Here's What Happened

    Wow, it has been quite a while. So much has happened over the past few months, and if you don't follow me on other social media, then you've missed out on my updates. So here's what happened:
May-
    Husband of Mine got offered a job in Utah, and he accepted. We had about 3 weeks to pack up everything and move 700 miles away. During this time, A Bit of Magic was released, and I didn’t really get to do anything to celebrate my third publication because I was busy. 
    We spent a weekend out in Utah looking for a house. On our way, we were in a car accident and our car was totaled. We only owned the car for 3 1/2 months. We continued on our way to Utah, found a house and put an offer in, then went home. 
June-
    Offer was accepted on the house and we finished packing to move. We drove up by ourselves with all our stuff loaded in a van, and spent three nights in a temporary apartment while we closed on the house and signed the paperwork. Then we moved into our new house. 
    It took about 3 weeks to fully unload everything except for our office which hasn’t been finished because the movers who loaded our truck broke our desk, which is in pieces in the garage. So we’re waiting to fix the desk so we can unload the boxes for that room.
    I started plotting my Camp NaNoWriMo piece.

New Year, New Schedule

    I haven't exactly been living up to my goals this year. Whoops.

    In my resolutions at the beginning of the year, I set up quite a few goals for myself. Then I made a small life-changing announcement and said I only had plans for the beginning half of the year (because I was having a baby in July). Well, things got all wonky when my morning sickness didn't go away, and I lost my job and spent the first 3 months of the year looking for a new one (that didn't happen either, in case anyone was wondering). 
    To sum up, I didn't:

• Finish editing Powerful
• Get a new job
• Finish my JL anthology piece for Between Heroes and Villains (it was too long)
• Start unnamed fairy tale retelling 

Thankful

    2016-2017 was a whirlwind for me. 

    It started last November when I found out that I was pregnant after a year and a half of trying. It was so shocking because at that point we had given up, fairly confident that it wasn't going to happen. And that's when it usually happens. It was a huge dream come true after so long, and I could barely contain my happiness. 

   But then, I got super sick. The pregnancy made me so ill I couldn't get out of bed, and soon enough I couldn't eat or drink anything. I didn't talk about it at the time, but I ended up in the hospital a year ago. I had Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG), which is relatively unknown but super common. It's basically extreme morning sickness that doesn't alleviate during the pregnancy. The whole nine months, I was taking a cocktail of anti-nausea medication just to survive. I even lost my job because I was so sick. It was really hard to stay motivated. 

    Before Son of Mine was born, only one thing kept me going, and it was the second dream that came true- I was a published author.

    I know, that's old news at this point, but at that point in my life, I had accomplished both of my lifelong dreams at the same time! It was huge! I was living on a high of emotions.

    So in December, my book was published! I got to hold it in my hands, sniff the pages, show it off to family and friends....and then what? 

August Goals

    So....July's over and I never posted any Camp NaNoWriMo updates. Whoops. Turns out, you can't do much sitting (and therefore writing/blogging) when the contractions start. I really only got 7 days to write before everything went crazy. 

    Basically, here's what happened-

Beauty and the Beast Review

    I have always loved the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. I mean, what bookworm didn't want to be Belle? I mean, THAT LIBRARY. It's no question what inspired the two story library inside Floures Academy in Powerful. SO MANY BOOKS. 

    Anyway, I never had any problems with the plot of the original animated movie. Sure, there could've been more backstory for EVERYTHING, but isn't that how most stories go? We want to leave a few questions unanswered. And the plot could've been a lot worse, like Disney's animated versions of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.
    Now the new movie is out, and it's breathtaking. The things they can do with computer generated graphics is truly astounding. But...that doesn't make the writing to be any less important. When Disney first put out Snow White, it was for the animation, which was truly groundbreaking technology at the time. Disney was known for its animation, not its story telling. And that's why Disney did so many already well-known stories at first.
    Since then, Disney's told some major, groundbreaking stories. And that's why I was disappointed with the live-action Beauty and the Beast.

