Down the Rabbit Hole

Happy almost September! August feels like it was so long and short at the same time. I can't believe this is the last day of the month... It's so crazy how much has happened this month. We moved, I went to a wedding, my classes started, I'm revising St. Croix Falls 3 instead of rewriting it. August was jam packed and it feels like it all went by so quickly!  August Writing: I got to 20,000 words in the third book in what I am now calling the Archive series (of which Golden Touch and Emerald Phantom are a part of). Every time I sit to write in this series its like a breath of fresh air. I sit down and write and it feels like stepping outside in a crisp Autumn morning and taking a deep breath and just smiling and feeling all warm inside. It feels like home and these are my people, my friends. Never in my entire life has a series gone so smoothly! I haven't lost steam and my passion for this series hasn't waned a single bit throughout this entire process. The

Happy Wednesday!  It’s the night before our moving day. Tomorrow the movers will pull up and take everything out of the house. The beds, the elliptical, my desk, my bookcase, the TV. Everything. It’ll all be packed up and brought to our new home. This is my last night here in the house I’ve been in for almost ten years and I find myself thinking about the goodness of God. I’ve been thinking about it all week. About how He prepares us for what we don’t see coming. God wasn’t surprised by this year. He knew it was coming. And guess what? You may not see it yet or know how He prepared you or why, but He did. It’s there inside you.  He saw the global pandemic that would alter my life and everyone else’s lives forever. He saw the eye opening and very hard truths I would be faced with about this world we live in. He saw all the hard conversations I would have to have this year. The loneliness I would feel. All the tears I would shed. He saw what needed to happen, no matter how hard

Happy Wednesday!  I’ve made 4 major moves in my life. From one state to the next. All of those moves were extremely difficult... I left behind friends and familiarity. Within those four moves, in two of the states, we moved to multiple houses and an apartment complex. Until we finally ended up here. The home we’ve spent nearly ten years in. It’s a long story, but throughout this crazy year that is 2020, we ended up getting a new house and in six days as I write this, we’ll be officially moved in. If you’ve ever moved, you know the strange rollercoaster of emotions that come along with it. Last year and even the beginning of this year I would have been very opposed to moving. I love the neighborhood we live in, and we have some truly amazing friends right near our current house. But due to so many things that has happened this year... I’m at a place where I’m ready to move. I told my mom just that at some point in the past few months and she said, I think God sometimes prepar

 Happy Wednesday! So a few weeks ago a friend of mine and I were talking about what it's like to be a self-published author. I mentioned how I wish I had started early with my brand and marketing and social media and all that good stuff before publishing my first book. When I published Weapon Icean, I had no idea what I was doing. I just thought I'll publish my book, and there's that. It'll sell itself, and I don't really have to do anything. That was back in 2016 when I was 17. Five years can change a lot in the publishing and self-publishing industry. Branding has become a buzz word in the author community. Everyone's all about your personal brand, about being on social media and creating a community. It's about learning how not to be smarmy with your selling, but to build an authentic community of readers. But back when I was 17 in 2016... I had never heard the word branding in the same sentence as self-publishing. All I knew about self-publis

Happy Wednesday! When I thought of what I should write in August the word that came to mind and stuck was "starting." I'm not sure why... Maybe because we're moving into a new house and that feels kind of like starting something new. Maybe because one of my closest friend's is having a wedding and weddings are the start of a new season of life for those two people. Maybe because August starts the beginning of the last five months of the year and I've been thinking a lot about how I can start something new to make the most of the last five months of 2020. I'm starting the Fall semester with new classes this month and I'm starting (and trying) something new this month with this blog. I picked a theme to write about for the entire month of August on here. This little challenge I put forth for myself was inspired by Hannah Brencher announcing her themes for her Monday Club for the next five months of the year. I love Hannah Brencher and I thought it