This August will mark three years that I’ve been blogging. The recent break that I’ve taken from my blogs has been the longest non-posting period for me in all that time. I’m still writing, but I’m writing outside of the blogging forum.

As most know, I decided to continue the story and some of the characters that I began in my short stories that I wrote for the A-Z Blogging Challenge. I enjoyed writing about Annelise so much that I wanted to write more about her life. When my story opens, she’s 17 years old, and she’s still hanging out with her best friend, Zoe.

It’s weird when someone asks me what I’m writing that I have a hard time articulating the concept. I’m almost afraid to tell for fear that I’ll spoil it or lose what I’m writing. I have 31 chapters and 92,438 words so far. The story hasn’t really come to its end so I’m letting it meander where it will. I plan to just go with it and write, write, write and worry about editing and shaping it later. There is a lot that will be edited out and possibly be used in another book some day. I don’t consider any of it a waste of time. It will get used somewhere. Even if it doesn’t, I had the joy of getting it out onto the page.

What began as a story with a teenaged girl as the protagonist has somehow changed along the way. She’s still the main character, but the hero is the character who keeps me writing. How about that picture, huh?  No, he’s not exactly what my hero looks like, but he’s certainly inspirational! Yes, it’s a love story, but it’s obvious pretty early on that he’s in love with her and has been for a while. It’s a young adult type story, but it’s not all that either. It has a ghost in it, but I haven’t really decided where I’m going with that part of the story either.

One of my biggest concerns is that what I’ve got so far isn’t G-rated. There’s swearing and sex, and while I’m not embarrassed about what I’ve written, I worry about how it might be taken by some who are not as open-minded as I am. It remains to be seen what might get edited or softened in the final version. I could always use a penname, I suppose, but I can decide that later, too. It’s not ready for anyone else to read it yet, but I look forward to that day.

I am a member of a writer’s group and they do regular critique sessions. For the recent critique they had they were asking that the writer give up the rights to the written piece so that it could be published in a group anthology. I don’t have that much written work ready yet, and I’m certainly not surrendering any parts of my “baby” and losing my hold over it.

I haven’t felt this alive in quite some time. I love writing. Even if it never goes anywhere at all, it’s been good for my confidence level and good for me. I hope this feeling never ends.