Two weeks post book

So I was thinking about doing a post about the things I learned from revising Faerie Winter. (Among them: spend less time talking about the things your characters don’t do, and focus on the things they do do.) And that got me thinking about how I talk a lot about the things writing teaches me, the things I’m always learning. But here’s what I maybe don’t say often enough, because I know it and live with it and so take it for granted:

I love writing. Not every single day, or every single moment, but–I love this thing I’ve chosen to put so much of my life and focus and energy and self into.

I love having stories bouncing around in my head. I love taking those stories and turning them, draft after draft, word after word, into stories I want to read–into stories that can be read. I love seeing those stories make their way out into the world.

And I love this book I’ve just finished. I love all I’ve learned about Liza’s world, all the ways in which her story wasn’t (isn’t) finished yet. I love the new characters I’ve met, the old characters whose stories I’ve uncovered new pieces of, the places this book goes and the things that it’s about.

I can’t wait until I can share it with you all, so that you can love it or hate it or feel somewhere in-between about it in turn.

I love the joy and the journey of writing and telling stories.