Update: It's the 3rd of July!

Happy 3rd of July everyone!

Okay, so it's not a holiday, but it's the day before a holiday, which I think is just important. So what am I doing this 3rd of July you ask? Well....working. Oh, then what am I doing on the 4th? Well I'm...working. Yep, no fireworks or cookouts for me, kiddies. I'll be sitting at my desk, answering phones. Thankfully I only work until 8pm, so I should be able to catch the firework shows as I drive home. It's the little things in life *sighs*.

So an update on me. Yay! It's summer, no school! Yay! More sleep! Yay! More hours at work, more money! Yay! And of course, MORE TIME TO WRITE/ EDIT! YAY!

What am I writing/ editing, you ask? Thanks for asking. Well, I'm writing/ editing Deadly Caress. Wait, no, don't walk away. I can explain. Yes I've been working on this book for a LONG time, but you can't put a time limit on perfectioin *buffs nails on shirt*. But in all seriousness, I needed the time to work on finding my writing style and improving my craft. Just this past year in school, I feel I've learned so much. I can see it in my writing and in my editing of Deadly Caress. I've added things, taken A LOT of things out, chopping off 3,000 words and I'm only halfway through the edits. With this round of edits, I feel the book is finally where it needs to be. I'm really happy with the results so far. YAY!

So that's my update. Will continue to keep you posted. Everyone have a great 4th!

JS

What's Been Going On

This year is whipping by so fast. Unfortunately, I've hit a few speed bumps. A death in the family being the most prominent. It hit us pretty hard. My creative side has slowed down immensely. There's nothing worse than not being able to or feeling like doing the thing you love. That's how I've felt for months with my writing. I was producing for school, but it wasn't my best, or even something I was passionate about. It had gotten pretty bad there for awhile. I was seriously contemplating withdrawing from school and taking the rest of the semester off. Finally, I'm at a point where I'm excited again. Getting back on schedule is tough, but I'm working at it.

So, after all that sad mundane info, here's the fun stuff. I'm a little under a month away from the end of my Junior semester. One more year, and I'm done with school! I've been contemplating grad school, but I think I'll put it off for a bit. I'm doing some pretty cool things in my classes as final projects, one of which is building a xylophone (from scratch, and yes it's as difficult as it sounds) and interviewing Nina Bruhns, Senior Editor at Entangled Publishing. I'm really excited about both.

NEW ORLEANS! So not only am I a few weeks away from being finished with this semester, but I'm headed to NOLA! RT14 is something I've been looking forward to for a year. I've got my schedule mapped out--thanks to the cool phone app the convention provided sponsored by Dreamspinner Press-- and plan to jam pack everything into a hectic five days. There will be more posts on the interesting workshops and panels I attend.

Lastly, I'm formulating/ working on a new series. I've put Deadly Fury to the side, for now, and am working on a spin off of the Deadly 7 world. This series is also set in Chicago, but it follows the Rogue Hunter Society, a group of Hunters protecting humanity. The story runs parallel to D7 and the hero of this story is a character we visit briefly in Deadly Caress. I'm extremely excited about it. More on that in the future.