I Am A Writer

    Growing up, my parents always pushed me to pursue my passions. They knew long before I did that I would end up as a writer. They cultivated my love of books and encouraged me to study what I loved. In today's society where degrees are more and more important to getting a job because of the competitive job market, it's like a breath of fresh air to have such a support system that pushed me toward passion instead of "success". My husband has always been the same way.
    But now I exist in the real world, where people don't understand how you can follow your dreams and do something you enjoy when you don't appear to make any money. Where if you sit at home all day, people assume that you're doing nothing with your life and spend all your time watching Netflix. Working from home or working for yourself "isn't a real job".
    At my last job, when I worked part time, I was constantly asked what I did when I wasn't working. When I answered that I was writing a book, people would say, "That's cute." or "What a fun hobby." They didn't understand that that's what I wanted to do full time. They didn't understand that that's what I planned to do full time.

Valentine's Day

    I am not a romantic. Romance typically makes me want to rip my hair out and scream, because usually it is so unbelievable. For example, I have a sister who loves watching cheesy Hallmark movies because of the feel-good story lines. I end up questioning everything and tearing the storyline to shreds because I don't understand it.
    I really don't understand the whole, "true love at first sight" thing. And especially in today's world with so many stories and movies out there, it's become such a horrid cliché, it makes me shudder just thinking about it.

    Part of the reason I don't understand it is because of my personal romantic history. My husband and I have been friends since we were 14. It took us three years to have feelings for each other and begin dating. I don't understand the concept of falling in love with someone you don't know because I've never experienced it. I am attracted to people's personalities. It wasn't until recently that I realized it's a common enough thing that there's a specific term for it- demisexual. Which explains why I don't relate to all things romantic.

Surprise!

    So after a few days with little to no internet, I'm back! Sorry for the inconvenient and sudden disappearance. But fear not, readers! I have returned once more! And I'm back with that promised surprise!

    That's right! I'm pregnant! And that's why I'm so behind on everything writing related. Now that it's out in the open, I can finally share some fun stories from the past three months.

New Years Resolutions

    Normally I laugh at people who make New Years Resolutions because I'm the kind of person who makes changes whenever I realize I need to make a change, not just once a year. Plus, resolutions without dates are just dreams, not actual goals. And because these are things I really want to accomplish, I'm planning on giving myself an end date for each one.

• Finish draft 3 of Powerful. I'm currently doing another pass through where I'm implementing feedback chapter by chapter and making notes. I'm on chapter 9 out of 36. That's 1/4th of the way through! I plan on reviewing one chapter a day, which means this pass through will be done on January 27th. After that, I plan on actually implementing the edits (which are mostly minor, mainly description because that is my nemesis), which I'll do one chapter a day again. That means I'll finish the third draft by March 4th. I'll regularly update my progress here, and once I start actually writing the third draft, I'll update the word count on the sidebar!

Favorite Books of 2016

    Okay, so this title may be a bit misleading because not all of these books came out in 2016. These are just the books I read in 2016.
    I used Goodreads to view my year in books. I read 18 books this year, but I'm going to talk about my top favorites.

• Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George- A retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, this book immediately grabbed my attention. It focuses primarily on the oldest princess, Rose, and Galen, a soldier returning from war who loves to knit. I read this right after I started crocheting, so I loved the fact that Galen was not afraid to be constantly seen with his knitting needles and yarn. This book stayed true to the original tale while not afraid to forge its own unique path as it tells its own tale. The rest of the series, Princess of Glass and Princess of the Silver Woods were retellings of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. The first one was definitely my favorite, and I loved the third one as well. I didn't like the second one as much because the ending was super abrupt and I had to read it through a bunch of times before understanding what happened, but these are all books I would highly recommend for fairy tale lovers.

