It's been a long time — shouldn't have left you

Oh it has been far too long!  So long that as I came back to write this blog, Aaliyah and Timberland's "Try Again" popped into my head almost instantly.  So sorry for leaving all you beauties for so long — especially without a dope beat to step to (press play on the video if that sounds like crazy talk to you).

So much has gone on in this short little time I was away.  I have so very many things to blog about:

The debut of my aunt, mentor and friend, Carolyn Abraham's, book The Juggler's Children.

I started teaching yoga.  Yes!  Actually teaching.  If you remember this post from way back when I could barely give a breath instruction in public, you will be as astonished as I am.

I also went to NYC! I saw the musical version of one of my all time favourite movies — The Newsies!! And I hung out with my dear mother and aunt and it was, well, just a dream.

Other HUGE news is that the love of my life, Toomas 4Everest Peters, is gearing up for the first release on his brand spanking new digital record label, Such Music!  That's right!  Can't wait to debut the website on my blog and let you know more about this amazing venture I'm also a part of.

And lastly, I'm getting back to do some revisions on Book One of my novel.  I'm plan on doing read throughs and notes in the next two weeks.  Then it will be on to Hawaii!!

I will definitely be blogging about all these things and more to come.

But for now, I just wanted to say hello.  Send you love (so, so much of it) and gratitude for just being your awesome self.

It's another beautiful day in LA, folks. The future is bright.  The present, oh the present, is perfect as it is.

I did it! And with time to spare?

So this is the bottle of champagne my insanely amazing husband popped last night (and beside it a gift my insanely amazing husband bought me one time when I was sad).  Why the champagne?

 Around 11:30 PST on April 1, I finished a novel.  What?  No, this isn't an April Fool's joke.  I actually finished a novel, from start to finish, in three months!

This is a huge accomplishment for me.  I've written two novels before this one.  The first (which will never see the light of day) took me a year to write.  The second, (Book 1 in the series I'm now writing) took about 10 months to write the first draft.  And then I spent another five years (yes you read that right) rewriting that first draft.

Okay, so I had a full time-job then and I lived close to my large family and decent sized group of friends, which meant the distractions were endless and the time was more limited, but still.

THREE MONTHS!?!?  Honestly I didn't think I was capable of doing it.  Now through the ROW80 writing challenge I participated in, from January to the end of March, I realize with just hitting a smallish word count goal per day I can do a lot more much quicker!

I also have to say, in my last week of writing away, coffee was a big help.  I never drink coffee.  It usually makes me crazy.  But I sacrificed the crazies (well, I didn't actually go crazy this time) to help fuel some serious speed writing, especially near the end.

Is the book good?  No, it's probably terrible.  There are holes, and weird plot things going on and some overall bad prose.  But it's a first draft.  And what's my new motto for a first draft?

Get it written.  Then get it right!  (I read that recently in this book).

And there you have it.

Now I am officially taking a bit of a break, which also means a bit of a break from blogging.

During this break I plan to just feel the joy and gratitude of making it to this accomplishment, because despite the worry that I'm wasting my life on something that may never become what I hope it will be, I'm grateful I get to try.

And to all of you out there — most of whom I know personally and perhaps a few that I don't — thank you for your support.  Thank you for your love.  And thank you for helping me hold on to this dream of mine, regardless of how many years go by.

Great big love to you all xx