Work in Progress Update - Teen Angst
Greetings friends and readers,
The holidays are ramping up and although I’m busy getting the house ready, I’m also writing like a fiend. The moment Lessons in Love was published, I started working on the sequel. I finished a first draft and had my husband read it. But then he didn’t love the ending. Disappointment ensued. I tried to work with it, but I just wasn’t feeling it. One morning, I woke up thinking maybe I needed to do some writing exercises - just to get the juices flowing. I decided to pick two names out of baby naming book at random and see what I could do with the characters.
Enter Colby and Athena. I started writing and it took off from there. It’s quickly become a story I really love and I have finished the first draft. Will they? Won’t they? I’ve decided that I’m going to put the Lessons in Love sequel on the back burner for a bit and concentrate on Colby and Athena. At the moment, it doesn’t have a title, although I’m thinking “Moved Away.“ It’s around 25k words, which puts it in the novella category, like Lessons in Love. A novella is longer than a short story, but shorter than a novel.
This story takes place in Apple Creek and will feature some of the people you know and love from the town. The story is about two teens who are thrown together, but the story takes an interesting turn. I won’t give anything away, but it deals with some real issues and will not qualify as “clean“ exactly. There are no swear words, no graphic sex, but there is implied sex and a teensy bit more than kissing. I couldn’t write a teen story without discussing some real issues teens face and it’s not always pretty. I like to think my style is both amusing and thought provoking. I don’t write your standard issue romances. I just can’t. I’ve tried. I like to write the tropes, but with a twist. I can’t write cardboard characters. Colby and Athena will face some hard decisions, and I’m hoping you’ll love them as much as I do. I hope you’ll root for them because they’re worth rooting for.
As for the Lessons in Love sequel, I want to do it right. I’m going to beta test the current draft and see if can work out the kinks. If you’re interested in becoming a beta reader, click here and sign up. I will also be beta testing Moved Away as well very soon, so get on there.
We’re just a few weeks away from Christmas and it’s all hands on deck around the Brodie home. Updates will be infrequent, but steady until after the new year. Make sure to follow me on Twitter and Insta.