Favorite Movies of 2016

    2016 has been a big year for many reasons, whether good or bad. I've been through a lot of highs and lows, so I'm trying to focus on the highs because far too often the lows win out.
    So here are some of the lows because I need to get them out of the way-

• Somewhere around 60 celebrity deaths, including Alan Rickman and Carrie Fisher from two of the most popular movie franchises of all time.
• More than 20 major world-altering terrorist attacks, not to mention the daily attacks that happen that are too commonplace for the media to cover.
• The spike in police brutality and brutality against the police in the U.S.
• My uncle commit suicide this spring.
• I didn't finish editing Powerful in time to submit by the end of the year.

    So now I'm reminding myself of some of the highs because that certainly put a damper on things-

• I was published! It wasn't Powerful, but I still got to check that off my list!
• The Olympics are always a great way to lift spirits, and Michael Phelps's record number of medals and gold medals is certainly exciting. As is Brazil's participation 
• The Juno spacecraft reached Jupiter! Yay, Science!
• The Cubs won the World Series! I'm not a sports fan, but a lot of people can celebrate this.
• The U.S. held an election, and while the results may not be something to celebrate, democracy certainly is! And a record breaking number of Americans decided to participate.
• And exactly how many fan favorite tv shows (like Full House, the X-Files, etc.) were rebooted this year? I can't even find a number!

Christmas Party- Writing Tag!

    I was tagged by my friend Renée Harvey to play a Christmas game on my blog using characters from my WIP, Powerful to answer holiday questions. Let's go!

1. Who starts karaoke with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and who jumps in for the echo?

 

Navadira! And Luzigo jumps in to be the echo because he can't hear this song and not sing the echo thanks to his brothers.
2. Who’s threatening the kids with coal in their stocking?

Kylanore, mostly because she doesn't understand how this holiday thing works.

How my Anxiety Affects my Writing

    I've talked about my depression before, but I don't think I've ever talked about my on-going struggle with anxiety here. Why is that? Maybe because society seems to understand depression better than anxiety, even though both are still highly underrepresented.
    As with depression, anxiety is impossible to understand unless you've personally dealt with it. Unless you've had those voices in your head, those nagging sensations in your heart, you assume it's typical stress. And if you assume it's stress, you assume that people with anxiety are really poor at handling stress.
     While parts of that statement are true (trust me, I really DON'T handle stress well), it's not entirely accurate. First off, there are a lot of different types of anxiety, and some are harder to diagnose, which is why so many people who have anxiety are never treated for it.

It's November!

    Alright, so I've got a few quick things to go over today, including Halloween, NaNoWriMo, and a checklist of my goals. Here goes nothing-
    For those who haven't followed my blog in previous years, I LOVE HALLOWEEN. I dress up every year because it is my favorite part. Pretending to be someone else shouldn't be reserved for little kids. We all need to exercise our imaginations and take a break from the real world.
   That's why I write fantasy novels. And that's why I love Halloween. Here and here are my posts from previous years. I usually dedicate a lot of time to making costumes. Unfortunately, this year there were a few hiccups-namely moving and cleaning out a new living space, still fighting a cold, Husband of Mine fighting a cold, etc. So, we didn't get super creative this year, but I still had fun.
    Two weeks ago, Husband of Mine (who works for Disney Imagineering as a ride engineer) manage to snag us tickets to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Disneyland. This is a special event where the park closes early except for those with special tickets, and there's trick-or-treating throughout the park and a special fireworks show and a special nighttime parade. We dressed up for the party (of course!) and partied all night long (or at least until the park closed at 11 pm)

Life Updates

    We have a fridge and we have a microwave!
    Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.
    Hello, world! I am back! Hopefully. Since my last update (I know, it's been more than a month), a lot has changed. And I mean, everything in my life has changed. 
    First off- We moved! Sort of. We're still living amidst piles of stuff (I'd take pictures, but I think my camera would explode). Let's just say that we're still using paper plates every time we eat, I haven't folded laundry in three weeks, and every room has boxes in it. It's a work in progress. Lots of progress...Like I said earlier, we have a fridge and microwave now installed in our kitchen! Whoo hoo!
    My computer has been fixed too, and it's better than ever! No more tape and wires. Fun! And I've been using it A LOT lately for a secret upcoming project that I'll announce soon.
    And possibly most important, I accepted the full-time position at work. I am no longer a receptionist. I am now an administrative assistant. It's been fun, but since I accepted that position, I've also been out sick twice.

