Can they PLEASE throw some strikes?

It's Saturday already? Guess it's time for another post. Currently watching the Detroit Tigers game and I'd like to focus on ANYTHING else right now, so I'm writing this. Although, as I wrote that, the Tigers put together a double play to end the inning, but I've already started this so I'm finishing it.

This past week, my dog got a vet visit. She does not enjoy vet visits. Nothing horribly wrong with her, just the usual check-up and get her shots up to date. She does have a lump on her abdomen that I was worrying about, but it's a benign lipoma. Nothing serious. I just have to keep an eye on it and, if it gets bigger, then let the vet know.

For Easter, my family took my grandma out to a fancy brewery. Yes, a brewery. This place somehow has some really fancy food including these gourmet fries that are mouthwatering when you dip them in mayonnaise. It sounds disgusting, but I get excited every Easter because that's where we go to eat and I love those fries.

I have a feeling that there's something else... The book still isn't ready for publishing yet considering it's still in the 'other people are editing it' stage. Plus, I still have to somehow put together another cover that I have no inspiration for. Think that's all I have now. So, until next time, have a great week!

Done! Sort of...

Super news coming from the book front! My personal editing for my second book is completed! So, I've sent it on to be edited by other people. Meanwhile, right after I sent it, I came up with a much better ending that would fit the feel of the book better and make it slightly longer. (Not that it needs any more length in its current state. It's longer than some novels out there, but shorter than my previous one.) I've told this to my editors and, while they're going to read the current version, I'll write the new ending and send it to them for comparison. I'm hoping to release the book soon, though I still have to create a cover for it. No idea what to do with that.

While I'm doing that though, I'll also be working on writing for fun. Back to my fanfiction and writing short stories that might become ideas for books. Plus, I'll be developing some of the ideas for new books. These are still in the science fiction genre. One of them revolves around ghosts while another takes place on a fictional planet. That's all I'm prepared to say about those at this time. Very vague, I know. I just don't want to give away ideas and see that someone else writes it first.

My sister's home from college for the weekend. Why is this? Because of the holiday known as Easter which is highly recognized in my religion. For a while now, we've been eating no meat on Fridays as our religion dictates (though I've seen SOME of my family members not go through with this supposed rule). Let me tell you something. When you can't have something, that's when you want it or, in this case, crave it the most. But whatever. Since tomorrow is actually Easter, family stuff will be going on. Only on my mom's side though. For some reason, we never seem to celebrate with my dad's side during Easter. Odd.

That should be a good amount of rambling for this blog post. Guess I'll put in an obligatory 'Go Red Wings!' since they're in the playoffs once again. Seriously, they've been going to the playoffs for as long as I can remember. I think it's a 23 year streak or something which is really sweet. I'm not much of a hockey fan, but, being from an area where hockey is almost religious, I can still root for them and watch them casually. Now, this is a good spot to stop. So, until next time, have a great week!

Tired... So Very Tired...

Time for another post! With my second book all typed up now, I have to go through my personal edits and then it's going to be looked over by other people before I actually do the publishing thing.

Speaking of publishing, I had thought that I knew no one with connections to the old-fashioned publishing community. Well, I was wrong. Actually, it came up rather recently. Turns out that my cousin is marrying someone who is friends with someone that works in publishing. And it's a BIG publishing company. So, my future cousin-in-law is going to show my work to her friend. I'm really excited to see how this turns out. Could become something, could become nothing. Either way, I've got to roll with it.

I'm going to keep this really short because I'm running more on coffee than sleep. Those west coast baseball games are late in my time-zone and I've been staying up to watch them. I haven't felt this tired since I stayed up all night to study for a Biochemistry exam and then had to spend the day after going to four different classes all in different places on my college campus. So, until next Saturday, have a great week!

Almost There!

I'm almost finished with typing up my second book. Got to the last chapter and started to type it up, but then I realized that it was rushed. Probably because I felt rushed to get it finished. So, as I'm typing it, I'm going to edit it to make it seem less rushed and fit better with the rest of the book. I'm really excited to get this out to you readers. I think this is better than my previous book which, apparently, is what writers are supposed to feel. More writing means more practice and experience at it means better books.

