A Month in the Writer’s Life ~ January 2006

I’ve decided to try something different with this blog. Beside the blog’s I write whenever the mood or topic strikes me I will have A Month in the Writer’s Life. Basically this will let you know what I have been up to writing wise, a look into my life and various other things. Also this will make sure I post more regularly to the blog. LOL. So onto the first A Month in the Writer’s Life.

January a time to take stock on what you have planned for the new year. The time to make resolutions, to get so much you promised yourself last year and rebirth. When January 1 rolled around I was so happy to see it. As many of you know 2005 was a rough year for me with the loss of my mother and a lot of other things. My mom’s loss threw me in a tail spin that echoed into everything else. I was functioning but seemingly in a cloud. Christmas found me in bed curled up and unable to do anything. Afterwards I was mad at myself but then realized this was just what I needed. Grief comes in many forms sometimes all at once and other over time. Mine is over time and with the dawn of 2006 I knew it would be better. I would still be hurting with loss but with a new year there was so much new possibilities.

This January found me exploring those moments of possibilities. I reevaluated what was on my writing plans. In 2005 I got very little that I had planned done. But I don’t plan to make it up. I made revamped the old plans into new ones. I’ve organized the books I want to write this year and the time frame I want to complete them in. I won’t be giving you my goal now but at the end of the year I will let you know if what I planned worked.

One of the things that I’ve wanted to complete and couldn’t seem to be the edits on Conquering Jazz. I was working on it but another story kept nagging at me. So I finally had to sit down sketch out my thoughts in order to get my mind focused on Conquering Jazz. With that done I’m happy to report that the edits are done and I’ll be mailing the manuscript to my agent shortly.

As for that other novel (I still haven’t come up with a title yet). Now that the idea is down I can’t write it at least not yet it is to close to all I went through last year. So I’m waiting on that one.

For now I am working on Turning the Tables, the next Hamlin family & friends novel. I’m already half way through the book and it is shaping up to be another hot and emotional story.

A reader mentioned to me once that they like my work because I write about families. To me family is the corner stone of everything. No matter if you’re close or fight like crazy it’s all about the family dynamic. And not the typical one either. After all there are many types of families. Hmmm… I think I found a couple of future blog topics to explore. LOL. This year I am writing books to help build my various families I have created. Stay tuned for more on them.

I’m also working on a few things for my alter ego Kaitlyn St. James including a separate blog. (For now I blogged about what is happening with Kaitlyn St. James under the blog titled Kaitlyn St. James Happening’s ~ January 2006)

That’s all so far in my A Month in the Writer’s Life until next month.

McKenna