…I am terrible about the blogging thing. Part of it is that my computer time is seriously limited with a two-year-old running under foot, and when I do manage to get the computer and a little quiet time to myself, I’m so busy trying to get my characters’ words down, I neglect my own.
I need to be better about blogging, I know. For one thing, I’m letting my sons’ lives go undocumented, something I know I’ll regret as they get older and the memories of these days become dimmer.
The problem is that I’m never sure what to write about – I know a lot of other writers blog about the writing process, but that’s not something that’s ever interested me. Writing is a very solitary thing – like Neil Gaiman says, we writers like the quiet, we like the dark. There’s a Monty Python radio sketch where an audience and commentators watch a writer start a story like it’s a golf tournament. It’s absurdly funny because of course watching someone write a story isn’t half as interesting as reading the story afterwards. (At various points, the writer doodles, scribbles his name, scratches out everything he’s written, and starts daydreaming. The only reason he doesn’t go on Tumblr is because Tumblr wasn’t invented at the time of the recording.)
Anyway.
At the moment I’m preparing two books for publication in the next couple of months. I’m very pleased and excited about both of them. I’ve been having fun writing to various tropes lately, and both of these books fit the mold. The first book is about a prince, an arranged marriage/bonding, and a secret pregnancy. It was a lot of fun to write, and I’m more than in love with the secondary characters who might end up stealing the show.
The second book is the summer camp book I wrote too late last summer for a reasonable release. I’ve held onto it until now, and it’ll go out sometime in June or July. When I finally picked it up for a re-read a few weeks ago, I was delighted to discover that it was just as much fun as I remembered it – and one of my main characters, Jim, is a hoot and a half. I am so looking forward to introducing everyone to him.
Maybe writing to the tropes is a bit more conventional than I’d otherwise intended – but they got me over a writing slump at the end of last year. Well – that and a hefty dose of binge-watching Yuri!!! on Ice. There are few things in this world that adorable romances between adorable boys cannot solve.
I have two months left before the end of the school year, and then my life will be in upheaval again as the boys and I head back to the States to stay with my parents for the summer. It’s a better option than staying here, where there aren’t any activities for kids over the holidays, and it’s too hot and humid to venture outdoors. At least this way, the 7yo can go to camp, and the 2yo can play outside without getting heatstroke. (And I’ll have Grandma and Grandpa to help me entertain.)
In the meantime, it’s rounds of final edits and coordinating with designers for the book covers. I’m writing the summaries for the books now, and when they’re ready I’ll post them on Goodreads. One good thing about having the summer camp story written so early is that I can maybe do a really good push on it, pre-publication, for a fantastic release. That’d be nice – I’ve never managed to do it before, so it’ll be an interesting experience to say the least!
That still leaves what to write here though, and apart from occasional excerpts from upcoming books, I’m not sure what to write about! What kinds of posts do you enjoy reading? What would you like to see me put here?
