Abby Elissa's Writings

First off, I'm sorry I didn't get a post out last week! It's been a crazy few weeks - or, rather, months. And it's not gonna get any better. I'm finishing up high school in the next two weeks, leaving for college in a few months, trying to balance a sometimes-frustrating job, and working to get Like a Warrior  ready to go into the world. (a few months later than intended, sadly. But I want to do this right, so I'm willing to wait a little longer) And, so, for right now, I'm going to have to step back from blogging. This isn't permanent. This is just me trying to focus on my priorities and do what God wants me to do. Goodbye for now, y'all. Without worrying about publishing posts myself, hopefully I can be more active with reading and commenting on other blogs. And, if all goes as planned, I'll be back later ready to go full-steam-ahead with launch plans for LAW. Thank everyone one of you so much - for reading, commenting, encouraging me. I love y...

Well, I've been busy and distracted lately and forgot to write a blog post earlier. *hides* But - here I am now! Mind if I ramble for a bit? Thanks. Let me warn you - this post may seem . . . different. And I have a reason for that. See, I know I haven't been very . . . honest with y'all. I tried to make my blogging style what was expected and normal. But I'm not expected or normal. And so I'm going to try to be more honest. Maybe that means stating things bluntly. Maybe that means not getting excited like I "should." Maybe that means being sporadic or over-organized. But I'm trying to be me, not who I thought I should be. (And, heads up, that means I probably won't be using exclamation marks or emojis like I used to . . . I can explain that later. But call it an INTJ thing.) As several of you probably know, the email delivery service on Blogger will be discontinuing - I haven't looked into it yet and don't know how big of a deal it is. But...

 Hi, y'all! With everything going on in my life lately, I've prayed about it and decided that a (very short) blogging break is something I need to do. I'm planning to be back in a little over two weeks, on March 29th. Until then, though, I won't be posting much if any and I might not be very active on commenting on others' blogs. When I come back, I'll have some exciting news! In the meantime, I have started an Instagram account! I'll plan to be more active there, since it takes less time than blogging. You can find me here:  https://www.instagram.com/a_thousand_words_431/ . Thank you all so much for your support, and I'll see you again soon! Love, Abby Elissa

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 P...

And . . . the first month of 2021 is already over! Can you believe it? 😮 Already this year, some big things have happened in my life! I got my first job! I decided on a timeline for publishing Like a Warrior . I read one of the rare books that actually blows my mind. I made a drastic change in career plans that I'm really excited about! I found yet another scheduling/to-do list method for my days that helps me! (I have to switch between different kinds of schedules and lists so I don't burn out.) I managed to stay consistent at blogging! I started a new blog series (Indie Author Spotlights). I participated in my first cover reveal! I joined Rebekah Morris's 2021 Reading Challenge! I had a lot of fun at The King's Daughters' Writing Camp! I wrote a short story in 21 words, as part of a challenge at Camp. That's the shortest story I ever remember writing! Writing progress in January: Worked on revising Like a Warrior , including majorly polishing the first chapte...

  Welcome to 2021!! I could go into the long, well-researched ramble I had started about New Year's resolutions (the statistics on those are interesting!). Or I could list out some of my goals for 2021. But, I'm not going to do either of those. Instead, I'm here for a short post: my word of the year. I don't know how exactly y'all took this word - but I don't mean trust other people. I don't mean trust myself. I sure don't mean trust everything I hear. I mean trust God .  I mean that I want to learn how to trust God with everything in me. To not worry when everyone else is worrying. To not turn away when everyone else is turning away. To not stay silent when everyone else is staying silent. To not back down when everyone else is backing down. To not be afraid when everyone else is afraid. And so, this year, I hope you'll join me. Joining me in trusting God. With everything. 💙 Love, Do you have a 2021 Word of the Year?

