Project Awakening Released!

As book three of Project Awakening releases on Kindle, I can't help but think back to the day I put pen to paper - or should I say, fingers to keyboard - almost exactly one year ago. My goal then was to finish as many chapters as came to me. The long shot of actually writing a full book barely crossed my mind though the idea thrilled me as did the world that would become Project Awakening. 

I always say, when asked, that the story wrote itself. And it's true, for the most part. But the truth is that after the book wrote itself, I almost stopped at the first draft. At almost 140,000 words, the most difficult part of writing this story became editing. It took almost exactly 6 months to write the three books and I didn't begin editing it for another two or three months, dreading the task even as I promised myself I wouldn't put it out into the world as a first draft. So ensconced in my loathing of the editing process, I calculated that it would take me at least 55 hours to edit the entire first draft if I spent minimal effort. That calculation was almost Project Awakening's undoing. Why begin a task that would take more than a month of my free time after work, family life, house chores, etc.? Only a recommendation from a fellow author and a text-to-voice app saved my first draft from staying within the circle of friends and family, never to be read by outside eyes.

Accurate representation of me avoiding editing. 

Most other authors I speak with expound on the dreaded writer's block. Though I hope never to experience this drying-up of the metaphorical creative well, I continue to wonder how any author can enjoy finishing a draft only to turn it over to page one and dive back in to reread and rearrange their hard-fought words. This part of the process reminds me in a way of quilting, another love-hate hobby. 

For those of you not familiar with quilt making (and why would you be? You're not your great aunt after all) making a quilt consists of piecing (sewing) individual blocks together to create the face of the quilt or the top as it's called. This is the most time consuming part, much like writing a draft of a story. It's also the most fun. You get to see your beautiful quilt come together bit by bit until you're looking at the finished top. But the process doesn't stop there. You then have to quilt together the top, the middle (batting), and the back fabric. It's so tedious that most quilters, especially professional ones, outsource this part to full time long-arm quilters with special sewing machines the size of small rooms. I wish it was just as easy to outsource editing a first draft.

Here's me hand-quilting my much-loved sampler quilt. 

Let's just say it took over a year to complete and the last few blocks are less than perfectly sewn. 😂

Currently, I'm recreating a more than 100 year-old quilt my mother's great-grandmother sewed. It's too worn to patch, but I've finally tracked down a fabric that matches the beautiful turn-of-the-century blue-leafed pattern and I've completed the quilt top. Now if I could only get up the creative mojo to quilt the thing together. Maybe I'll find a friend with a long-arm sewing machine and schmooze them into helping...one can only hope!

Now that Project Awakening has been pushed out into the world, I've been asked if there will be more books written in this series. Although I'm sure there will be, I've returned to writing The June Chronicles, an apocalyptic story I began in 2010. I'm hoping to post it on the Beta version of Vella as a serial. 

Cheers to writing! ...and quilting!

SC