In which I apologize for forgetting to blog. Again.

I’m in serious need of a Time Turner, people. Yet again, time has passed and I have not posted a blessed thing. And I’ve read so many lovely books I want to recommend to you. And I shall. But not today. Probably tomorrow. Be excited.

I’ve actually been spending most of my spare minutes (the ones not tied up in half-marathon training and reading and — let’s be honest — binge-watching Downton Abbey and Breaking Bad) furiously working on my second manuscript, trying to get it ready in time for the SCBWI Midsouth Fall Conference, which was held this past weekend here in Nashville. A whole weekend spent with amazing friends and listening to amazing talks by amazing agents and editors and authors and having amazing ideas and in general basking in amazing amazingness.

Midsouthers LtR: Me, David Arnold, Ashley Schwartau, CJ Schooler, Courtney Stevens, Erica Rodgers, Sarah Brown.
I love these people so much. Remember their names. One day, their books (and albums!) will be on your shelves.

I sang songs. I met wonderful people. I hugged necks. I cheered for the accomplishments of my talented friends. I stayed up too late, woke up too early, and subsisted mainly on coffee. I was validated that my book concept does not, in fact, suck. I filled my brain with the (nearly overwhelming) wisdom being doled out by the awesome faculty.

And I decided to scrap my entire book (who needed those 200-plus pages anyway, right?) and start over.

So that’s where I am, back at square one, except it’s not square one because I have such a better understanding of the story I’m trying to tell now. I’m finally excited about it again, which is good. Writing these past couple months has just been me, angrily punching out words on my keyboard, muttering at the words on my screen, I hate you.

No words wasted. The wrong ones had to come out to get to the right ones. Yes, I wish there weren’t over fifty-one-thousand wrong words needed to find the story, but oh well. It could’ve been worse. I could’ve reached the end of the book and then thrown it out. I could’ve written the wrong book twice. (Who knows, maybe I will.) So put in that perspective, 51K into the trashcan isn’t a bad deal.

So anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing, and what I shall be doing. But in the meantime, I am still reading (always reading) and I genuinely do want to find that balance again of working in time to recommend the books I’ve enjoyed to you. So bear with me, friends. I’m not awesome at this whole time management thing, but there are lots of splendid stories sitting on bookstore and library shelves right now, and I want to tell you about them.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I have every intention of telling you about VICIOUS, the first adult book by V.E. Schwab. It’s about supervillains and scheming and it is brilliant. Prepare for some gushing.

And if you come here tomorrow and there’s no review up, I give you permission to get on Twitter and slap me with a fish.