Where have I been?

 I do feel bad that it has been over three months since I posted an update here. But as you could probably guess, it’s because I still haven’t done any writing.  

Here are the reasons why I haven’t been writing: 

1. Part of it is because I just haven’t had the time, which I realize is a cop-out because we can always find the time for something we really want to do. I guess I want to do other things instead – planning trips, cleaning house, going on trips, working on the yard, planning more trips.
2. I haven’t felt much inspiration. Sure, the characters in my WIP talk to me once in a while, ask me what’s up, when I’ll get back to their stories. But in general, I haven’t felt any motivation to write. 
3. And here is why I probably have no motivation. I feel that not enough people have read the things I have published for me to continue wasting my time on this. Since I was in third grade, my dream has been to write a book, and here I am, having published five of them. No one can take that dream away from me, so I feel I need to stop worrying about it. I have more dreams to accomplish. 

 

But if I ever get past these three roadblocks, here is where my WIPs stand.

1. “Ice Cream Spies,” also known as “Old New Spies – rough draft is 21% complete. This is the first novel in the RASA (Recruitment and Assignment of Supplementary Agents) series. 
2. “Rewrite the Now” – rough draft 44% complete. This novel is one in the RASA series. Because I am me (which could be one of the reasons I’m not a successful writer), this book is ten years into the series, so isn’t the second book but is somewhere much further down the road. So, I don’t even know how that would work. But if you look at the numbers, it seems I wanted to finish this one before the first one, so like “post-quel”?
3. “Holding All the Aces” – rough draft is close to 90% complete but needs a lot of editing. This is the memoir of my sister Pat and me. It’s a labor of love, so I'm not even sure I want to publish it for the masses. My luck, if any of my books are a success, it would be this, and then the family would be all mad at me. 
4. Much miscellaneous – I’ve got notes for four more stand-alone novels, two novellas, and a new series, as well as all the books which are magically going to be written in the RASA series. In all of this, the character who stands out the clearest is a little girl, clinging to her mother’s long, circa-1890 dress. I keep telling the little girl that someday I’ll tell her story, but she just keeps patiently looking at me with her big blue eyes. Sometimes tears pool in those eyes, and I think – shoot, I need to stop being such a putz. 

 

So there you have it. The nonsense that’s in my head today. I’ll keep you posted. Please don’t give up on me. One of these days, I’ll be back up and running.

The picture at the top of this post could be the house that the little girl lived in. The picture on the wall here could be of her mother. Oh, why can't I write all the stories in my head!?