Photo by The Climate Reality Project on Unsplash

This time tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane heading to my very first writing conference. I’m equal parts excited and scared out of my mind. Wish my luck. 😬

I’m starting off with a workshop tomorrow afternoon, which is so out of my comfort zone. It sounded like such a good idea when I signed up. 🙄 My inner introvert has been freaking out ever since. My workshop is called “Pub and Polish.” It will be so good for me, but I thought I’d have my manuscript much further along than it is now. Though after reading my fellow students’ work, I’m a little more calm about it. Not because they’re bad (they’re great!), they just aren’t perfect yet. Just like mine.

When I signed up for the conference, I was terrified. I only knew one person going, someone who already had a writing group they were hanging out with. A month later on a writing group Facebook page, I said I’d be interested in a Regency critique group. Now I actually have a roommate for the conference and four friends to hang out with. I’m so grateful for how things turned out.

Now I just have to make it through security without kids… I’m not sure I remember how to do that anymore. Ha! 😆

In other news, I’ve finished the second draft of my Beauty and the Beast retelling! There are lots of little fixes that need to be made, but at this point I think they’re things I need people to point out to me. So I think I’ll be sending it to betas in the near future. My only problem is, I think I’ve decided to sit on this story until after I publish my Regencies. I’ve gone back and forth for a while about which genre I want to publish in first, and I’m pretty sure I want to pursue historical fiction before I dive into fantasy. I think I’ll continue to write the fantasy stories, but for right now I’m in pretty deep with Regency. (It was a huge struggle to get through the second draft of HotL).

Speaking of Regency, Joseph and Guy have done it to me again. They threw me for a loop. Rather, I threw myself for a loop by trying to cram two stories’ worth of content into one novel. I’m already pushing 80,000 words, and I’m about 2/3 of the way through. So, instead of this little series being a duology, it’s now a trilogy. Joy. But hey, that means I’ve finished one book already! Now I just need to go in and add a ton to make it stand on its own.

And I’m already researching for the third book. Look for posts on the Royal Navy in the future. 😉

Now I need to go finish packing… Have a great week! Happy writing!