There was one point this past week where I wasn't able to work. That's because the power went out in the house while I was working. This is one reason why I hand-write everything first! You never know when you're going to lose everything and need a hard copy.

As for the sports thing... Well, at least the Tigers are doing great! Can't say the same for the Spartans. I really want to just forget about basketball and focus on baseball. It's kind of hard when every channel seems to talk about the Final Four.

That publishing opportunity that I wrote about before? After some research, found out it's probably a scam. Was hesitant to go that route anyway.

Time to get back to typing and working on that last chapter that just doesn't fit. If things keep going the way they are, then I should be done with the typing tonight or tomorrow morning. I think I said that before, but every time I tried to buckle down and get to work, someone bothered me with something and I ended up distracted and unable to concentrate on writing. Unfortunately, I have that problem. This time though, I'm pretty confident that I'll get this finished soon! So, until next Saturday, have a great week!

Go *insert sports team here*!

I was going to wait until even later today to post this to see if I could finish typing my book up today, but it looks like that will happen tomorrow and I don't want to delay this too much that I forget to post. So, yeah, not done typing yet. There are some interesting things going on though.

First, sports. Super excited for the next couple of days. On Sunday, the Spartans are playing in the elite eight in the NCAA basketball tournament. Normally, I'm not that into basketball, but, since it's the Spartans, I've been watching. Last night's game was awesome. It really could have gone either way and there were tons of fouls in the end of the game. Watching that kept me on the edge of my seat. On Monday, baseball is back! Well, baseball that actually matters. I'm really ecstatic about the Detroit Tigers this year. They should be fun to watch on both offense and defense.

Next, I've got an interesting opportunity, but I'm not sure if I should take it. See, I was contacted through Twitter by a company that helps authors self-publish at a lower rate than most competitors. They'll even do physical copies of books and it's been a huge dream of mine to see my work in print. However, there's a catch. They're based in the United Kingdom and most of the distribution would be in the United Kingdom. I live in the United States. That's a long commute. Plus, I would really like there to be more options in my home country than in a foreign one. Yet, this is still an interesting opportunity that I need to consider. It's something that I need to put some thinking time in without something else bogging my mind. Which I can't do until my book is typed up.

So, that's what's been going on this past week and a couple things that I'm looking forward to for the next. Until next time, have a great week!

Pain in the Leg

No update on my book this week. I should (hopefully, knock on wood) have it typed by next week. I've been a bit distracted by baseball and basketball. Plus, there's something going on with my leg. It's a reoccurring thing that seems to pop up when I walk or stand a lot. Basically, if I put too much work on my leg, my ankle starts to hurt. When I feel the affected area, I can feel a bump even though it's not big enough to be visible. It also feels stiffer there than my other leg. I've had this for a while, but never got it checked out. I assume that it would take some time and money that I don't have to fix it. And right now, it's more of just a nuisance that only hurts when I do too much. So, as long as I avoid doing too much, the pain should go away soon.

Don't have much else to say. Lent is going on, so no meat on Fridays for me. I'm reading a book called Pathfinder which is really good. I got it a while ago, but haven't had a chance to really read it until recently. It's kind of long, but I like that. More to read. Anyway, that's what's going on here. So, until next Saturday, have a great week!

Band Concerts

I'm going to come right out and say it. My next book is still not ready. Now that that's out of the way, I can focus on the rest of this blog post which I'm going to keep short.

