HELLO! It's been since October since I last gave you an update on my book writing adventures here in Columbus, Ohio.
Well...it's been a tad crazy. Sure. That's the pat answer folks give when they've been too busy to care about things and totally forgot. "Oh man. Uh...it's been crazy." Translation: "Oh shit. Totally forgot, dude."
In all honesty, I haven't forgotten.
Have I been busy? Yes. Absolutely.
Some of that is for work. I'm still working my logistics job from a 6-foot, fold up banquet table set up in the living room of my 650-square foot apartment near the awesome neighborhood called Grandview. I really like my job and I absolutely love the people I work with. We're a tight-knit group and we all get along fabulously well which makes this whole job worth it. We're also fairly compensated for the jobs we do. Did I get that $3 million signing bonus? No. Maybe I need to work on my negotiating skills. Or maybe, it's because people don't buy tickets to see me do my job like they do for athletes.
Note to self: Cancel plans for merchandising rollout.
Some of it has been because I work and then I read. That's pretty much it. I've read 109 books so far this year. And no - I don't mean in the year since the lockdown went into effect. (Because we're officially past a year now) I mean 109 books since January 1, 2021. No really. It's true. Check out my Goodreads page. While you're there, friend me! I like friends!
I have a cat and sure, like all self-respecting cats, she judges me nonstop, but that's it. No kids, No husband. A pandemic which has kept me at home - and I'm totally good with that. My being careful means I haven't gotten sick. But in non-pandemic times, I usually spend a lot of time at cafes, inevitably running into people I know. I go to my knitting group. I get together with friends for dinners. I go to the movies a lot. All that stopped last year. All of it. My knitting friends zoom on occasion, so we still "see" each other, but that's it. I have no commute, except for the few seconds it takes me to walk out to my living room. So how do I spend my time? I read and I write.
Which brings me to writing. I received my book back from my editor, who is awesome. And she's honest. Before June 11, 2020, I'd never attempted any sort of creative writing. One exception: The Weaving Loom, which I wrote as a fluke in response to another Peace Corps volunteer who described the region to which I'd be moving in story form. I answered in kind. That was it. So when the editor got back to me with a paper that, if written in red ink would have made it look like it was bleeding, I knew I had my work cut out for me.
Good parts, bad parts, indifferent parts and yes - I needed to hear it all. Basically - I had three entirely different story lines going. She articulated about my project that which I could not. So since then... I've removed 2/3 of the book and started again. I've kept some, I've added a lot and now it's turning into a book where the main character is more obvious. And more fun to write. And also a book I can be proud of. I'm pretty excited.
So since Thanksgiving, when I got it back and yes - I was thankful for her quick and honest turnaround - I've been working on it. Of course - I've had several weeks when I couldn't decide what I wanted to write. I think I seriously got back into it in February or March.
Along with working on my Grant's Crossing Book 1, which teeters between contemporary fiction and romance, I've started 3 others. I'm currently working on a RomCom with two characters pulled from book 1. I have another romance and another contemporary fiction that are just in the note-taking stages. I'm not sure that when Mom challenged me to write a book she meant to create a monster.
Anyway - that's it with what I've been doing. I hope to finish up book 1 by Memorial Day so I can start editing the heck out of it. Then, I'm really excited about my RomCom and hope to get it to the editing-ready stage by July 4th. We'll see where I go beyond that. No idea if I'll stick to those dates, but whether I finish or not, it'll help prompt me to work on them. I know myself. I need the push.
With this blog, since I'm the type that likes to review a lot of the books I read, I plan to start sharing them in here along with links to where they'll be online. I hope you enjoy them.
Until then, Happy reading!
- Heather
Twitter - @GrantsCrossing
Instagram - @GrantsCrossing
Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown
