I keep wanting to start this blog with, wow it’s been a long time!  But realistically, it’s only been a little over a week since I last posted.

And wow, what a ride these past 10 days have been.  Shortly after the new year, I started editing Alex the Destroyer.  My dad is fantastic, and prints my books out for me, so I get to actually edit on paper.  I always feel like I’m able to work better taking apart a book when I can refer back to things I’ve deleted and not have to save changes that I might want later.  (This was particularly helpful when I crossed out an entire chapter of Pen boys, and then later decided it needed to stay.)  The funny thing about editing Alex is, though, that I forgot I’d already edited it until I was about 50 pages into the printed version.  His story is just one of my favorites, so I like to go back and read small bits of it sometimes, and one of those times turned into a eh might as well edit this real quick, which is not an actual thing, let me assure you.  Editing is not quick.  It took me ages to edit it the first time, but I did it all on the computer.  And, for Alex, this was possible because I know his story so well that deleting things felt right, and I wasn’t ever afraid that I was making a mistake with his story.

But, when I then sat down with the printed version, a very strange thing was happening in which I wasn’t really editing, just making sure that most of my pronouns were names (why is this my thing?  why do I love pronouns more than names?  why am I now known for this?) instead of being confusing chunks of uh who is speaking?  what was that?  It occurred to me, finally, around about chapter nine, which was a blank page that said “something w/ Noah & the twins”.  Ah, right.  When I edited this the first time, I added in six additional chapters that needed to be written.  This time around, I actually ended up axing three of those chapters, and now my Destroyer’s novel rounds out at 47 chapters and about 103k words.

He’s alive, and he’s so fierce, and I love him to pieces.

And damn, it feels good.  It feels really good.  This will be the first novel that I hand to my readers that’s actually been edited ahead of time.  Heck, not even that, this is a final draft.  This is Alex’s story, totally and completely, with nothing missing, and hopefully pretty damn well done.  I expect to edit some more with their comments, but hopefully not nearly as much as I have been with Pen boys.

I’m also at a really good place in my reading right now, so I thought now might be fun for a little 2018 goals check-in.

I know, it’s only been ten days.  But somehow, I’ve already checked off one of my writing goals, and I’ve read five–FIVE–books in those ten days.  I did warn you that January’s wrap-up blog was going to be overflowing.

I’ve finally started my series reread of The Mortal Instruments, and am a little under halfway done with City of Bones.  My plan is to reread the entirety of TMI, and then finally read The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices, as well as a few companion novels.  I’m going to try to spread those out so that I’m just finishing up in March when the new season of Shadowhunters comes back, so don’t worry, not all of my reviews for the next few months will be from the Shadowhunter world.  I’ve got a lot of other books that I want to read in that time, as well.

10 days in, and I’m feeling good.  I’ve started teaching a new yoga class–Funky Flow @ Barefoot Yoga Shala, 10:30AM-11:30AM on Saturdays, you should definitely come boogie with me–I’ve finally put the finishing touches on a 12-year novel, I’m reading like it’s going out of style, and I’m about to dig back into the Saints world.  My dad printed out the first book for me yesterday, and I’ve been thinking about it nonstop, so my goal is to edit that next, and then maybe, maybe, write Saints 2.  I honestly have no idea which direction I’ll end up going in when it finally comes time to write again, but that’s what I’d like to do.  My brain also tells me that it wants to write Mason and the Pen boys, and I will, I really will, but Saints has the potential to be wrapped up and finished in only two books, so I’d like to tackle that.

But that’s that.  And now that I’m finally finished editing Alex–gosh, that just feels so good to say out loud–I’m going to try to read another 100 pages of City of Bones today and maybe even start editing Saints.  Man.  Life is good.

I’m coming for you, 2018.