When I launched this blog, I smugly and rashly declared I had “written a novel,” which is funny. In my defense, I didn’t realize it was. Turns out there was more to do, who could have predicted! Well, maybe every friend who’s written a book and was too kind to laugh at my hubris. And the ones who weren’t, come to think of it.

I’ve been revising and expanding and world-building, though that last sounds a bit ambitious for the various scribbles and Post-Its my version of the process involves. It’s been interesting and frustrating work. Seriously, it is not my intention to keep sounding so crashingly naive, but I have to make the whole thing up! Myself! My favorite moment when getting feedback from a new reader is when the person asks me, “What’s going to happen with the nose-eating squirrel army?” and I’m like, I don’t know! I wish someone would tell me! It really annoys me that I have to figure it out myself. So time-consuming!

It’s a pretty good story, I think. I just wish someone else would do the writing so I could read it. Yes that is every bit as bratty as it sounds! Wow I’m using a lot of exclamation points today!

Blanche McCrary Boyd always said putting an exclamation point at the end of a sentence is like telling the reader, “(You should have been there).” I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the upshot. I’m going to give myself the benefit of the doubt here and assume I’m using so many !!! because I wish to draw you, my reader, close and re-establish our bond and stuff. What.