Sunday Recap: Apparently, It Was a Productive Week

This week has been… interesting.

Honestly, while I was living it, I didn’t feel like I was getting much accomplished. Theater continues to steal me away from my books two or three days a week, there was school stuff happening, Thursday was an emotionally rough day, and somehow we reached Sunday again before I was ready for it.

But then I actually sat down and started thinking about everything that happened this week.

Apparently, I got a lot more done than I thought.

Theater Continues to Take Over My Life

Absolutely no one should be surprised by this anymore. 😂

We’re officially into rehearsals for The Little Mermaid Jr., which means I’m spending two or three days a week at the theater right now. And while that definitely cuts into my writing and editing time, I can’t complain too much because the kids are already sounding AMAZING.

There’s always something really cool about the beginning of a new show. We’ve gone from auditions and callbacks to actually starting to put everything together, and little by little, you can see the show beginning to take shape.

We still have plenty of work ahead of us, but hearing some of these songs coming together already has me really excited to see what these kids do with this show.

And apparently this is just my life now.

Books and theater.

Theater and books.

Occasionally I sleep. 😂

Somehow, There Are 500 of You Here

Earlier this week, my Facebook page officially hit 500 followers!

I know there are accounts out there with hundreds of thousands—or millions—of followers, so 500 might not sound like a huge number to everyone.

But it is to me.

That’s 500 people who, for some reason, have decided they want to stick around for my books, writing updates, reading posts, theater chaos, wrestling, music, random opinions, inspirational posts, and whatever else happens to find its way onto my page.

I’ve been trying really hard lately to make my social media feel less like one giant advertisement for my books and more like an actual place where you can get to know the person behind them. I still want to tell you about my books—obviously. I wrote the things. I REALLY want you to read them. 😂

But there’s a lot more to my life than writing, and I’ve been having fun sharing more of that too.

So to all 500+ of you who are there now: thank you.

Every follow, comment, share, review, and random conversation means more than you probably realize.

Time Heals Has Had Some MASSIVE Work

Now for the book news because, despite everything else happening, I actually managed to get quite a bit done.

I’ve officially finished my most recent round of edits on Time Heals!

That means I’ve moved into proofreading, and I’m getting closer and closer to having the newly rewritten edition ready to go.

My goal is to have it available sometime in September.

Going back through the entire Self Inflicted trilogy has been a much bigger project than I originally anticipated. I started with Self Inflicted, moved into Scars Fade, and now I’m working my way through Time Heals. I’ve spent months revisiting these characters, rewriting scenes, fixing things that didn’t work anymore, and occasionally wondering what Past Morgan was thinking.

But I’m so happy I did it.

These are still the same stories. They’re still the same characters. They’re still dealing with the same struggles, relationships, mistakes, and moments that made me write the books in the first place.

They’re just stronger versions of those stories now.

And Time Heals is almost there.

Oh… And Time Heals Has a New Cover

I’ve been sitting on this one, and I’m finally almost allowed to show you. 😂

Time Heals has a brand-new cover!

And next week is going to be a pretty big Time Heals week around here.

Monday: New cover reveal
Wednesday: New/updated description reveal
Thursday: Book-specific trope graphic

I’ve also created a trope graphic for the entire Self Inflicted trilogy, and I can’t wait to share that one too.

It’s really cool seeing all three books together now that they’ve been given new life. Self Inflicted and Scars Fade are already out there in their rewritten forms, and once Time Heals joins them, this massive project I’ve been working on all summer will finally be complete.

Then maybe I’ll actually go work on my fantasy books again.

Maybe. 😂

Thursday Was Hard

Not everything about this week was exciting.

Thursday was August 20.

It’s been 28 years since we lost Chad.

I’ve written quite a bit about him lately, especially because rewriting Summer Love Autumn Goodbye forced me to revisit parts of that time in my life that I hadn’t really sat with in a long time.

Chad wasn’t simply a character I created for a book. He was a very real person in my life. He was my first love, and losing him changed me in ways I couldn’t possibly have understood at the time.

Twenty-eight years is a long time.

And somehow, August 20 is still hard.

I don’t think that’s ever going to change.

So Thursday was a day for remembering him, allowing myself to feel whatever I needed to feel, and accepting that grief doesn’t particularly care how much time has passed.

And Then Came Another Milestone

Friday was freshman orientation for Asher.

Which is absolutely ridiculous because I’m pretty sure they were little approximately five minutes ago.

Tomorrow, they officially start high school.

But apparently simply starting freshman year wasn’t enough because they’re also going to be taking college classes while they’re in high school.

I’m incredibly excited to see what this next chapter looks like for them. It’s going to mean new routines, new people, new expectations, and a whole lot of changes all at once.

I’m sure tomorrow is going to bring plenty of feelings for everyone involved.

And I’m also sure I’m going to spend at least part of the day wondering how the hell my youngest is already in high school.

Ending the Week With Pride

Yesterday, after rehearsal—because of course there was theater first—I took Xane and Asher to our local Pride festival.

We’ve attended every year since the event started, and they ask to go back every year.

It was a great afternoon, and one of my favorite parts was seeing how many of my theater kids were there. It felt like every time I turned around, I spotted another familiar face.

I’m not personally part of the LGBTQ+ community, but supporting it is incredibly important to me. I’ll continue showing up, supporting the people I love, and making sure the people in my life know they deserve to be exactly who they are.

And yesterday was a pretty great way to end an already very full week.

Apparently, It WAS a Productive Week

That’s the funny thing about productivity.

Sometimes we measure it by how many chapters we wrote or how many things we crossed off a list.

And if I measured this week only by writing?

It probably wouldn’t look particularly impressive.

But I helped with rehearsals.

I watched our kids start bringing The Little Mermaid Jr. to life.

I hit 500 followers.

I finished another round of edits on Time Heals.

I started proofreading.

I prepared an entire week of reveals.

I made it through a difficult anniversary.

I watched my youngest walk into freshman orientation.

I spent an afternoon at Pride with two of my kids.

That’s a pretty full week.

Maybe productivity doesn’t always look the way we expect it to.

Sometimes it’s writing four chapters in a week.

Sometimes it’s editing ten.

And sometimes it’s showing up for the people and things that matter to you while squeezing in whatever else you can around them.

This week was definitely the last one.

And looking back?

I’d say it was pretty damn productive after all.

Now tomorrow starts another week—and apparently we’re kicking this one off with high school, college classes, theater, proofreading, and a cover reveal.

What could possibly go wrong? 😂

See you tomorrow for the new Time Heals cover. 🖤

#YouAreNotAlone