Okay, I want to just start out by assuring you that I am still very much alive despite my lack of emailing and posting on my website and social media. I wish I was one of those people who manages to keep all the balls juggling in the air at once, but alas, I am not. Fingers crossed I somehow find and hone that so far dormant skill in the future.
It would be so easy to blame it on the chaos of the holidays, but in fact I’ve just been working on editing my third book for the past three weeks. I’m serious. Aside from my day job, I have literally spent the last several weeks just round the clock figuring out how better to say this and how the heck I missed this plot hole which, lets face it, is really more of a giant chasm at this point.
I’ve been so focused on this third book that I’ve yet to do anything even remotely Christmas-y. I currently have no tree, no lights, no decorations. I’ve done zero shopping. Heck, it’s already December 12, and I haven’t even taken a night to watch and simultaneously make fun of those cheesy Christmas movies they put up on Netflix every year. (Okay, that’s not entirely true. I did sit down to watch The Knight Before Christmas with my sister, but only because the comments and reviews I’ve seen make it sound so wonderfully awful. It was, by the way, and I’ll probably end up watching it again regardless.)
So back to the point. Busy, busy me having absolutely no life because of these edits. You honestly have no idea the relief I felt when I finally finished it, typed up an e-mail to my editor with the fixed copy attached, and hit send.
She then told me she’d have it back to me in less than a week for the next round of edits.
I love my editor, but does she have to be that good? This means I basically have one week to go hard core Christmas in this mother before I go back to Googling how fast a foal grows and trying to come up with synonyms for the word said. One week to do all my shopping and decorating and wrapping and everything else that comes with Christmas. That’s right, I’m so committed to my Seven Days of Christmas that I even made a list of all the things I wanted/needed to do, starting with last night. And you know what all I got done when I got home from work yesterday evening?
WHY?!? Christmas is my favorite holiday. The lights, the music, celebrating the true reason for the season. I should be all over this, and yet my Christmas Spirit is, apparently, nowhere to be found.
On the bright side, I did manage to get a lot of “author” stuff done last night. For instance, any lovers of my first book, Keeping Score, can now find part one of a new scene I wrote for Logan and Cole after the events of their story which you can find here. To read part two before it goes public on my site, you can sign up here and look for it in your inbox this Sunday.
I’ve also got the cover for my third book in the Willow Creek Series, Risking it All, which I’ll be sharing on my social media pages tomorrow, Friday, December 13. Plus I’m planning a giveaway on Amazon of my second book, Daring to Fall, before the new book comes out in February.
So yeah, a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks, and I’m not just talking about all the gifts under the tree…which I still have to buy. So make sure you follow me on Facebook and Instagram to get those updates as they come.
Here’s hoping you all are enjoying a much more festive and joyful holiday while remembering what truly matters. Happy holidays!
All the love,
Shannon
Shannon Stults 