It Takes A Village... --Eve

To write my YA book, anyway. The wonderful and talented Alexis O'Neil once told me that when someone in this business asks you if you can do something, no matter how impossible, the answer is always YES. When my agent gave me editorial suggestions for the first chapters last week and asked to have them back ASAP, I said, “ABSOLUTELY, YES!!” Now, I've never had a writing deadline before, so I didn't realize that ASAP in normal people terms is waaayyy different than ASAP in writer terms. Are you kidding me? It's been one week since I got her comments. I thought I'd be done with them in a night. HA! HAHAHAHAHA!

I kid you not, I've worked on these NONSTOP for the last seven days, and I'm still not satisfied enough to send them on. My house is a disaster, laundry is strewn about the furniture, my poor dogs are unclean and unfed, I've slept very little (for me) and my hair…let's not even go there! No joke, when I saw Robin yesterday she said, “You wore THAT to work at the high school today?” All I could do was shrug my shoulders and unapologetically tell her that it's the same outfit I've been in for the last several days and I couldn't find the energy to change! What have I turned into? A new, single mother with quintuplets, who can't find the time to brush her teeth? Oh, what's that you say? THIS is what being a real writer is all about?

Funny thing is that every time I think I'm “done” I run it by one of my trusted “editors” here in California, and he or she always points out some glaring problem. Then I sit back down, clack away, and don't move for the next 10 hours! Jay noted that I'm developing a wide, flat, oh-so-attractive “Secretary Butt”. No joke! He said that!

But to be honest, I LOVE IT. (The writing part, not the Secretary Butt) I'm so into this new novel, I sleep, eat, and breathe it. Because this one is a love story, it's easy to get sucked in to this other world and live there for 10-12 hours a day. But I also obsess over making it perfect…after all, I am crafting the new Love Story (Erich Segal) of the millennium!

So, I'd like to publicly thank Jay, Robin, Tina Nichols Coury, Barbara Jean Hicks, Barbara Bietz, Laura Rennert, my sister Amy, and Cynthia Bates for taking time away from their own projects to lend suggestions, and letting me stalk them when I'm stuck. Also, THANK YOU to blog readers Laura, Lisa, Annette, and Amy for the kick-ass title ideas! It really does take a village. Can you guys go write the second half of the book for me now? ASAP! Thanks!

--Eve