I'm pregnant. I am actually 28 weeks and 6 days pregnant to be exact. My date of conception was April 21st and my due date is January 31st though I think she will come earlier in the month. I just feel like she's going to be a Capricorn. And that's fitting since everyone in my family are either Water signs or Earth signs. I am actually hoping she comes on January 19th. She'll be in good company. It is, after all, the birthday of both Janis Joplin and Edgar Allan Poe. Now, how awesome would that be? Oh,yeah, and she's a girl. Her name will most likely be River Song (because her dad is a nerd and her mom is part hippie...it's a compromise). My original choices were Stevie Lynn and Janis Pearl. Both names were shot down as her father felt it was a bad start to be named after drug addicted rock stars. I beg to differ...but whatever. lol
When I found out I was pregnant, one of my biggest fears was that I would have her and I would get so wrapped up in motherhood that a decade would pass without me writing anything. I have never had my own child before but I have raised a child from birth (she's nineteen and she's still here with me...lol) and I know that the first year of the baby's life, I will have very little time to write. The first five years I won't be able to write as much as I usually do. I imagine that if I were on the Bestseller's list this wouldn't be an issue. I assume that big time authors reach a point where their writing is finally treated like a "real" job by everyone around them and the time they need to write is made for them. But those of us who are independent, regardless of which art form we are working in, all have that problem where our work isn't viewed as work by others and, sometimes, even by ourselves. I myself have put school and cleaning and cooking and taking care of others and...everything...before my writing. And that is why I am so afraid. In addition to that, when you have a screaming baby and you are a stay at home mom, there is no one else to tend to that baby. And the baby's needs cannot wait while you finish that all important part you are working on. But, hell, I don't have to tell many of you any of this. I am in no way inventing these issues. But I do believe I have found a solution.
As soon as I found out about my impending motherhood, I decided that I would finish Rapunzel and go straight on to Sleeping Beauty. My goal is to write the entire novel by the time the baby is born. Usually, writing a novel from scratch takes me roughly a year. I finished Rapunzel at the beginning of last month giving me four months to write a book from start to finish. No pressure or anything...lol If all goes as planned, I will have this novel done by the end of January and then I will take a couple of weeks to a month off before I start editing Rapunzel and, once that is finished, I will edit Sleeping Beauty, hopefully releasing both on Amazon by June. May would be better but June is the goal.
Along with this plan I've been mulling over ideas about how to get some of you guys involved in editing and what sort of things I want to do for the releases. One idea I had was that I would choose five to ten people from the great internet world in which we all live and I would give these people unedited versions of the books which we would all edit together, kind of like a pre-release group read thing. I think that has the potential to be really fun if you guys are interested in something like that. That's the most persistent idea I've had. I also thought about releasing the first few chapters of each book before they are available on Amazon and maybe teasing a few random pages here and there as well. Feel free to share with me any ideas you all may have as well. I've never been in a situation where I had a community of people I could share a release with and now that I do have that, I want you all involved in some way.
So that's what going on. That's why I haven't been on in so long. I haven't read a single page of a single book in...get this...FIVE MONTHS. I know, right? I have never gone this long without reading before. I have a Stephen King book sitting on my desktop that has just...sat there. For months. Half a year, actually. That's painful. lol But teeny tiny babies do not know what you read out loud to them. They just like to hear your voice. Baby's first book? It will probably be Revival. I will catch up on reading in between baby stuff and editing. And I cannot wait. I get rather cranky without a damned book in my hands.
With all of the terrible things going on in the world right now, I hope that you are all doing well, that you are safe and healthy and happy. I also hope that you all stay safe and healthy and happy until we meet again....
