As some of you may have noticed, I took a little min-hiatus that ended up longer than I had hoped. There’s been a lot of changes in this writer’s house, all good. I’ve made a shift in my “day job” that should allow me more time for writing. I’ve also spent a very exhausting nine months growing another geek child. He now allows my husband and I to sleep more or less. As our new sense of routine is getting under control, I’m putting my focus back on my writing.

Death by Dragon was a big learning experience for me. Not just in getting the draft written using a new writing method, but in sorting out how critique groups and such work. I do feel like I have a better sense of how to make the process go more efficiently the second time around, that alone is a victory.

It’s easy to feel like an underdog in writing. Getting a book published is no easy feat, and I have never heard of a legitimate “shortcut” that makes it easier for anyone. Some might argue that many a celebrity lands a fiction book deal. Quite a fuss is made when this happens. What I don’t think a lot of people realize is that those books are ghostwritten. The celebrity comes up with characters and an idea and a writer puts them all together, but the celebrity’s name goes on the cover. The truth is that it takes a lot of time and work, and you often have to be your first and biggest fan.

Luckily for me, I love do love me some underdogs, in fiction and outside it too. Just last night I got to experience watching Veronica Mars on the big screen. Not only is it a story about the girl detective who was an underdog, but the whole process it took to get that canceled TV show onto the big screen was an epic tale of the underdog claiming victory. I can’t help but to find that just a little inspirational, and no, it’s not because the movie soundtrack playing in the background that’s causing med to say that.