Hello blog sphere!

Is that a term? Technically speaking, I’m always out of the loop. But as you may have noticed, several months passed with no activity on this blog. That leaves me feeling more out of it than usual.

What hasn’t changed is the steady pace of work behind the scenes. As I may have mentioned in the past, a good friend recently helped edit my first novel. After she returned the work, I set out to apply those edits…to hard copy. Yes, it’s tedious and time-consuming, but it helps me to focus with fewer distractions (you know my affinity for rabbit trails).

The task is nearly complete.

So this month, my goal is to get the hard copy finished and applied to the digital. Then I can see if we managed to hack enough words from that lengthy tome to make it submission worthy.

Confession time…

I multi tasked a bit this spring. Rough draft work on book II is nearly complete. Only a few chapters remain. Then, the most exciting development…I joined a guild.

Not just any guild. The Jerry Jenkins Guild.

New advertisements for the guild bombarded my Facebook page back at the beginning of the year. I confess, while my intrigue instantly piqued, so did my doubts.

I mean, from the beginning of my writing journey in 2002, I wanted to be a part of the Christian Writers Guild. But such an endeavor was way out of our pocket book.

Jump forward to 2016.

The Christian Writers Guild is no more and this one emerges. Suspicions arose. Direct one-on-one interaction with Jerry Jenkins? Yeah, that’s gonna happen with thousands of members. Am I really going to get my money’s worth out of it? Sure, it’s not the fortune that CWG demanded. Yet, that’s a pretty steep monthly commitment for me still.

In the end, I decided to give it a trial run.

Forking over the dough, I jumped in. Now, four months later, I can honestly say it’s worthwhile. Not only have I had the privilege to interact directly with Jerry through the guild’s forum, but the classes, interviews from the big wigs in the industry, and extra goodies, have totally proven beneficial. Best of all, there’s encouragement and accountability in the guild’s community.

Ok, so there’s my shameless plug for the guild. If you’re interested, registration opens and closes periodically. But you can go to the courses page of Jerry Jenkins’ website and sign up to receive a notification when registration begins again. Even if you decide not to stick with it for the long haul, you’d be amazed with what you can glean in a few short months.

So, there’s a glimpse of the happenings in my world.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s still an army of those lush, green, Curly Docks threatening our garden plot. Time to grab my trusty hoe and put some ninja moves on those weeds.

The safety of my lilacs and raspberries depends on it!