Things here have been—interesting. I’ve been doing quite a bit of revising on my new middle grade novel, which has been a blast. No. Really. I’ve very much enjoyed doing revisions this time around. I just finished another go at the manuscript and made some pretty good changes. Now I’m waiting for feedback before I’ll attack it again.

So, in the meantime, I’ve been pondering ideas for future books with these same characters—for the just in case. I’ve been jotting down notes and bits of dialogue and whatever else comes to mind. And in the middle of all of this, something strange happened.

On Monday morning—just before 3am—I woke and couldn’t go back to sleep. This happens to me sometimes. Usually I lay there and generate ideas that I can jot down. This time I had these lines running through my head. I couldn’t jot them down. No. That wasn’t good enough. I had to get up, get out of my pajamas, put on clothes and shoes, and run through the pouring rain (yes, it was really pouring) out to my office. Once there, I flipped on my light, booted my computer—and it was agony to wait for it to turn on even though it’s quite fast—open a new document, and start typing.

Once I got down the lines that had been running through my head, I kept going for about an hour—and would have gone longer if I hadn’t had to wake up my oldest daughter for her morning class. It was thrilling and not just because it was new and different. Because while the words and character are new, the concept isn’t. This is a middle grade I first wrote years ago and occasionally pick up now and then to tinker with. After my last tinkering, I had set it aside and figured I was done for good. But how thrilling to know that I’m not. This new character breathes life into this old story like nothing I ever imagined. Perhaps it will actually go somewhere this time—I’m cautiously optimistic.

So as I’m waiting to do another pass at my completely new middle grade manuscript, it’s nice to have this old concept to make new again.

In addition to this new/old writing, I’ve been planning and doing some cool fall/Halloween decorating projects. Maybe I’ll post some pictures when I’m done.

How have things been going for all of you? Can you believe Summer is almost over? What are you doing in your last few weeks before Fall takes over?

Write on!