Come on, Josh. 50,000 words in 30 days is nothing for you!

I must say, I grew quite fond of Stoker and Lewis; what a sweet, demented friendship they shared. Am I making this up, or did you touch on later that Lewis was the boy who stole Stoker’s marble? (in any case, Lewis’s hang-up with not being perceived as helpless was so cute…the way the video store manager didn’t flinch over the fact that he was in his car made me laugh, among the infinite other instances that I did, but do not have the space here to chronicle!) Guy and Poulsen really endeared themselves to me as well…especially Guy’s affection for his grandmother. I was so happy to see him get his solo.

I was slower to warm to Kylie Jo, but she ultimately won my respect—beware the Antiques Roadshow! And Candy and Aggie…well, let’s just say I wasn’t crying for them at the end (although I did feel more sympathetic of Candy than I’d expected…poor gal just lost sight of her Spinsters).

And I would be remiss not to mention Alger–the Speak-&-Spell voice and epic frog vs. toad history added such a whimsical element to the entire novel. His powers were intriguing, especially when he got boozy There will be more books to this series, correct?

In any case, the status of my current project is as such: I’m finishing up on what I guess is my “first” draft, though it’s difficult to gauge as I’m one of those who constantly backtracks to revise as I go along, making sure earlier chapters are consistent with the new ones being written. I’ve written my last chapter and am three-fourths through an epilogue that is probably too long already, but I’m just running with it for now and will scale back later. And I’m constantly revisiting my last couple chapters because I’m not sure they’re gelling; am not trying to tie up all strings by any means, but for the ones I am, my knots are a little loose.

Speaking of knots, I finished The Knot weeks ago and am so sorry I’ve delayed telling you how much I enjoyed it! As I try to tie together my own loose ends, I was so impressed with the way you were able to ultimately weave all those separate characters and story lines together. I could “see” the people and action the entire way through and just got a royal kick out of all of it. I just have to ask–is there an Allissandra/Crisp in your library? She killed me. Thank you so much for such a good read—it had been quite a while since I’d read a book that I couldn’t wait to pick back up; you have such wit and are a true storyteller.

I’d had nightmares of seeing my character walking down familiar hallways from the setting, and they were all empty. Lit, furnished – but empty. No one walking around. No personal effects. Everything else that gave the story life was gone.

I still want to tell her story, whatever it is. I’d never thought of myself as ‘a writer’ until I found a story that only I could write.

It’s been well over a year since the game ended, and the other night I got out of bed at 1 A.M. and wrote three paragraphs out of the blue. What a strange occurrence.

The process of writing (for my blog) is sometimes really challenging, but I do feel good about the outcome. Why write a book? I know I have something to say.