Yesterday, my little sister had a band concert. Not just any band concert; it was a district festival concert where the band was rated and, if they got a high enough rating, they would go on to state festival. Seeing that she's in the highest band in a high school where band is a huge deal (Seriously, a huge deal. When I was there, band members were voted in as homecoming king and queen.), we all expected them to get straight ones (highest rating), especially since it was only district. Well, nope. They ended up with three twos for the prepared pieces and a one in sight reading (where they get a random piece of music that they've never seen before and have a set amount of time to look it over before performing it). This means that they're not going to state festival. I think it's the first time in the history of Wind Ensemble (the name of the highest band) that they didn't qualify for state festival. I'm pretty sure about it too since Wind Ensemble was created my sophomore year of high school. In all honesty, I can tell why they did so poorly. The tuning was atrocious, some of the the players were playing too fast while others were too slow, the dynamics were almost stagnant with barely a difference between the softest parts and the loudest parts, the whole notes weren't released together and the balance of the band was definitely top heavy. My dad was shocked they didn't get an overall one. I wasn't. It might seem harsh, but, as an old member of the band, I remember better performances and not just when I was there.

So, that's what's going on here. I'm hurrying with my book, but I don't want to rush it too much and turn out a book of bad quality. It's mostly typed up, but I'm adding in a new chapter that I didn't have in the first copy because there seems to be some missing scenes. And that's it. Until next time, have a great week!

Warmth! Hopefully, This Stays.

It's finally warming up here! The snow is starting to melt leaving puddles all over the ground. There are still mounds of snow everywhere and I'm afraid this is just a teaser before another snowstorm, but I'll take it.

My dad had surgery on his shoulder this past week. It was the second surgery there within a year. The first time was because he tore all of the tendons in his shoulder in a biking accident. This surgery was because he still hasn't regained all the use in his arm which was supposed to happen by now. Before he was in so much pain that he would barely move from his seat, but now he's already back to work.

This coming week is also my sister's spring break, so she's home from college. Well, sort of. She still has homework to do and friends to spend time with, but she's living at home for the week.

I should hopefully be done with the typing next week. I tried to get it done this past week, but things happened as seen earlier. Then comes the hard part: editing. But it's okay. I've already got plans for other writing while the editing is happening, including a book that has nothing to do with the Hunters and Vampires series. I'm really excited about this idea and can't wait to get to work on it. Gotta get the next Hunters and Vampires book typed up first though. Anyway, that's really all I want to say this week. Until next time, have a great week!

Seriously, Snow, Stop It.

Happy first day of March everyone! I'm going to keep this post short considering some of the last ones have been rather long. There's still mountains of snow outside my window and now there's a light covering of fresh snow on the ground. I think my dog's even sick of it because she went outside, sniffed the new snow and came right back in.

Anyway, my next book's first draft is complete. (It was completed last week after my blog post.) Now, I have to type it up. I'm about a third of the way with typing it up. It would have been more, but this week has been different than most. My parents went to Florida for most of the week so I've been taking care of the house and my dog along with keeping track of my sister who sometimes doesn't tell people where she's going. So, with it just being me and my sister (who is almost never home) in the house, I've had to give my dog extra attention. And my dog is a serious night owl. She's been running around the house at two in the morning. I've been staying up late with her and still getting up rather earlier than I'd like, so I'm not exactly at a hundred percent.

Hopefully, I'll have my book typed up by next week. If it is, I'll probably have more interesting things to say than I do this week. This really is all I have to say for this week. I could talk about a dream I had that was really a dream within a dream within a dream, but since my dreams are all weird, that's probably a topic for another post. So, until next Saturday, have a great week!

Writing Process

As I write this, the sun is shining outside, but that wasn't the case earlier this week. Around the middle of this past week, there was this freaky thing with the weather where it was raining and snowing at the same time. I cried when I saw it. That night, there was also this winter storm with thunder.

Anyway, onto better things. I've got just one page left in my book to hand-write! (Maybe two, depends on how big my letters are going to be and how detailed I want the last scene to be.) So, I'm confident I'll be done with my first draft today! Since I promised I'd talk about my writing process once I finished my first draft, that's what this post will be about.

The first thing that I do when I write (after getting an idea) is create an outline. That's actually a recent addition to my writing process. Before, I would just start from the beginning and write until I got to the end. For my first book, I started with just writing the book, but then got writer's block. So, I created an outline and it helped. For this second book, I created an outline first and then started writing the book. Although I've strayed a bit from the outline and had to edit a few things on it, it helped me keep on track and keep out of the multiple writer's blocks I've had in the past.

