I finally did it!

The writer's journey is a long, laborious and arduous one. I began writing nine years ago. Nine years!!! A whole lifetime ago, right? Granted, my efforts were hot and cold, and sometimes lukewarm. There would be a few months of intense, candle-burning-at-both-ends sessions. Then there would be months of little to no inactivity. Because of, well...life. I homeschooled for seven of those years, and even found myself directing a homeschool program for two of them. Raising a child purposefully and intentionally is no easy feat, and needless to say, when I finally did have time to write, my brain was too taxed, too depleted to think creatively, much less put pen to paper. Or fingers to keyboard. Plus, I don't know about you, but I find it very hard to gear up my imagination in limited spans of half an hour to an hour, which oftentimes was the only amount of time I could grab. So, sadly and reluctantly, I put my writing aspirations aside for a long time. Well, this summer, I pulled out that dusty neglected MS and finally, FINALLY, got around to finishing it! Let me tell you, when I wrote that final chapter and actually typed out the very last line, I could hardly even believe it. Part of me wondered if I would EVER finish. But I did...one word at a time. I am SO happy and relieved. I might be more relieved than happy, because let's face it, there's still a lot more work in store for me. Revisions, edits, more revisions and edits. I'm nowhere near done yet. Sigh.

But anyway, the MS draft is done and I finally even settled on a decent title for it. I toyed with Shadows & Secrets, A Dream of Shadows & Secrets, but finally decided on Shield of Shadows. It's intended to be an epic fantasy a la Lord of the Rings but with a young girl being the MC. There are also gypsies and a mysterious forest and just a smidgen of romance;) I currently have a few eyes looking at it right now, so I'm already brewing ideas for the second book in the series, which I think will end up being a trilogy. Stay tuned!!