I started writing a little bit in 2000. My friend, Cholsted, was there when it happened. We were both working at Alltel and I had started this story that made it to 3 chapters but it is now defunct. Cholsted (nickname, not real name) read my stuff and was really encouraging. (that story really needed work but I did love my characters) Fishdog and I moved to Oxford, and I started taking the writing more seriously in 2001 and by 2004 I was bitten and smitten by the writing bug. I knew this was what I was meant to do. Now, I write full-time.

I tell you all this as a set up.

Since I wrote that first, now defunct story, I have only had a few days of uber-writing success–where when I sit down to write, the story flows like it was meant to–and I just can’t stop. One time, I had written 25 pages, and my computer battery died…and I couldn’t recover the work. So, I plugged my computer back up, and rewrote those pages. It was one of the hardest days I had ever had…and one of the most successful.

Yesterday, was another one of those successes. It was amazing and tiring and by the time it was over, I was absolutely spent. I honestly had a hard time moving from my chair–of course, after 14 hours at the computer, with very few breaks, it tends to be hard to move.

My editor sent me my revision letter on Friday. She has such an amazing eye, I honestly got so lucky when she picked my story because she absolutely gets this story. Anyway, I was reading the letter and something wasn’t quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. She was suggesting I add another vampire character to up the suspense…but I kept thinking another character would change the entire story and I wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to do.

Then the right thing hit me in the head like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t done this from the beginning! It was so obvious! And it would address the need for a little more suspense and it would make the book soooo much better. So I started revising…20 hours total: 5 hours Friday night and 14 on Saturday. By 9:30 last night, I had my revised story. And I was energized and exhausted.

Today, I’m printing out the story and reading it from front to back. I’m going to tweak and smooth and send it to Maria’s daughter to read. And hopefully, by the end of this week, I’ll be sending this off to fabulous editor…BEFORE my deadline.

Can you see me smiling?