So I guess I disappeared for a while, huh? Sorry about that! There has been so much going on in my life! We had our big Disney trip, which was FANTASTIC and I will blog about that soon. Then the week after we got home I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery. Let me just tell you how fun THAT was. Okay, so not very. But, I've recovring nicely and am just about 100% again.
With everything that has been going on, I haven't had a whole lot of extra time for writing or prepping Hearts for publishing on KDP. Hearts is pretty much ready to go--it's edited and as shiny as I think I'm going to get it. I don't have a cover yet--there may be an image rights issue with the cover model I'd planned on using, which I can't expand on right now, but we're waiting to find out on that. Hopefully if it doesn't work out, it will still be okay, because I do have another beautiful model in mind! As soon as all of the kinks in that are ironed out and the picture gets taken, we'll be in business! These things take time though--nothing in publishing happens overnight, and I guess self-publishing is the same way! I want my book and the online packaging for my book to be the best that it can be, because this is my big splash, my first impression with readers. And we all know first impressions mean A LOT. So maybe I jumped the gun a little when I announced my big writing venture. I thought since the book was finished I was going to get right onto KDP and do my thing. Not so, I'm learning. But soon. I promise!
As far as new writing goes, I haven't done much in the past month or so. Nothing actually. I do have a full time job that helps pay my bills (where writing does not, and may not even after I publish 10 books), and a family and home to take care of. So sometimes, my love of writing gets pushed to the side, and I can deal with it. It's my husband and children and our well being that matter the most. Our oldest daughter is gearing up to start kindergarten in the fall, so we're trying our best to prepare ourselves for that. She had her assessment test this morning and she scored 101! We're so proud of her. I know she will continue to make us proud, no matter what she does.
Aside from the real world stuff, I'm struggling a little bit with what to write. I have two manuscripts started--I'm exactly one chapter into each of them. The hardest part, for me, is the beginning. Those first three or four chapters, when I'm getting used to my MC (main character) and their journey, and plotting out in my mind where they're going to go. The manuscripts are completely different from one another. One is a young adult romance, and I'm not sure if it could even be classified as historical or not. It's set in the mid 90's (ancient history, right? haha) and centered around a girl just dying to get out of her one horse town...until her father hires a young rancher to help him out on their property. The other manuscript is a new adult, featuring an MC who's 21 and has just lost her very best friend in the world in an awful car accident, and she's trying to learn and grow from the experience, but can't find an outlet for her grief.
See. Night and day, right? So I don't know which one I want to pursue right now. But, once I get Hearts pub'd and I can sit down and solely concentrate on one of my ms's, I know that one will break through and speak to me. I'm excited to find out which one.
So I guess that's all for now. I promise not to take so long of a blogging break next time!
Ryann
