Summer Between Worlds
Summer nostalgia blooming, project updates, and reading tastes
Summer as an adult forever feels like trying to chase that childhood high of summer freedom. Sticky popsicles, disappearing to play with friends for hours, riding bikes to the corner store for candy and the latest TeenBeat, jumping through the sprinkler, and laying around bored until the next spark of inspiration hits.
Adult summer isn’t so free. But I still hope to hold onto bits of that summer high. Running through sunflower fields, saying yes to pool invites—even if I’ve already planned, mall trips with my girls to the American Girl doll store. Maybe summer as an adult is making room for nostalgia to bloom in bite-size pieces.
Project Updates
The Sea & All Its Stars
(Byzantine reimagining of The Little Mermaid X Greek gods)
I’m returning to my first book baby and working on another round of revisions to get it ready to query in September. My goal for July is to finish it.
Back in April, I sent my query package off to Marina Green (of Marina Edits) for review and received it back in May. Last summer I sent it to Beth Stedman for developmental edits and got wonderful feedback and focus to move me forward. I’ve been dragging my feet for almost a year now for…reasons that have to do with my own agency, trusting myself and intuition, and that great big ol’ fear of “what if this doesn’t work out?” Just minor hiccups.
The Haunting of Magnolia Woods
(I still don’t know how to blurb this book. Curses, 3 timelines across centuries, a Lumbee girl with big dreams and a phantom wrecking havoc on her town?)
My goal was to finish Maggie’s POV/timeline while at the WWTS Residency in May (more on the Residency another time). I knew where I wanted to go with the story, got another 12,000 words in at the Residency, but realized as I was entered Act 3 that because I had changed a few things earlier on the ending I had outlined needed to be recalculated.
So I’m pausing that drafting while I focus on Sea and let ideas for unraveling Magnolia marinate. My goal is to return to it in August and finish this draft. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I’m hoping to have this to beta readers by late fall.
I feel so close with this story. Close to my heart, to my family, but also close to being done. If only I can keep my focus.🤞🏽
Disappearing Girls
(The Twelve Dancing Princesses X 1920s Savannah)
I finished the first draft in February. My leanest first draft to date at around 60,000 words and my fastest first draft. That’s a milestone I keep forgetting to celebrate. I started this draft in November and finished in February. That’s a big deal for me as an anxious overwriter. There are a few plot twists I still need to settle on and figure out. It’s that translation from brain to words I’m still working on. My goal is to return to this story in the fall.
Reading Tastes
My summer reading is shaping up to be a back and forth between my reading personalities. I’ve been alternating between Gothic/folk horror and contemporary & historical romance/beach reads. Dark to light, all the disturbances to all the feels.
Here’s a few I’ve really enjoyed:
If you like dark and foreboding:
The House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert
Switching it up with get in your feelings romance:
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming
The Hell’s Belles series by Sarah MacLean
Funny Story by Emily Henry
The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
A Writer’s Senses
As I’m revising, I keep returning to my senses. Taking it back to the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.
I tend to white wall my writing, but one thing that helps root me to a scene or when I need a good pause in dialogue is to go back to the senses. What does my character see, feel, smell, tear, touch, or taste and how does it deepen their point of view and experience—in turn, molding the reader’s experience?
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be exploring the senses as I revise The Sea and All Its Stars. I’ll share a few thoughts on the senses and give an example of how I’ve used it in my own writing (maybe here and…or Instagram?). Consider this your invitation to a practical and sensual writing exercise.
Totally agree about the nostalgia of summer. Excited to see all the writing progress you’re making!
Also I’m waiting on T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Grace from the library. Never read their books, but the premise of this one had me hooked.