After the outline comes the first draft. I hand-write the first draft. It's a habit I picked up from writing when I was bored in school and didn't have a laptop to type on. I number the pages to keep them in order. When I'm done with a page, I add it to a binder where I keep everything relating to that book. The binder for this second book has been opened so many times that the cover is falling off. Once I'm done with the book and move on to the next one, the binder is put away, storing the first draft with it. I still have the binder from my first book and my unpublished book from before that.

Once the first draft is complete, I type it up. While typing, I make my first edits: fixing mistakes, expanding some sections, deleting scenes that don't make sense or don't fit, adding in scenes that make the story flow better. Each chapter gets its own document. I then combine the chapters in one document and read through it one more time.

When I'm happy with it, I send the full story to my dad. He then prints it off and gives it to my mom. She loves reading and can easily catch most grammatical and spelling errors. Once she makes her edits, I fix them and send it to my dad again. He then reads it over and makes edits of his own. My dad has always been creative so he's able to give me suggestions to make the story itself better.

After I go over the suggestions and add in the ones I feel would improve the story, I read it over at least one more time. Then, I make structural edits to the document to make it able to be uploaded for publication and distribution. During this structural process, I work on the cover. Once all of that is done, I upload it to Smashwords and Amazon. Smashwords then distributes it to multiple ebook sellers. That finishes the process and I start on the next one. (Before, I started on the this upcoming one while still getting the first one ready for publication. That's probably what I'll do with the next one.)

So, that's my writing process. Once again, I've made a long post. I'll be starting the typing portion of my process today. Hopefully, this will move faster than the actual writing. Anyway, until next time, have a great week!

Tablets are Awesome

So, I'm posting a little later than normal today because my antivirus protection on my computer had to do a scan of my computer and it took all morning. And it was on 99% for an unbelievable amount of time. Luckily, I had my new Kindle Fire that I got for my birthday that happened this past week. It was a quiet birthday as I just wanted to work on my book. Of course, when I got that Kindle, things ended up getting delayed as I used that gift. As a result plus the fact that there are some extra things that I've decided to go back and change, it's still not done.

Also this past week, I had to go with my mom to the eye doctor in case she couldn't drive back because of eye dilation. I just sat in the waiting room for a couple hours, reading. She had to go to the eye doctor because she has this eye disease called glaucoma. This disease causes extra pressure in the eye that could damage the optic nerve. If not caught and treated it can cause blindness. Most people consider it a disease that you get when you get older, but my mom got it around 35. In some cases, glaucoma is genetic, so I'm at risk, especially since my eyes are a lot like my mom's were when she was my age. It's kind of a scary thought because there's no cure and I've seen what some of the treatment is for glaucoma, including surgery.

Apparently, there was a holiday this past week as well. That's right, the Tigers have started their spring training so baseball is almost here! But seriously, for Valentine's Day, I spent most of it in my room, making no noise and pretending I don't exist. At least I had the most awesome cupcakes from my birthday.

That's it for this week. Hopefully, I'll have a celebration for the first draft being done next week. (As long as I don't keep getting distracted by my Kindle, it should be.) Have a great week!

How Did I Come Up With The Idea For My Book Series?

So, since I don't have my next book done yet (should have it done sometime this week if everything goes according to plan), I'm going to instead talk about how I got the idea for this book series. It's an interesting story that I haven't told anyone yet. Some people know small fragments, but no one's ever heard it all.

It started after my failed attempts at getting my first novel picked up by an agent. (Ten failed attempts, to be exact.) I was having a hard time thinking positive after all those failed attempts. Every email that I got back (if I even got one) was an obvious form rejection letter. At that point, I was starting to think that maybe there was something wrong with my book. So, I stopped sending the query letters and started going through the book again, trying to find little things that I could improve on it. Soon, I realized that I had been tweaking the story for almost half my life. I would never be happy with it.

