Friday Check-In

Everyone's been talking about the RWA conference taking place in New York next week and since I won't be going I am feeling a little bummed as I read about all the mounting excitement. I am OK in not being there but it's still a bummer to know that so many of my friends will all be together in one place, making it a lot easier and more likely that I'd be able to see them and get the chance to visit. One of the amazing things in being a member of RWA is that you get to meet and make friends from across the country and around the world, and sometimes the only time you get to see them is once a summer at the national conference.

But even though I am disappointed to be missing out this year, I have lots of other really good things going on that I am excited about . . . things I wouldn't be able to do if I were in New York for the conference so the best thing I can do is make the most of the other opportunities to have come my way. That's how life works, right? Doors closing and windows opening and all that metaphorical stuff.

I am still working on the pieces to the newer of the new book ideas and, slow as molasses, things are taking their time. The more I think about this book though, the more excited I get about the possibilities. I just want to make sure I think big enough because it would soooooo stink to craft a story that didn't give this really great idea the wings it needs to fly. That's one of my worries -- that I am finally hatching some high concept ideas but the story and the writing won't do the idea justice. I know I can't think that way; that I just have to do . . . not overthink. It can still be tough though, when you are so eager to do better and be smarter than you were in the book before.

I keep turning to my YA role models -- Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, Susane Colasanti, Elizabeth Scott, and Kieran Scott -- for inspiration. They are doing it the way I want to do it and I figure if I keep reading their books, following their posts on blogs and Twitter, and Facebook, and watching and learning (in a healthy, non-stalkerish way), I will increase my chances of following in their footsteps. And, of course, working on and writing my own stories and writing and writing and writing some more.

Now back to work!

xoxo,

bex