Writing Question of the Month:

I have the feeling that there are as many different answers to this question as there are authors and novels, but I will tell you how (approximately) long it took me to write my latest novel, Sea Glass Memories (Seahaven Sunrise Book 2).

I sat down at my trusty laptop on November 1, 2022 and put the finishing touches on Draft #6 of Sea Glass Memories on March 23, 2023. That is approximately five months. For most of those five months, I sat myself at my writing desk 1-2 hours a day, 3 - 4 times a week. When I was in Maine on retreat, those hours increased by a lot.

Those five months included a very rough first draft, then many hours of reading and revising, taking sections out, adding things in that I felt were missing . . . for a total of six drafts.

Keep in mind that my timeline from November 2022 through end of March 2023 doesn't include all the hours in 2022 where Sea Glass Memories was spinning around in the back of my mind as I dreamed up names for characters and devised plot points and situations for each of them, before I even sat down to write Chapter 1.

Nor does it include the six months of pre-launch work that went into getting Sea Glass Memories onto bookshelves. Those months also included working with a copy editor, a book cover designer, and a book layout designer, as well as forming and putting into place a simple marketing plan to help spread the uplifting message of the book far and wide.

Even though Sea Glass Memories came together fairly quickly, that isn't always the case! It took me almost six years to finish Dragonflies at Night: More Than a Love Story. And about eighteen months to complete Feathers in the Sand (Seahaven Sunrise #1). Keep in mind, too, that I have a full-time job over at KaleidoSoul, so I am not able to focus 100% of my time on my fiction writing!

 🏆 April Give-Away Winners 🏆

a paperback copy of Every Soul a Star, by Wendy Mass.

Linda K. from California

Linda S. from Pennsylvania

To enter, just fill out the short form here

and I'll do a random drawing

I will send you an email notice that you've won,

(NOTE: I use the random generator at random.org to choose the winners

Two years ago, Elena Jeffries lost both loves of her life in Boston. Now she is starting over in beautiful Seahaven, located on the idyllic Maine coast and conveniently close to the home of her brother Carlos.

Leaving Boston is difficult, but Elena—a dedicated high school English teacher—finds sanctuary in a lovely renovated apartment building owned by the mystical Kit Gilmore, a longtime and beloved Seahaven resident, who has also known devastating loss.

Determined to keep her head down and focus solely on her classes, Elena finds herself distracted by an invitation to direct the senior class play—Our Town—with Jonathan, a popular history teacher. Along the way, she forges friendships with Kit, her new neighbors, and members of a local grief support group.

Her illusions of happily-ever-after were shattered in Boston, but a fleeting romance with a high-spirited, talented young actor offers her another distraction and something else entirely—a glimpse of her former self and a flicker of hope that indicates happiness may be on the horizon again.

Grief, she learns from Aunt Kit, is like a piece of sea glass, its sharp edges smoothed by time but never completely erased. As Elena learns to embrace her whole self—from deep sorrow to increasing joy—she slowly finds the courage to make amends with someone from her past while opening the door to a new love who has been right down the hall all along.

Greetings! Thanks for reading my author newsletter! This is me with my big brother, Joe 'round about 1961. One of my favorite summertime memories growing up is of that old red sandbox in our back yard!

In between newsletters, I'll be posting more often on Instagram, my blog, and/or my Facebook Author page, so please be sure to visit me there too.

Also, don't forget to enter our June fiction give-away, Close Enough to Touch.