February 2021: Wrap Up//Writing Update

Is it just me, or did February slip right by us? Like - shouldn't it still be January? 🤨

Anyway, I did get a lot of stuff done in February, short as it seemed.

• Started back my old routine of getting up before 6am to go sit on the porch and drink my cup of coffee.
• Did my first "rant-y" blog post.
• Had an amazing guest post by author Kellyn Roth.
• Got to do an interview with my friend Ellen Senechal - and she even shared an excerpt from her devotional!
• Made good progress on finding a routine for life, now that I'm balancing college, work, writing, and my personal life.
• Pushed harder on running, and got my fastest time in a while.
• Had an amazing surprise Barnes & Noble trip (supposedly me, my mama, and my sister were going clothes shopping - but the bookstore was only a few doors down from the clothes store, so I left them to clothes shop while I hunted for book bargains 😆).
• Discovered a new classic author that I already love - Agatha Christie. 🤩 (Not that Hercule Poroit is better than Sherlock Holmes, by any stretch of the imagination. But Agatha Christie is an amazing mystery writer.)
• Got really distracted for a few days while one of my closest friends and I found Pinterest pics of our characters' future kids. We now have several dozen new characters, complete with personalities and names. Oh, and we have a system for how to identify whose kids are whose. But it looks like some kind of secret code that we attach to their Pinterest board sections. 😂
• Discovered some amazing songs - you might get a music post sometime soon. 

Well, I honestly didn't get much reading done in February. Work, school, and revisions were my main focus. But here are the (very few) books that I finished in February:

• Shadowed by Dani Pettrey (4 stars)
• Blackout by Lynette Eason

(Okay, that was a very pathetic list - two novellas. Sorry. But, I did make some progress in a few beta and review reads.)

Life lesson learned: Just because my way works for me but not you, and your way works for you and not me - that doesn't necessarily make either of our ways wrong or even better than the other's. (I know this sounds basic, but I'm trying to really, really understand that and live like I understand it.)

And, now for writing progress - except, since I have a lot to say, I'm just gonna stop with the monthly wrap-up and give you a full-blown writing update.

For exciting news . . . 

I SENT LIKE A WARRIOR TO BETA READERS!!!!! It's so wonderful to have a story I can be proud of, and now other people are reading it. (Or have already read it . . . one of my readers had it finished about 24 hours after I sent it.)

Since I've already been through this process with alpha readers (good grief, that was nerve-wracking), I'm not nearly as nervous this time. I'm mostly just excited, and really, really looking forward to getting feedback. I have some amazing people as beta readers, and I'll put a lot of stock in what they say about my story. 

Now that I'm not actively working on Like a Warrior (except for replying to beta comments), I need something else writing-related to work on. I need to finish the cover for LAW (the official nickname for Like a Warrior, unless you happen to know the name I've been calling it for nearly two years), but that's not the same as actual writing. So - I'll plan on focusing on my secret WIP, which is a novella that's very close to my heart.

I'm not ready to tell y'all much about this novella - only my two closest friends know much about it. But I can tell you that it's a lotttttt different from LAW, or, really, almost anything else that I've written. And, to be completely honest, I tried to get out of writing this story, but God said no. Yes, God and I actually argued about a story. He won. 😂 So, now I'm writing a novella (well, the idea is to keep it at novella length, but we'll see what happens) with messed-up characters, heavy messages, a tough topic, and possibly my deepest redemption arc. Also an ESFJ and an ENFJ character. I'm really excited about them. 😁

For right now, this story will stay in my small, fangirl-y circle (y'all are amazing) - but I definitely plan to share it with the world. I just need some more time with it first.

Speaking of that - I think I'll go take some time with it right now. I haven't written in it in a while, and my small circle (okay, so it's more like a triangle, since there're only three of us) has been asking for snippets. 

See y'all later!

Love,

How was your February? Do you have any secret writing projects?