Happy, Happy Personal News To Share and 25 Steps for Writers...

It's a beautiful day and I'm trapped in the work pod during an incredibly stressful week, taking a break to mentally wander away for just a moment to blog and share updates, then determined to leave the grind for a few moments in the sun.

I do have the happiest of happy news to share with you all: Tyler and I are expecting a baby boy this January! Which is excitement doubly, triply wrapped in fear and smiles and all kinds of emotions which no blank blog space is able to hold.

The first few months left me in an exhausted, somewhat sickly, fog. The strangeness of new found ailments, aches and pains had me in a whirlwind but as promised by all articles, studies, and advice-giving mothers, last week, I woke up in the 16th week and felt that I had truly woken up, not only to an incredibly messy apartment, but to this life again. Of course, it left me wondering what I might have been saying or emailing or writing over the last few weeks while in my dazed exhaustion but I think it vacillated between deadpan, exclamation-mark-less statements, and absurd, drama-queen, proclamations. Hope I kept things interesting for all family and friends.

So, that's where we're at. Feeling incredibly lucky.

Beyond that, I hope you will all check out this article: 25 Steps to Being A Traditionally Published Author by Delilah S. Dawson. There is something here for writers who are at every point in the process, whether starting out, finishing a novel, finding an agent or getting ready to launch a book. Warning: the article is pretty no-nonsense and there's a lot of necessary tough-love, but it had me laughing so hard. I thought the advice here was hilarious and, above all, spot on.