So, lately

I started writing three years ago this January. Since then, I've written six books. That's such a crazy sentence to write. I remember being younger and thinking, "Some day, I'd love to write a book." And 'someday' has come and gone, and I have six books under my belt.

The first three were horrible. I'll admit it. From a writing standpoint, they're just not good. But that's ok. They were building blocks. And they were about Rie and Marus, who both will forever live in my heart.

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*Confession: I have created so many storylines past the book for them, including those of their children and grandchildren. It's wildly fun to come up with, and those stories are just for me.

Then I wrote Elsi's story, and sigh....I adore Elsi. So far, her story is my favorite. (Don't tell Gretta, she would give me a tongue lashing for sure).

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Elsi got requested by 4 agents. All of whom liked it, but not enough, and eventually passed. Sigh....I long for someone to believe in Elsi. Writing wise, she was the second story I finished (I wrote her while writing books 2 and 3 of Rie's story). So, there are dumps of exposition and the voice gets distant. I realize that now, but didn't when I was querying. So sadly, Elsi is being passed over. For now. (I still have hopes of landing an agent who will let me rewrite Elsi and make her stronger. Because for the love, Elsi and Thias need to be unleashed on the world!)

Then, there was Gretta. Oh, Gretta. From a writing standpoint, this is the best thing I have written.

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I started querying Gretta in August. And so far, five agents have her. Five! *Fist pump*

I'm cautiously optimistic. Five seems like good odds, but then again, Elsi had four, and ended up with nothing. So we'll cross our fingers and see how Gretta fares. She is a fantastic story, and even if all the agents pass, I'm proud that Gretta crawled into my head and told me her story. I think I did my brave girl justice.

Then, there's Lyra.

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Lyra is in draft two phase, which means she's decent but not polished yet. I have her out with seven wonderful first-readers, and hopefully will get to polish her up and make her shine.

Lyra is my oddball story. She's different from everything else I've written. She's magical realism, not fantasy. And there's no love story for her. I almost abandoned writing her but God said "Write this story." So I said, "Ok." Lyra got put on hold while I dealt with horrible morning sickness, but finally accomplished what she set out to do. Once I have her back in hand I'll begin the agonizing and thrilling process of rewriting her and making her shine. She's such an odd story, which makes me think she'll be the one that finally lands at agent. Because isn't that just how it would be? I think she's too odd to query, and she'll probably be what everyone salivates over. Go figure ;)

I have a sequel planned for Elsi. And a glorious new story starting to take hold in my brain - an idea I've had for a while, but it's not solidified yet. And I know I just need to start writing it, because that's how all my stories come to life. I have to get a character on a page and let her tell me who she is.

Who knows when this new one will actually come to life on the page. But six books later, I'm totally in love with writing. Let's see how many more stories I can dream up. And let's see what God does with this dream of mine to get published.

Fingers crossed for Gretta. It's all riding on her right now!