A Summer Author Update: Where I've Been and What I'm Working On

Hello, friends! It has been a minute.

Things have been a little quieter around here lately, but I promise I haven’t disappeared. I’ve just been busy. Like, really busy.

This summer has been one of those seasons where approximately twelve different things are competing for the same three available hours in the day. Between running my editing business, working on my own book, and navigating summer with two kids at home, something had to give.

Unfortunately, that something was mostly marketing.

My blog schedule? Abandoned.

My social media consistency? We don’t know her.

My carefully planned content calendar? Somewhere in a ditch.

But now the kids are heading back to school, my schedule is beginning to settle into something resembling a routine again, and I finally feel like I can come up for air. So I thought it was time for a proper update.

Here’s where I’ve been, what’s happening with The Stormbound Heir, and what you can expect from me as we head into fall.

First: Where Have I Been?

The short answer? Editing other people’s books.

My freelance editing business has kept me incredibly busy over the past few months, which is a wonderful problem to have. I love getting to work with other writers and help them strengthen their stories! There’s something incredibly satisfying about digging into a manuscript and helping an author make it shine.

It also requires a lot of creative brainpower.

And this summer, I’ve had several weeks where I’ve spent my available work hours immersed in someone else’s book, closed the manuscript at the end of the day, and discovered that my own creative brain had basically hung an OUT OF OFFICE sign on the door. Combine that with summer break and normal family life, and there hasn’t been a whole lot of extra bandwidth left over.

For a while, I felt guilty about that.

I had all these plans for the year. I wanted to write, edit, publish, market, run my business, be present with my family, exercise, read, keep my house from being condemned by the health department…

You know. A perfectly reasonable list.

Eventually, I had to accept that some seasons simply have different priorities. This summer, my editing business needed more of me. My kids needed more of me. And my own writing had to move a little more slowly. It wasn't the plan, but I’m learning that plans and reality are often casual acquaintances at best.

So… What Happened to The Stormbound Heir?

Now for the question I’m most excited to answer.

The Stormbound Heir is still very much alive! In fact, it has been occupying a frankly unreasonable amount of real estate in my brain.

Earlier this year, I finished the first draft faster than I had ever drafted a novel before. I was thrilled. I had momentum! I had a plan! I was going to draft the entire duology plus a companion novella before going back to revise anything! It was going to be brilliant.

And then I realized Book One needed significantly more work than I originally thought. Whoops.

I talked about this earlier in the year after attending StoryCon, where several craft workshops helped me see some of the weaknesses in the draft much more clearly. uddenly, problems I had vaguely sensed while drafting snapped into focus. And once you see the structural problems, you cannot unsee the structural problems. Trust me. I've tried.

So instead of immediately moving on to the second book, I made the decision to stay with The Stormbound Heir and give it the attention it deserves.

The Developmental Edit Continues

For the past several months, I’ve been deep in developmental editing. And when I say developmental editing, I do not mean changing a few scenes, tightening some dialogue, and moving Chapter Twelve to Chapter Thirteen.

I mean taking the story apart. Character motivations. Backstory. Worldbuilding. Magic. Stakes. Relationships. Lore. The history behind the central conflict. Why characters make the choices they make. What they believe at the beginning versus what they need to understand by the end.

Basically, I have spent months standing over my manuscript with a metaphorical wrench asking, Okay, but why does THIS exist?

As chaotic as that sounds, it has also been incredibly exciting. The story is becoming so much richer than the version I originally drafted. Some ideas that were barely sketched into the first draft have become foundational pieces of the story. Other things I thought were important have disappeared completely.

That is the weird magic of revision!

And Now I'm About to Rewrite the Whole Thing

Yep. The whole book. Send snacks!

I’m finally reaching the point where I’ve done enough planning, restructuring, and problem-solving that I’m ready to return to the manuscript itself. Except I don't think I'm going to revise the existing draft scene by scene.

I'm going to rewrite it, beginning to end.

There are simply too many things that have changed for me to patch the old version together and hope nobody notices the duct tape. The bones of the story are still there. The heart of the story that made me fall in love with it in the first place is still beating, but now I know these characters and this world in a way I didn't when I started the first draft. So I'm taking everything I've learned and beginning again.

It's simultaneously thrilling and mildly horrifying. On one hand, I am about to rewrite an entire novel I already wrote this year. On the other hand, I get to rewrite it knowing what I'm doing this time.

Or, you know. Knowing more of what I'm doing. Let's not get carried away.

My hope is that this rewrite will allow me to finally tie up the loose ends in the plot, strengthen the character arcs, and make sure the foundation of the duology is solid before I move forward. Because I've learned something important through this process: I don't want to rush into Book Two just because that's what my calendar says I'm supposed to do.

I want Book One to work. Then I can build on it.

I have become weirdly good at setting my own plans on fire this year!

What You Can Expect From Me This Fall

I'm excited to start showing up here more consistently again. That means more blog posts about writing, creativity, books, and the behind-the-scenes reality of author life. I'm planning to return to social media more regularly, too, so I can connect with readers again!

And, of course, there will be plenty of The Stormbound Heir. Writing updates. Character teases. Rainlands snippets. Probably a disproportionate amount of Zeph content, because I know my audience.

As the rewrite progresses and the book starts settling into its final shape, I'll be able to share more. For now, I'm still keeping some things close. This story has already transformed dramatically once, and I'm sure it has a few more surprises waiting for me.

But I'm excited. Really excited.

Even after all the rewrites and restructuring and moments of staring blankly at my notes wondering why I ever decided writing books was a reasonable career choice, I still love this story. Maybe more than I did when I started it. And that feels like a very good sign!

A New Season

Summer was full. Messy. Busy. Productive in ways that weren't always visible from the outside.

But I'm ready for a shift into school-day routines and quiet writing hours. I'm ready to open a blank document and start telling Nova and Zeph's story again—this time with a much clearer idea of the story I'm actually trying to tell. Mostly, I'm ready to make writing a bigger part of my life again.

So if you've stuck around through my quieter summer: thank you. Thank you for reading my books, following along with my updates, cheering for my characters, and patiently waiting while I figure out exactly what comes next.

There is a lot happening behind the scenes. And this fall, I finally get to start sharing more of it.

Here's to rewrites, fresh routines, questionable amounts of caffeine, and stories worth taking the long way around for.

Let's do this!