Because I wasn't getting any bites from agents, my dad kept suggesting that I self-publish and see where that takes me. Well, I had found so many things wrong with my first book and I was so determined to see it published the old-fashioned way that I didn't want to self-publish it. So, I decided to just write another book to self-publish and get my name out there. Since I had a few short stories from my time in a creative writing class, I chose one and tried to lengthen it into a full novel. Well, it didn't work. I didn't have the ideas for it and there was almost no plot line. The only plot line there was resolved within the short story so it seemed pointless to expand it.

I was in my final year of college when I began to wonder if I would ever get published. Each of my classes were giving me group projects, so I focused on those, pushing writing into the back of my head. Except for my fan fiction. Yes, I write fan fiction. It's a great way to keep my writing skills toned. The best way to get better at writing is to write and having stories that I can get instant feedback on is a great thing. It helps me develop my writing.

Anyway, how did fan fiction play into all of this? Well, I had a list of ideas in one of my documents on my laptop of possible story lines for my fan fiction. One of them had to do with vampires. No matter how much I spun it, I couldn't get it into a good fan fiction. That's when I realized that the parts of the story that I liked only had the original characters in it. I scrapped the story, but kept the original ideas and characters.

Taking what I had saved, I began developing an original story. It started with Brynn, the main vampire in my book series, and her father. I didn't have a name for her father yet, but Brynn's name I got from searching the Internet for strong female names and that one stuck. Something was missing though. Some type of conflict. I needed to figure out something that went along with vampires. Well, vampires and werewolves don't get along, so the story started with me adding in a werewolf, but that didn't work. Rather than scrapping the whole thing, I scrapped the werewolf. Then, I thought about vampire hunters. But it still didn't fit. Vampire hunters are too cliche. Besides, someone that hates vampires should hate everything supernatural. Werewolves, zombies, fairies, wizards, witches, warlocks, mummies and every other mythical or supernatural creature along with vampires. If I put in vampire hunters, I'd have to specify every single type of hunter from werewolf hunters to witch hunters. So, I dropped the specification and the group became just the hunters.

I created a hunter that would follow Brynn, intending on killing her only to get wrapped up in the world of the supernatural. There was no name for him when I created him. I threw around a few names, even looked online for something, but nothing seemed to fit him. Eventually, I got to the point where Brynn asked for his name. I sat there staring at the paper for a few moments, trying to decide what to call him. I almost gave up and even put down my pen when the name Parker popped into my head. So, I wrote it down as a placeholder, but the name grew on me and I kept it.

The story from then on flowed out of me. Sure, I hit a few blocks, but for the most part it came out easily. Originally, this was supposed to be a single book, not a series, but ideas kept pouring out and I realized that I should make it into a series. For the end of the book, I had two different endings written. One cemented the story as a single book while the other was for if I wanted to create a series. After working on both, I eventually put in the loose ending rather than the final one so I could make it into a series.

I'll admit that for some of my classes I paid more attention to my writing than the actual lecture. My professors probably thought that I was a serious note taker because I was writing on sheets of paper instead of a laptop. Anyway, I finished it within a year and, after the editing, got it self-published in the fall after I graduated. Going through it, there are still things that I wish I could change, but I guess that's part of the creator's curse.

Holy crap. This blog post is long. I actually didn't think it would be this long. I hope it doesn't turn people off of it. I guess I'll end it here then. So, until next Saturday, have a great week!

It's Snowing... Again...

Had to stay at home for this week because of the house renovations, so I really don't have much to talk about this week. With my dog stuck in my room whenever my uncle and cousin came by to work, I was completely distracted from my own work (writing). I love my dog, but when she's barking at every noise and scratching to get out of the room, it can get rather annoying. She's not usually like that. For the most part, she sleeps on the couch or plays with her toys or stares out the front window. It's just when she has to be confined to a room to keep her away from someone she doesn't like who's visiting, mainly my uncle. Luckily, the renovations are done, so she doesn't have to be cooped up in my room with me.

