Hello again...

Oh boy.

I feel rather sheepish that I haven't written on this blog since January. Let's just pretend that I've been diligent in my posts, okay? Good plan.

So! Here's what I've been up to:

My sweet little Lewis is now three years old, and my darling Eliza is one year old. (For those of you who know me personally and are confused about which children I am writing about, I've given my kids alternate names on this blog. I explained that a while back, but this is just a reminder.) My kids are busy little bees, and they keep me up to my neck in all sorts of hijinks. As I'm sure you can guess, that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for writing. I've been getting up early in the morning to try and get some writing done before my munchkins wake up, but that's not a consistent thing either. I'm doing my best, though, while making an effort to maintain my sanity. Haha!

I recently had a setback, unfortunately. I lost a day's worth of writing due to some sort of technical error with my laptop. I don't know what happened, and I don't know how to recover what was lost. The thing that was most damaged was my motivation. I had to re-write everything, and I know that it's not the same as the original. That was not a happy day for me. I took a mini vacation from writing to regroup, and now I'm attempting to make up for lost time. So...onwards we go!

If you've been following me on Facebook, you saw the picture that I recently posted. My husband has a more extensive knowledge of tactics and strategy than I, and he's been helping me to plan out the battles that are taking place in this book. He has been such a great help to me, and I'm positive that my book is all the better for his involvement. He also helps me when I get a case of writer's block, which is huge. Talking to him about ideas always gets my creative juices flowing again.

The story itself is taking an interesting path--not quite the one I originally planned. But, you know, that is one of the things that I love about writing. Nothing ever is exactly how you first imagine it. Some of that has to do with the characters as they grow and become more independent of me, and some of it has to do with the natural (and unexpected) growth of the world where the story takes place. Sometimes I'll be thinking about a specific situation and I'll suddenly realize something about the world (or the people in it) that I know to be true, even though I didn't know it until that moment. It makes it just as exciting for me to experience the story as for those who are reading it for the first time.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that things are going well. Probably not as fast as many of you would wish...but at least it's coming along.

Starting in April, I'll start posting preview chapters again. I posted the prologue a while ago, and I'll pick up from there. I'll probably post a chapter a month until the book release this summer. I hope that will whet your appetite for the rest of the book! As always, please feel free to post your thoughts or questions in the comments section. I love hearing from you guys! And I promise to write as fast as I (reasonably) can.

Thank you so much for your support and your patience!