Well I am a little late in publishing this week, but that just tells you how crazy things have been! I started off the month in book revision hell (which I’ll get to down below) and ended it with a whirlwind trip to Vegas and a week in Dallas house-sitting for my parents and seeing old friends and family and reading some fantastic books…

What I Read

GRAND TOTAL: 4

You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn 

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid 

The Night Villa by Carol Goodman

One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

What I Wrote

I am happy to announce that my second draft of The Blood Between Us is finished and sent off to beta readers! I barely made my deadline of April 15, but thanks to Camp NaNoWriMo and my awesome cabin mates, I was able to crank it out. I ended up adding, deleting, rearranging and clarifying. I am super happy with the result!

But while I spent the second half of the month celebrating, I still have a lot of hardwork ahead of me. This draft came in at about 138K words… My goal was 115K, so some major cutting is coming up. I also have a dilemma in regards to the age group: is it YA or adult? If only New Adult was still a thing! So in addition to my typical questions for beta readers, I asked them to really zone in on these two issues so that I can get some of their wonderful guidance.

I also learned a new writing tool that helped me immensely with getting my revision done on time: sprinting! Basically you gather a few friends, set a start time and a duration (typically thirty minutes), and work as fast as you can. The idea is that it’s easier to break your writing or revising into small chunks without distraction. Also, I have a very competitive nature, so that fueled my progress a ton. If you haven’t used sprinting before, give it a try and let me know what you think!

Coming Up

I am super excited to be taking the month off from writing. I will still be blogging and reading, but no writing projects for the moment. I am sure by the end of May I will be anxious to get back to it. But it will be a nice month to relax and focus that energy on other endeavors.

Toward the end of the month, my critique partner Kelsey is coming to visit from Boise, so between giving her a taste of Austin and chatting about our projects, that will be the perfect kickstart to get back in the saddle.

I will also be going on a week-long vacation which means… LOTS OF READING TIME! I plan on catching up this month, so join me in my list:

• Moonlight and Whiskey by Tricia Lynne
• Enchantee by Gita Trelease
• The Editor by Steven Rowley
• House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin Craig
• The Deceivers by Kristen Simmons
• The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
• Finale by Stephanie Garber
• In Her Bones by Kate Moretti
• The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas
• The Kiss of Deception by Mary E Pearson

I hope all of you are enjoying your Spring, loving your projects and reading some great books!