Due to being up until 3am writing, and then getting up at 7am to go work on my parent’s farm, this is going to be a short post. I’m sure you’ll forgive me, since I’m working so hard to make Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus fantabulous and on time! I still have about 30-40K words or so to finish writing this month, not to mention self editing so I can get it all to my editor in time. I might as well join NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), except I’m not writing a new novel, so I don’t think it would count.

So far, this whole quitting my job thing is working out great, except for one, tiny little detail: I was supposed to be getting more sleep, and I’m not. I have grown to realize over the past few years that I am a hopeless workaholic (I take that back, it was evident in college when I double majored in Chinese and Arabic). I’m not one hundred percent sure that is the right word, though, because to me, working on my book isn’t work, it’s a joy. I guess I’m a hopeless dreamaholic, because I am so ready and willing to give up sleep (an essential ingredient to health and long life) to work on my dream. I was “supposed” to be able to get 8 hours a night once I quite my job, but I guess the habit of staying up late and flogging my body awake early with a piping hot shower is a hard habit to break. No, I lie, getting up on a few hours of sleep feels terrible and I would gladly give it up. What I meant was, setting goals and making commitments that sacrifice my sleep time is a hard habit to break. What can I say, I’m a work in progress. Let’s hope I figure out this sleep thing before I die young of the multitude of issues sleep deprivation can cause. (of course, I don’t have it half as bad as parents…just imagine how little sleep I’ll get when I have kids AND I’m publishing! How do parent authors do it?)

In other news, I’ve approved the draft portraits of my main characters, Lily Singer, Sebastian Blackwell, and Sir Edgar Allen Kipling, so my cover artist will soon be creating the finished product! It is SO exciting to bring my characters to life and my cover artist is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. My newsletter subscribers get to see the sketches before the cover is released, so if you want a peek click on my subscribe button up top and sign up for my bi-monthly updates.

Also a cool little development, I’ve discovered Google Forms! They allow anyone with a google+ account (gmail, basically) to create super easy, attractive surveys. I’m using it to give my readers and fans a chance to help me “write” my story, making decisions on stuff like the name of a minor character or the properties of a magical item. My first one is already up, click here to vote on what color/stone Lily’s magical amulet should be! I’ll leave it up for a week or two. You can see what the breakdown of votes is once you cast your own vote, and I’ll announce the winning choice once the survey is closed.

Thanks for reading, thanks for following, thanks for caring! Writing and self-publishing your own novel is a huge undertaking (basically you’re doing everything an author + agent + publishing company would normally do all on your own), and I’m determined to do it amazingly, so there’s my perfectionist side kicking in. It makes a lot more work for me, but the results will be worth it!

Check back next week for another post, one not written at 3am. Subscribe, share, and enjoy the cuteness of one, Gizmosis the cat, being a naughty kitty and sitting on my coat. You can tell she knows she’s not supposed to be there, but does she care? Nope!