After a very unintentional summer hiatus (vacations to visit family + catching up on work took over), I’m back with a HUGE writing update! 😀

I won’t make you wait in suspense and will just come right out and say it: I finished the rough draft of my summer contemporary novel!!! Project Summer is a State of Mind is officially finished, residing at approximately 79k words which is WILD considering I’m normally a huge under-writer. (For those of you who may not know the term, that means that when I write the first drafts of my novels, they tend to be way, way shorter than what the published product winds up being. I tend to add a lot more words/scenes/chapters/etc during edits!)

This is such a big deal for me for several reasons… Not just because this book was giving me so much grief and I was terrified I wouldn’t make my September 8th deadline to give it to my editor, not just because it wound up being the longest rough draft I’ve ever written, and not even just because it’s been living in my head for six or so years now… It’s also a crazy big deal because this is the first novel I’ve written since having my second daughter.

I’ve often been asked to write social media posts or blog posts about juggling writing and motherhood. And someday I think I’ll be able to actually do that… But right now, the truth is, I’m in a period of life between my firstborn toddler and my feral second baby (who’s about to turn one! *sniffs*) that there is no “schedule”. Some parents can stay up all hours of the night to work on their book and still have energy for their kids during the day; that’s not me. I thrive on a good night of sleep and if I don’t have one, I’m grumpy as hell the next day. XD Other parents are able to weasel out words in ten or fifteen minute increments they find each day – whether that’s between extracurricular activities, in the school pickup line, in the few minutes that their children’s nap times overlap, etc; and that is also not me. I struggle with the idea of sitting down for ten to fifteen minutes, starting to get in a groove with writing and feeling like the words are starting to flow out of my brain, and then having to stop. And that’s exactly why I haven’t written any kind of advice blogs or social media posts, because none of the things that everyone else does to make time for writing works for me.

When projects aren’t working due to burn-out with the manuscript or burn-out with real life things, when my girls aren’t sleeping, when work is trying to drown me, etc, I set the project aside. I had to do this with Summer is a State of Mind earlier this year, actually. I wanted to work on it on my writing retreat back in March, but I was too burnt out on, well, everything going on in my life at that moment to even open the document. Then these past few weeks have been different – I worked out a system with my husband where we temporarily paused all the shows we were watching so I could write in the evenings. We’d hang out in the living room together so we could still see each other, it’s not like I holed up somewhere, but we both worked on different things. However, that was a temporary fix just so I could finish my manuscript by/before my deadline and not something that I think would be sustainable for our relationship.

I’m rambling now, but basically what I’m trying to get at is that writing while being a parent means juggling constantly. And you have to figure out what works for you – whether long-term or just temporarily – and what doesn’t. I still haven’t figured out my long-term writing schedule yet, and I don’t foresee myself figuring it out any time soon. But right now, I’m just really, really happy that despite the chaos of life, despite wrangling two very rambunctious and excitable girls, despite dealing with whatever curveball life decided to throw at us, I finished this damn book. The book that’s been on my heart and mind for so many years and that I feared wouldn’t ever see the light of day.

Yes, there are still many many steps left to go – my editor will get to read it, my alpha readers will have a go at it, numerous rounds of self-edits, lots and lots of sensitivity readers, beta readers, proofreaders, etc. But hey, I’m one step closer to getting this book in your hands. And that’s something. 🙂

I plan on sharing more about this book soon, I promise. For now, I’m forcing myself to not touch it…even though it’s shiny…and new…and I want to edit it so, so badly… At least, not until my editor has had a chance to work her magic on it. This fall, Summer is a State of Mind will become my whole personality all over again. 😉 If you happen to follow me on social media (@booksbysr) be on the lookout for exciting updates, news about this book, and so much more. I’ll be making several different announcements in the near future!

The most logical question now is…what’s next?

I’m still figuring that out myself, so it’ll be a blog post for another time. 🙂

Still, I’ll leave you with a little teaser… If you’ve enjoyed my Tales of Nottingham series, or if you’re interested in swoony Fairy Tale Reimaginings, my future writing and publishing plans involve books you’ll be pretty damn excited for. 🙂