I am so excited about my writing right now! I just finished a rough draft of the second of two novel manuscripts that I plan to finish by the middle of this year!
It usually takes me some time to switch from writing mode to revising mode, but it really helps that I set one of the manuscripts aside and moved on to the next one before editing this time. Revisions are already going well, and I hope to have this manuscript ready to share with my creative writing workshop in just a few weeks!
How about I tell you what I’ve been working on so you can share in my excitement?
Project #1: Demons of the Night
I started this book quite some time ago when I had one of those dreams that was too good to not write it into a scene. This novel is very different from my last two. It’s an adult book that includes witches, demons, and philandering preachers. It’s a battle of good and evil, where it’s not always obvious which side is which.
At the center of this battle is Docia, a sheltered young woman whose father and step-mother are determined to keep her sequestered within the “safe” world of her grandfather’s church compound and seem unlikely to ever allow her to move forward into a life of her own choosing.
Everything changes when a handsome young man of Docia’s age literally blows into one of her father’s boring lectures on the demons of the night. It is a huge disappointment for Docia to learn that Blane actually believes in the silly demons that her father is a supposed expert on. Despite her irritation with this new believer, Docia is drawn to him, eventually ending up in a kind of relationship with him.
Docia eventually coerces Blane into taking her to meet his family at the desecrated church that they have turned into their home, against his better judgement. After being drawn into a terrifying ritual that later seems more dream than reality, Docia learns the horrifying truth about the demons and her own familial connection to them. She’ll spend the rest of the novel—and perhaps the rest of her life—working to undo the spell that was cast during the ritual, all while learning who she really is and where she belongs in this world that is nothing she had ever imagined it to be.
Project #2: DIY High
DIY High is a young adult novel that takes place in a small town in the middle of “flyover country.” This is a story that includes a prescription drug addiction and a view of a “working poor” family that you won’t likely find anywhere else. This story will make you question everything you thought you knew about poverty and education in small-town America.
When Gabby’s mom loses her job and sinks into an addiction to the prescription pain medications she has been taking for chronic pain, it’s up to Gabby to find a way to support her single mom and three younger siblings. Luckily, Gabby’s boss at the local truck stop diner is happy to have her work for him full-time, even if it means Gabby must quit school to do it.
In a lucid moment, Gabby’s mom refuses to allow her to completely drop out of school and instead hatches a plan to homeschool her. Unfortunately, Gabby’s mom doesn’t hold up her end of the deal for long, and Gabby is soon homeschooling herself. Next thing she knows, she’s teaching herself and a collection of local “losers” in an informal, library-based school they call, “DIY High,” all while navigating a less-than-perfect home life in a swath of middle-America that is often overlooked.
Want to read more?
I hope you are as excited to read these two new books of mine as I am to complete them! If my writing sounds like your kind of reading, check out my previous novels, Valley of the Bees and F-ing Freddy Fisher to keep yourself in reading material until these two new projects are ready for your reading pleasure!
Write on the World 