It's snowing again outside. I love looking at the snow, but there comes a point every winter that I get tired of it. This is that point. Mainly because it's February and I know that spring is almost here. My birthday is this month, so I know that there's going to be piles of snow all over for that. This snow and cold have caused my sister to have four days off of high school in a row. I think I had that many snow days during my entire time in high school. My parents are going to a wedding today and they have to drive through the current snowstorm outside. And apparently, it's supposed to snow even more later this week. It's almost as if nature is trying to force all of us to stay indoors. Of course, I don't mind doing that, but if I wanted to leave the house, it would be nice to see some signs of the snow clearing up.

Most of my book is done. Just a couple more chapters and I'll have my first draft complete. Then, I'll be typing it up and fixing the errors and, possibly, editing scenes in or out. Although I thought it would be longer than my previous book, it looks like this one is going to be around the same length. I guess that's a good thing. Anyway, that's what's been going on here, so until next Saturday, have a great week!

Busy, Busy, Busy

After a long time of nothing really happening, suddenly stuff started happening this week. Before I get into that stuff, I'll say, once again, that the book writing is going well. I'm happy with the progress and I'm hoping the first draft will be done soon.

So, what's been happening? Well, first, my dad decided to redo almost half the house. The living room is filled with stuff from my sister's room, one of the hallways, the study and one of the bathrooms because of these home improvements. Since my uncle and cousin are doing most of the work, my dog has to stay in my room with me when they're working. She doesn't like my uncle and I think the feeling's mutual.

I also had a dentist appointment this week. (No cavities! Woo!) Unlike the popular opinion, I actually like going to the dentist. It could be because I'm usually pretty good at keeping my teeth clean anyway, but I like to think it's the company. Our family dentist has been treating us since we were little. My grandma even took my mom to him. So, I guess it's a bit of trust too.

On Tuesday, I went with my dad to a community school for a program called Winning Futures. What they do is pair up high school kids with mentors to help them succeed in life. The kids that go to this school are usually either too smart for normal school or they struggle with normal school. Winning Futures works with the struggling ones. My dad is one of the mentors and has been one for a long time. Tuesday was 'Bring a Friend' day, so my dad brought me. The kids had to write down their long term goals and come up with things that were impeding their lives and goals. Then, we played a game with dice where one of the kids was extremely lucky and kept winning the dice rolls. After every round of the dice rolls, my dad would read off a tip for studying. Doing this was an interesting experience and I hope to volunteer with Winning Futures one day when I have more time on my hands (AKA when I'm done writing my first draft). My dad says I'd be good for the kids since I'm closer to their age so I know their problems better than most of the mentors since I went through some of them recently.

That's what's been going on here in my life. Kind of crazy at the moment. My dog's not happy. She doesn't like change. Anyway, I'll get another post up next Saturday. So, until next time, have a great week!

Memories of Disney

Before I get started on this blog post's topic, I'm gonna give an update on my book. It's coming along fast. (Mostly because I've been locking myself in my room with nothing to do but write.) I'm hoping that the first draft will be done soon.

And because I barely leave the house, I'm going to have this blog post have one single topic: Disney. Now, it might seem weird for me to talk about Disney if you've read my writing. My books are a bit darker than most things with the Disney label. Yet, I grew up with Disney. It's a huge part of my life. My mom is the real Disney fanatic in our family, so I guess I can blame her for it.

Whenever we went on vacation together, Disney World was always a possibility. We'd have to go every few years to give my mom her 'Disney Fix'. Even when my sisters and I got older, we'd smile for the camera with the characters around the park. We went last summer after I graduated college and I ended up with a graduation cap with mouse ears that I wore around the parks for the rest of the vacation. In a hallway in our house, there's a picture of us as kids with the Disney princesses that was taken at Disney World. Before my youngest sister was born, we went down there and my parents bought me this Lady stuffed animal. You know, the girl dog from Lady and the Tramp. It was always one of my favorite movies. I carried that thing around everywhere. After a few years, I became obsessed with finding her Tramp and, when I got it, I was so happy that I never let them be apart. Still have those stuffed animals in my room. They're kind of ragged, but intact.