2020 was probably the biggest year of my life for changes. And not all bad changes, either. Actually, there were more good than bad.      And, despite the fact that I'm not always an optimist, I'm going to focus on just the good changes here. 😊 I met my best friend. 💙💙 Actually, I met a ton of new friends. My two closest friends (not sure how I would have survived 2020 without you two! 💙), my writing support group, my email buddies . . . All online. I'm not sure I've ever been so grateful for technology! In March, I started my own NaNoWriMo writing group. From there, I joined The King's Daughters' Writing Camp. And . . . wow. That has been so amazing! 🤩 Actually, I'm chatting and "word crawling" (I'm not even going to try to explain that, but it works 😂) with them as I write this! I can't even describe how amazing it is to connect with writers all around the world. I discovered that I am an INFJ and I've become obsessed with MBTI ...

Hi!!! First off, I wanna apologize - I should have made this post a week or two ago. *winces* But, I'm doing it now! I've been having a pretty rough time lately, for several reasons. And stressing over my never-ending to-do list was one issue. So, I've been making a lot of changes in my life recently—including temporarily pausing a lot of online stuff. I still keep in contact with my two closest friends (We all live in separate time zones, so it's not like we get to go visit each other's houses when we want to talk. 🙄) and my Bible study group, but that's about the extent of my online "social life" for a bit.  Hopefully I'll be back into the blogging sphere before long, though! When I do, I should have some powerful new posts!! Keep me in your prayers and I'll see you soon! P.S. I'm signed up for a blog tour of one my favorite books, so that'll still be coming really soon! I'll pop back into the blogging world for a few days there,...

Well, as you (should have) gathered from the title, I don't have just one thing I'm posting about today. 😊 Instead, I have a—well, a bunch of random announcements. Let's begin, shall we? My New Work-in-Progress I'm excited to announce my new WIP! It's called Edge of the Shadows , and, if things go as planned, it might turn out to be a good bit longer than Warrior . Though I LOVE the dystopian genre (dystopian stories: futuristic stories set in a society that's pretty screwed-up; aka, probably just about every futuristic story you've heard of), I've never written much in it. The idea for Shadows  came to me one night, and I figured it would be just one more of those stories I thought about for a few weeks and then tossed aside. But I made the "mistake" of telling a couple of my friends and writing buddies about it . . . and one of them, especially, was crazy supportive of the idea (and she's still this story's biggest fan and has read h...

Hey, y'all! I'm back!      So, I know I've been gone for almost two weeks, but that's because I was on vacation. And then I was recuperating from vacation. 😊 I'll include some pictures down below, but, in short...it was awesome. We went to the Southwest and visited four different states. And now I'm in love with Arizona...💙 💙     Also - exciting news! I finished the first read-through of my novel, and it shouldn't need too much work before I send it to my alpha readers! That'll be so nerve-racking and exciting at the same time. 😬 I'm hoping I can send it out by the end of the week! 😁     (Side note - I'm planning to start on those character interviews tomorrow, so let me know if you have any more questions for my characters!)     And, now, onto the photos! Nevada California The really neat thing about the Pacific Ocean is that these mountains (or big rocky hills, whatever you want to call them 😃 ) are just on the other side of the road ...

Welcome, y'all! I'm Abby, and I'm so glad you dropped by!      You can read more about me here . I spent a lot of time working on that page, and I don't want to go through that again...      I made this blog to mostly be about bookish stuff - book reviews, behind-the-scenes looks at my writing, blog tours for online friends, etc. And tags. Because I just love tags.       Now, to be honest, this blog wasn't even my idea - my dad suggested it. And it wouldn't have been possible without his help - and a whole lot of encouragement and suggestions from my incredible friend, SawyerMarie (she's also a great blogger - you can find her blog, Sundrop Girls, here ). Sawyer, this probably wouldn't be happening right now without you. Thanks, girl. I'm so glad God let us become friends. 💙     I'm hoping to post at least once or twice a week, but, never having done this before, I'm not making any promises. 😊     Also - this blog i...