Life of a #MommyAuthor

UPDATES

Last weekend felt completely surreal. I woke up to the normal morning bustle of a house filled with small people. Bottle for baby. Breakfast prep. Should I get dressed first? Nah, might as well eat. Somewhere in the background, my husband mentioned flooding.

We had a flood here in the Hill Country of Texas in 2018. The water came up and covered a lot of the floodplain areas. There was some damage done. It was a sad time. But life for most of us went right on. I thought that’s what he meant by ‘flooding’.

This was a completely different level of flood.

Since that morning, my community has suddenly become national news. Whole parts of town unreachable. Properties not just destroyed – completely wiped off the map. Families shattered by news that their loved ones died. I thought that watching Helene wreak havoc on my hometown was bad. This was even worse. We drove by the ravaged riverbeds. We talked to people who had lost friends. More localized, yes. Still lives ruined.

(footage caught driving over the riverbed a few miles from our house)

My husband and I were both itching to volunteer. But the rescue and recovery teams already had all the help they needed. Thank God for a community that comes together like this! (Doesn’t make it easy to do nothing, though.)

So, I’ve focused my efforts on surviving a second summer vacation (only three days this time at least), getting in some reading (I love that my job counts reading as ‘work’), and, of course, my writing.

Although…

The writing work would have been better if I had had my new laptop with me. I left it in North Carolina. Thankfully, my amazing dad got it shipped out pronto. (Feels so good to type on it; the backup has the slowest, weirdest feeling keyboard.)

The relief of something as simple as getting my laptop (filled with stories, marketing promos, and pictures of my family) seems silly compared to everything going on. But I’ll take the good news where I can find it today.

This week is about thanking God for being here. In the middle of the chaos. In the middle of the pain. In every crying session. In every moment of emotional whiplash between ‘life is normal’ and ‘heartbreaking tragedy is everywhere’. He is still God. We’re choosing to trust Him and praise Him in everything.

June was such a crazy month! I had planned to devote most of my writing time to pumping out half of the next episode of Swan Song.

Instead, I gave my website a complete overhaul (it’s finally gorgeous! You should totally check it out; so proud of it:) and started a TikTok account to promote my other books. Life is full of surprises, I guess.

I DID write the first three chapters of this second episode. And let me tell you…

It’s already getting juicy!

The siblings (my favorite part to write so far) showed their deeper selves as I rewrote the first episode. And in these three chapters, I got to explore that in a new situation with a new challenge. I didn’t get to the romance yet (I am SO ready to dive into the teen king and his story). Hopefully, that will be changing soon.

JULY GOALS

Now that camp, VBS, the big road trip, and the initial emotional toll of the flooding are over, I want to get us back into some kind of schedule. Summers are not easy with kids. Especially the uber-hot summers here in Texas. With just a few tweaks to our existing schedule, however, I will be able to get back into regular writing days. I may even finally visit that little café that’s now just down the road from us (for writing purposes, of course;).

The big goal of July:

Get the first two acts of Swan Song Episode 2 written. They won’t be perfect. But they’ll be written, and I’ll be able to keep moving forward.

I also have some fun ideas for my dear subscribers (that’s YOU), including artwork/coloring pages of my MCs from Snow Dust and Little Hood and continuing to compile my personal list of clean Middle Grade and Young Adult fantasy recommendations. (I’m a slow reader and my TBR pile is quite hefty at the moment.)

Until next time!

Joanna