory of an open lap lane at the pool.

No WIP excerpt this month because, I’m sorry, but literally every paragraph in this second book is a spoiler for the first one.

If I had written this update a few days ago, I would have still been whining and moping about my enteral struggles to find my footing with Hopefuls #2. Because, let’s be honest, it’s been kind of a mess. It’s an open secret that the success of The Private Life of Jane Maxwell caused me to freeze up and freak out about what to make this book, and it went through about fifty different iterations before I finally settled on the one that I am drafting now.

Buuuuut, now it is a few days later, and it is amazing what a difference a few days can make. Now when I am writing this update, I am full of enthusiasm and drive, and I feel like, for the first time, I really know what this book is supposed to look and feel like, and I feel like I can Get Shit Done™. It helps that I had two writing days in a row where I hit a 2,500 word goal—which is, admittedly, kind of a low goal for me during the heart of writing a book, but so much better than I’ve been doing lately, that I will not knock it, and instead will embrace the boost it gives to my confidence. I… admittedly am not sure if I will manage to repeat that level of success today, but that is only because I have actually caught up on all the scenes I was writing at once, and now I need to start a bunch more. (And yes: I write like 3-5 scenes at the same time, so I can bounce around between them whenever I get stuck on a sentence.)

I have also now emailed a sneak peak of the cover and blurb for Who’s Afraid of Amy Sinclair? to two writing friends, and am waiting to hear back on what they think of it, so I am both excited and nervous for that, but mostly excited just because YAY COVERS and that’s always a thrill. Not going public with it yet, just because I want to make sure that the book continues to go the way I think it will, before releasing a cover that includes reference to a thing in the book.

In the meantime, it is Glorious Summer, and I am wringing every last bit of enjoyment out of that fact as I can. There is something magical and intoxicating about this time of year for me, where even now, in my thirties, the combination of warm air and sunshine and the feeling of pool water drying on my skin still makes me feel like I am a kid on summer vacation and everything is absolutely perfect. I had, hands-down, the best summers when I was growing up, and it set the stage for every summer of the rest of my life, I think. It’s this feeling I am trying to carry with me, as I write this book. That writing isn’t work, but playtime. That expectations do not exist. That for a few months, anyway, whatever problems might be in my real life are so far out of reach that they may as well not exist at all. Right now, in this bubble of summer, everything is absolutely perfect.

It’s a good way to get stuff done.