Excuses, Updates, and a Pretty Big Announcement

GUYS I HAVE NOT DIED. Left you hanging two months ago with no further word from me for all this time, yes...died, no. Life in general forced me to put my blogging on the back burner for a couple months, much as I disliked doing so. However, I'll hopefully be posting on here more regularly after this surprise hiatus. Did y'all miss me? ;) (Only answer if you did. Otherwise just ignore that question and let me enjoy my innocence.)

Want to know WHY I've been strangely absent the last couple months? By all means, read on. :)



~ Life ~

Basically, the craziness all started the two weeks before Easter. I place full blame of my hectic life during the last two months at that holiday's feet. What with cantata practice, church decorating (and un-decorating), Easter itself, and that holiday being shortly followed by our church's mission's conference, our family was kept on our toes. Throw in some babysitting, housecleaning, college, and housesitting and you might get a little picture of my life during that time.

We had a brief week of rest (where, coincidentally, ALL my writing for Camp NaNo took place...in other words, I did not get to my writing goal for that month) before Margaret and I headed out to Georgia to visit our older sister Sarah and her husband Jesse. For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you probably got pictures and updates at least during that time. For those of you who didn't, here's a brief run-down of the week we spent there:

Day One: ALL THE TRAVELLING (added Colorado and Georgia to my very short list of states I've gone to in my lifetime)

Day Two: Visited some outlet stores and bought some clothes that were more suited to the hotter, more humid weather, and caught up on sleep (that blessed thing we were very short on for most of our trip). Also, went to a jazz concert put on for free by a local college.

Day Three: We went to a cool park that had all sorts of animals in cages along the path like cougars, bald eagles, gophers, and my personal favorite, the lake with turtles in it. We also went to the biggest Western store in the South (sounds contradictory when I say it like that) and had a hilarious time trying on all sorts of hats and boots. The day finished with my first visit to Sarah and Jesse's church where I got to meet the pastor and his lovely wife.

Day Four: We drove to a fair and stood in line to get into the biggest book sale I have ever gone to. I bought a grand total of 27 books for only $34.25! Needless to say, this was probably my favorite day of our stay there. We also toured a historic house and I tried fried pickles for the first time. (They were weird, but not necessarily bad tasting??) That night we went to another free college concert, this one a flute choir, which was super cool to watch.

Day Five: We hiked stone mountain, and walked half-way around it to see the engraving of the three most famous confederate figures (Lee, Jackson, and Davis) in the mountain's side. We walked a total of 6.3 miles that day...and promptly wasted all our efforts by eating dinner at Chick-fil-a (my first time though...so TOTALLY WORTH IT). Fun story, I almost lost my phone there, which gave me a minor heart-attack...but we recovered it after I figured out it was missing half-an-hour down the highway and drove back to the restaurant to collect it.

Day Six: We went to Zoo Atlanta. Highlights of that trip: coming within two feet of a very hungry looking lion and tiger, and seeing live pandas for the first time EVER. After the zoo, we walked around Atlanta for a little bit and bought raspberry geranium popsicles at a snooty "organic" store. They taste better than they sound, believe me.

Day Seven: We went to Sarah and Jesse's church again and got to see what church feels like for normal people. (a.k.a NOT pastor's kids) It was weird. Interesting, but weird. The people there were really sweet and made us feel very welcome, and the pastor was even preaching from the same book Dad does on Sunday morning!

That afternoon while Jesse barbecued some ribs for a very tasty Sunday dinner, us girls cooled off in the pool, pretending we actually knew how to swim. It was very entertaining. :P

Day Eight: For the last day we had to spend together, we drove to some more outlet stores and enjoyed just looking around at the fancy clothes and accessories. We got some coffee at the local Barnes & Noble bookstore and chilled (as much as we could in the heat of the day). That evening when Jesse came home from work we walked around a college campus that had beautiful grounds and enjoyed dodging bugs and talking.

Day Nine: We flew home. Georgia was lovely for the time we got to spend with Sarah and Jesse, as well as the many new experiences I had...but I was awfully glad to get home. I love my state. I love my friends and family I have here. And I wouldn't trade this life for anything else you might offer me. :)

After getting home, I've spent the rest of the time getting back on Washington time, unpacking and handing out souvenirs, and catching up on everything I had to catch up on.

  



~ Writing ~

The last couple months, as I have just finished explaining, have not been the best for getting any writing done. However, I did do some writing, and I have hopes of getting more done as time goes on. For Camp NaNo, I got a grand total of 5,045 words written. All of that in one week of April between our mission's conference and our trip to Georgia. *face palm*

I started a new book (I know, I know, groan with me) called "The Assassin's Child" and I hope to have it end around 30k words long.

Good news, I got over the writing block that was keeping me from continuing writing in "A New Name" and I'm hoping to have at least another 20k written in it by the end of this month. Wish me luck!

With the impending release of my poetry collection, I put most of my time into polishing that, which included writing a six-page introduction. More on that project later, I promise. 



~ Social Media ~

I currently have been more active on my Instagram than here, and for that, I apologize. It's just so much easier to post a picture and a couple quick sentences during the midst of a crazy busy day, or like a post while scrolling through a feed rather than read an entire blog post and leave a creative comment at the end.

However, I know how much it means to me when someone takes the time to wade through my posts and leave a comment, so I'm going to try very hard to do better at this. If I have to set aside a scheduled time in my day to read blog posts and comment...SO BE IT.

That said, please don't feel left out if I somehow miss your posts in my feed or run out of time to read yours in particular. I only wish there were enough hours in the day to allow for that to never happen, but I'm afraid it's inevitable. I love all the blogs I follow (which is why I follow them :) and just because I'm unable to comment on yours, that doesn't mean I don't care. Quite the contrary, I assure you. <3

~ Music ~

Living Hope (Phil Wickham)

The Power of a Prayer (Matthew West)

Evermore (Josh Groban)

~ Announcement Section ~

Ok, first thing I'm kind of freaking out excited about is the fact that my first poetry collection EVER is releasing THIS UPCOMING SUNDAY!!!!!!!!! Like, WHAAAAAAAAAAT?? Feel free to freak out with me...it'll make me feel better. (maybe)

Yeah, you read that right: "Thoughts in Verse" is releasing in SIX DAYS. Due to the style I'm publishing it in, my book will only be available on Lulu, so any help you can give in spreading the word would be GREATLY appreciated. In fact, if you're interested in publishing the announcement on Sunday anywhere, just drop a comment below or contact me via email if you're willing to commit to sharing about the publication. If you can and do, I will send you these:

1: a "The Princess and I" bookmark (signed if you want)

2: one of the poems in my collection of your choice (I'll send you the list to pick from)

3: a note with me gushing about how nice of you it was to help a poor author out

Sound interesting? Cool. I'll hear from you soon. ;)

Second thing I need to announce...

Turns out I totally missed the first birthday for "The Princess and I"! Which is very sad, because I wanted to have a huge giveaway to celebrate my baby's first year of being published. So, instead of celebrating on the release date, I'm going to celebrate when my blog turns 5 (in a couple weeks) and we'll host a huge party for the both of them on the same day. Sound good? Think, LOTS of books being given away as well as a bunch of extra goodies, questions about the book being answered and even a sneak peek into "The Princess and I"s sequel "The King's Cousin". The best part? I'm going to allow you guys to ask me ANYTHING you want in the comments, and I will write them all down, put them in a hat, and video myself answering them.

To end a VERY long blog post before you are bored out of your mind, here's the ending period.

Well, almost. ;)

Until next time, let everything you do be done for the glory of God!