Good morning!

The house is so quiet right now, I love it. My hubby is off on a business trip, and our girls are off school all week. I’ve got to get busy doing ‘stuff’ soon, but it’s Monday and the blog post of the week will be written!

It took time, a lot of critical thinking, and some help from a writing buddy of mine (Todd), but the necessary word count cuts to ‘Mark of the Successor’ are done and the novel has been sent back to Solstice. Time for me to wait for them to assign me an in-house editor and see what the cover art people come up with.

Five years ago, I wasn’t writing. My second novel is now being readied to come out. I discovered something very different about myself while I was doing the cuts to ‘Mark’. A new found confidence in myself that is deeper than having the courage to let my writing be read by friends, family, publishers, and readers. I began to trust myself in what kind of words were necessary to get ‘Mark’ to the word count Solstice wanted. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am really grateful that Todd took the time to give me his suggestions. At some point during my second read through, however, I started hearing my own voice in my head saying that I could do this, even without help. That this was my work, and I would know where to cut and what to keep.

That I had the capability, skill, knowledge, and confidence to do so.

I’ll admit right now, this is one of the first times I’ve felt this type of confidence in myself. I’ve spent far too many years listening to the voices from my past who told me differently. That my own soul has grown to the point that it’s overriding those other thoughts, ingrained since elementary school (back in the days where bullies were bullies and you had to suck it up because they were ‘just words’), amazed me. 

I think I could get used to that.

So, later this week I’ll be dropping in on Jessica Tornese’s blog! I’ll post a link here and share the interview with all of you once it’s up. Hopefully, I’ll be able to add the new cover shortly! 

BB