Nurse Astrid says cuddles are the best medicine

Bypass

    I know, I said I was back from hiatus, but then everything in my life decided to jump in the blender and mix it up again. So this is going to be a fairly rambly post. Here goes.
    First off, I am currently working full time and I will be until mid October. We're in the middle of our busy season and one of our administrative assistants quit, so I'm currently working in the back and the other receptionist is covering my shifts full time. It'll be crazy until after our deadline and someone else is hired and trained, and I can return to my regularly scheduled working.
    I've also officially registered myself for a handful of online classes through Poynter NewsU and soon I'll be a certified editor through ACES (American Copy Editor Society)! Exciting, right? Yeah...Maybe...
    Around the same time I got that call from work, my computer stopped working. It randomly crashed on me and sat there with a blank screen instead of restarting. That was in the middle of the day Thursday, when I was preparing to blog, and I was starting my first class for my ACES certification. So, I spent the day pacing and waiting for Husband of Mine to get home. He took apart my computer and it's currently on bypass until a new part gets ordered.

It's Done

    It's done. Yes, you read that right. The second draft of Powerful is finished. I wrote The End for the second time last night around 9:50 pm. Ten whole days ahead of schedule.

I did it. I finished the second draft. Ten days ahead of schedule. 90,423 words. #amediting #amwritingfantasy

— Hypergraphia (@alliemayauthor) September 20, 2016

    I do have to apologize for my unofficial blogging hiatus as I pushed through to the end, but I was so motivated to finish that I couldn't take a break even to blog. In case you were wondering if it was worth it, I edited 4 chapters on Sunday, and 3 yesterday. I literally could not put my own book down.
    If you missed my lovely presence while I was away, you can always keep up to date on my Facebook and Twitter accounts where I posted daily updates to my progress (in addition to the word count bar on the side).
    I also shared a few quotes that I particularly loved from the chapters I was editing. Here are a few of my favorites.

Tweaking the Schedule

    So I've been a bit busy this week. I ended up working all week instead of just the two days I normally work, so I lost a lot of my editing time. I also encountered some problems with my edits and ended up combining a couple chapters together, which is way more difficult than it sounds.
    Currently, I'm picking through the remains of a chapter where I moved the main scene to the beginning of the book, and now I'm trying to fill in space. Editing is hard. 
    Anyway, despite the challenges I faced, I did manage to get 8 chapters edited during the month of August! What a huge accomplishment! I know, there's still a lot left (16 chapters to be exact), but I have 29 days to finish and I've already edited one chapter so far this month. Here's what I'm hoping to accomplish-

Last Disneyland Trip of the Summer

    Summer is officially over for us, but we did get one final day to enjoy it. That's right, one last Disneyland trip. Our third wedding anniversary was last week, so we used that as our excuse.

    I know I've talked before about how much I love Disney and how it helps with my creativity and writing. Believing in the impossible is fun, but actually experiencing it is indescribable. 

Making Progress!

    Well, the good news is that my new schedule has been working! I have been able to check off my editing goals for Powerful daily so far, which is really exciting. You can see my word count progress on the side! 

    It's really exciting to be able to give friends and family an official date to expect my finished product by. It makes me giddy, and it's really motivating me to continue to get work done.

    In that spirit, I'm not going to do a long post today. I just wanted to stop in and let you know that I'm still going strong, and making progress. In addition to my edits on Powerful, I've been able to put in some work on my query letter draft. I'm hoping to have that finalized pretty soon. 

    The biggest issue is that every place you submit has different requirements, so you can't really send out a single form letter everywhere. Pay close attention to what the publishers/agents are looking for and make sure you are giving them everything they want! 

    In other news, Husband of Mine started to teach me how to use Photoshop and Illustrator to help me with marketing myself as a writer. What do you think? Yes, that's my actual signature!

    ~Allie