Author Journey: March 11, 2022

 Welcome back! Our family finally has had a couple weeks of peace. I'm soaking in as much of it as possible as I prepare myself to get back to work on the cover art for Outh'n's story. Read on to hear what's been happening since my last writing journey update. 

Author Journey: Update on What's Been Happening

Update on The Tale of Outh'n Durr

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been trying to adjust back to our normal schedule. There's nothing like a couple of unplanned trips for unpleasant and grievous occurrences to throw you completely off track. 

In the middle of the adjustments, I'm still having to keep up with worship team practices at our church every week. I also led a women's Bible study last Sunday, which isn't something I do every week. Since that was out of the norm for me, and I felt the pressure of wanting to do a good job, I put a lot of focus on that. 

But now, it's time to get back to the nitty-gritty. 

Outh'n's story is practically ready to go. It just needs a cover. And while I had a background and a focal image I was happy with, I was struggling with the title font and positioning all the elements. Then, when my new computer came in, I realized I hadn't saved my Gimp image, only the jpg and png files. This means my layers are gone. I want to recreate it, but I can't find the images I used for the background. And my focal image isn't showing up like it should be in my files. Again. 

I'd think this was a sign not to publish Outh'n's story...but I feel this story exists for a reason. Somewhere out there is a reader who will be blessed by it. 

Update on Surge

Over the last couple of weeks, especially last week, I realized something. My husband and I have been reading a book on intercessory prayer and I finally noticed what was missing from Surge. There's not enough prayer going on. These characters are supposed to be misfits, for certain, but they also have a close connection to the Creator. That's not possible without prayer. 

I'll be rereading Surge in the up-coming weeks and looking for places where that's obviously missing. Things like the particular character, as well as their reason for being on Yacan, and their home clan and ingrained behaviors will have to be double-checked to be certain their prayer behaviors are correct. This won't be an easy task, but I do believe it's a necessary one in order to move things along properly in the story. 

Update on Good News

A bit of good news is always welcome, right? A few days ago, my husband and I were working on digital things at our favorite local cafe. We happened to overhear a conversation one of the patrons was having with the barista about a writers' group he wished to put together. When they were done talking, we asked him to share more with us. 

If this writers' group takes off like I hope it will, it'll be exactly what I need to keep me motivated and inspired. I love group events for writing, but I'm bad at putting them together. *shrugs* We can't be good at everything and I'm only good at a handful of things. It is what it is...and there's no point in denying the truth.

Thanks so much for continuing to read and support my work. I know I work very slowly, but I promise I am doing my best to get my books out to you, Dear Readers. 

I urged my oldest daughter, just last night, to be patient. "Haste makes waste," after all. (The article I'm linking to is interesting, but I do wish to point out there's one saying the author misprinted. "A stitch in time saves nine." is the actual saying, if I'm not mistaken. In another place, there's a typo - 'toilet' instead of 'toileth'...oh, the difference an 'h' makes! Still the article is a good one and all of us make mistakes in writing.) 

The last thing I want to do is hurry to put these books out and then discover something major was missing after all my hard work. Who wants to read a book with a story that doesn't seem to line up the right way? 

So with that in mind, I'm going to get back to work. I'm still teaching my youngest daughter at home so I'll be working on these two stories in between the time I am doing all the other things life demands of me. 

I hope you'll come back next Wednesday for another couple of book reviews. 

Until next time...