Disney Channel was always a big thing in our house though it was more when we were younger. In the morning, my mom would turn it on and we'd plop ourselves in front of it to watch the cartoons allowing her to get herself ready for the day. Winnie the Pooh was one of our favorites. One day, my mom tried to turn it on only to find that our cable company had, without warning, stopped broadcasting just that channel to our house and one of my sisters was upset because she couldn't watch Winnie the Pooh. The rest of the channels were there, but Disney Channel was gone. They had sent us a notice that we would have to pay extra for it beforehand and my mom had agreed, but they didn't add it to the bill. They just took off the channel. We ended up changing cable providers because of it.

I have so many fond Disney stories, but if I put them all in one blog post, it would be so long that no one would read it. I could probably fill a book with my Disney memories. I'll admit that some things that Disney has produced have been... different than my interests, but mostly I love Disney. Anyway, that's it for this week. Thanks for coming along on this memory lane with me. Until next time, have a great week!

That Crazy Polar Vortex

For this week, I'm going to write about snow. Again. The reason I'm writing about snow is because where I live was affected by that giant snow storm caused by the polar vortex. When the snow first started, it looked just like any other snowstorm. (We're used to them here. Well, except for my mom. She wishes she was in Florida.) I was going to wait for the snow to at least ease up before I went outside and shoveled, but there didn't seem to be any breaks. So, I shoveled the driveway anyway. Within an hour, it looked like I hadn't shoveled at all. It was snowing even heavier by that point.

By nightfall, the roads were horrible and the temperature was so low that people were instructed to stay indoors. When my dog started barking, I looked outside expecting that she was barking at nothing again. Nope, she was barking at a car that was stuck in the street because there was so much snow. One of my neighbors was out there helping and they eventually got out, but it took a while. It was so cold outside that I was afraid step out on the porch to get the mail.

My little sister's high school closed during this. Three snow days in a row for them. It sounded like a record. Our school district has always been stingy on snow days. (A while ago, my mom kept me and my sisters home for one day because she thought that school should have closed and didn't want us to wait at the bus stop in the weather.) Even MSU closed for a day and a half which surprised me. (I've walked through blizzards to get to class when I was there. Wow... I sounded old there. I swear I'm not old. I just graduated from MSU last year!)

Even now with the storm long gone, the snow is still affecting us. My dog's been having hip issues lately. For all the funny stuff she does, I keep forgetting that she's actually an elder dog. Since she's been having trouble with jumping, she would need a lot of encouragement to get up on the porch in the backyard to get to the door to come inside. The snow's just made it worse. She's given up on actually getting off the porch and will do her business on the snow still on the porch. And when she does leave the porch, it's depressing to hear her whine as she tries to get up on the porch again to come inside. We've had to bundle up a few times to go outside and help her up. And then she does something funny like her weird almost talking thing and all that sadness goes away.

Wow, that's a lot of words about snow... Um, I should add something else. I'm almost done with my first draft of my second book. I'm really excited about how this is going even though it's a bit different than I had originally planned. The overall story is there, but the feel is much darker than I intended because of one part of the plot that I added in. I can't wait to share it with you readers! Anyway, that's enough for this post. Until next time, have a great week!

Short, But Sweet

I really don't have much to say this week, so this'll probably be a short post. My writing has been going faster, but I've found that when I write all day, I get a bit crazy. Kind of like I'm pouring all my energy into the words on paper and I don't have enough to even hold a conversation. It got weird when I had to talk. I couldn't really form a sentence because my mind was too caught up in what I was going to write next. My sister actually asked if I had hit my head because I was acting so differently.

Let me say right now that I'm getting really excited about where I'm taking this series. It's a whole lot of effort to stop myself from blurting out everything on here. Don't want to spoil anyone. My outline, which originally was ten pages front and back, has been cut down a bit as I write. There are some things that I had planned that didn't fit when I finally got to writing that part. Then again, as I write, I have to add some things to the outline that I didn't plan for but crept into the story. Mostly things that foreshadow other things in the future.

Anyway, I really don't have anything else to say here. And this is really short, but I can't think of something else to write here. So, I guess I'll just leave it here. Short, but sweet, right? Until next time, have a great week!