Inspiration

Good afternoon, everybody!

I'm sitting in the guest room of my brother's house in Fort Myers. I'm house-sitting while he and his wife go to San Francisco and China.

I turned 19 about a week ago - a week ago Saturday to be exact.

I spent the week leading up to my birthday in Okeechobee with my parents.

The day before my birthday, Momma and I went back to the apartment in Stuart. That night I got a tattoo - my first and probably my only. I got the Chinese symbols for "Mother, Daughter" on the top of my foot. I couldn't think of anything better to get than an homage to my Momma.

For my birthday, Momma made my favorite, Football Casserole, which is what we call ham and broccoli casserole around here. It was the only thing I asked for and it was delicious. Momma left right after she finished her plate.

David and Cassie, my brother and his wife, got there and surprised me with three great shirts and a cupcake-shaped cake. We enjoyed a couple more plates of Football Casserole as we watched home movies and made fun of my mohawk and David's mullet. After that we walked the mall for a while and then went to see Jackass 3D. I was the only one that didn't cover my eyes or gag, which gives me a strange self-satisfaction.

The next day, I left with David and Cassie and we made the three hour voyage to Fort Myers. On the way to the house, however, they had to stop at Bass Pro Shop to look at the Christmas ornaments and to force the newly-nineteen-year-old to get her picture taken with Santa. Yep, Santa Claus.

He was a very nice man, Santa, and he didn't smell anything like booze or cigarettes. :-D

They redeemed themselves when they bought a box of fudge - peanut butter, rocky road, maple walnut, butterfinger... my mouth is watering.

We finally got to the house, exhausted and craving fudge. Before we could enjoy the fudge though, Cassie and put up the Christmas tree - hence the picture - since I never put one up before. It was awesome and yes, it's still up.

GLORY FADES, book 1 of the Galoria Hunter Series, is on the cusp of being published. They're mailing out the book proof soon and as soon as we get that done with... I'll officially be non-self-published.

It's been a crazy experience, this whole publishing thing. From the text block revisions and the cover revisions and the press release choices... my brain still can't fathom that it's actually happening.

I have been going back and forth from working with the publishing of GLORY FADES to writing WILLING DESTRUCTION, book 3. I haven't even begun to edit NEPHILIM, book 2, and I should start working on that.

Editing is probably my least favorite part of the process. I especially don't like having to reformat the entire document to fit the publisher's standards. It's a necessity and I understand that, but it's still tedious and annoying.

Nowadays, I make a cup of coffee, go out onto the screened-in porch, put on my new glasses - found out I am far-sighted while I was in Okeechobee - and just write. WILLING DESTRUCTION is coming along really well. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the books' timeline is months behind time right now. GLORY FADES begins in August of '09, I think. NEPHILIM begins in January of this year and WILLING DESTRUCTION starts off in June.

It being November, Mrs. Hunter has kept busy, even though her life right now is not on the written page yet. Well, in a way she is though. She keeps everyone up-to-date on her blog, much more than I do obviously. She keeps you all so up-to-date that she may have spoiled a lot of the future for you guys.

That might be another reason I'm more motivated and I'm having such an easy time writing WILLING DESTRUCTION. Sarah's life has changed so drastically even though I haven't written anything down about it. Her inspiration and motivation has shifted to something and someone entirely new. The one person she depended on the most has disappointed her so immensely that she almost had to start from scratch.

I'm just writing and trying to keep up with her. She's not human though and she's very fast.

That gives me an idea. Since I neglect this blog so badly, maybe I should use Sarah and my inspirations as posts. I'll post a picture of the inspiration for a character and I'll give you guys a little profile of that character. You guys can ask questions about them, too.

I like this idea. :-)