Well, today I'm busy planning and packing for a short weekend away! It's a holiday weekend here in the good ol' US of A (MLK Day is Monday). Tuesday officially rings in the start of my spring semester and the last one before I get my degree! YAYYY! It's "just" an associate's but I'm very proud of myself. I'll be the first kid in my family to get a degree--and while my mom has a bachelor's in childhood education, my dad doesn't have a degree so I am very excited to walk in a local baseball stadium on a random Tuesday in April (or May? Can't remember) to get that cool piece of paper.

Now for my BOOKS. These past few days (and weeks) have been filled to the brim of editing The Way He Broke Me in preparation to send to my editor on January 25th. It will 100% be ready in time, but I like being entirely consumed by any one task, so I've literally spent all week editing 50+ pages. So far over 2 days of making electronic edits, I've done exactly 88,491 words. After the rest of my to-do list has been completed, I intend on finishing those edits by the end of today.
I've left myself notes (aka barely coherent scribbles on the first page of the printed version) for any additional changes. I have overused words to search for, little character things to add, description to fluff up in some places, and best of all......MORE CHARACTERS!

You might be asking yourself why the heck I would need those if I'm *finishing* the novel. Well, I'm glad you asked. A new environment and setting presents itself in book 3 (otherwise abbreviated as BC; no it doesn't mean Before Christ, though that would be fun, I guess). This setting comes with new characters! I have a few of them already (the most notable 4 that interact with the main narrative/character) but it's a very detailed place that I have yet to do anything but theorize about. Once I hand TWHBM off to my editor, since I can't exactly keep working on this book, I intend on spending some time on that setting and the new characters. Occurring probably simultaneously, my beta readers get it! Quick plug, those sign ups are still open in my Instagram bio.

This new/BC environment gives major Blindspot vibes, if you've ever seen that show. I have some face claims for an assistant, a forensic scientist, a communications liaison, ANOTHER assistant (but a forensic lab one), and a sniper (hehehehe). I still have to find details on a mortician (more hehehehe) and other various scientists and peoples. Moral of the story is that I am *excited*. TWHBM has been one of my favorite writing projects like, of all time, but BC might....it might take the cake. We get top-tier emotional angst and reconciliation, lots of uncertainty and comfort, and--OKAY. I have to stop talking about BC when TWHBM is like, 4 months away. Anyway.

I'm off to finish laundry (sad), do various chores (also sad), then editing (very fun), and then review the brain-dump of an AU that I wrote at 2 in the morning (perhaps the most fun of all). Have lots of fun because I know I will, babes.