I realize that guessing your blog’s password three times is a good indicator of blog neglect. I feel terrible that things have gotten so busy that I’ve had to drop updating this blog. I used to love coming here like my weekly therapy session to vent/celebrate my latest writing/publishing adventures. The support I found from other authors and readers on here truly helped me grow and I thank you all for that.
Life just sped up for me this last year. The kiddos are growing and changing almost everyday and I have to keep evolving with them in order to keep the balance of nature in our house. Yet, the thing that consumes most of my free time is a huge project we took on last Christmas that had always been a dream. It has proven to be a much bigger project than I could ever have imagined. We decided to purchase a lovely old gingerbread Victorian on the Jersey shore that needed to be restored to its former glory (I’ve been watching way too many Nicole Curtis-Rehab Addict episodes…it’s all her fault).
At first, we thought that we could purchase it and hold off on the major work for a year or two, but that was before we found knob and tube wiring 😦 Then everything had to be opened up and we found other delightful problems of course. Fast forward almost a year and not much has progressed due to many different issues I won’t go into now. But here’s a peek of what it pretty much looks like throughout the house:

Just like getting my books out, it is a labor of love that I take very seriously and devote most of my time to researching and planning. I’m obsessed with trying to bring this house back to 1890’s even if it means finding 1890’s salvage from Ebay and Craigslist to make it that way. I spent the last year going down for day trips—a two hour drive each way—with my infant in tow, measuring and planning what needs to be done. Not to mention finding a whole antique tin ceiling, 1920’s gas stove, old barn siding, hand-hewn beams and old plumbing fixtures to the delight of my contractor. It has truly been an adventure of a whole other kind with funny stories, treasure hunts, trial and error, and lessons learned. Halfway through all of this, I decided I needed to document everything for a different type of home improvement book, that will illustrate the changes, but will be told in a storytelling way. To combine two great passions of mine will be exciting. I strive to put books out that I would love to read and I can’t get enough of home improvement shows/books, focusing on restoring old homes and giving DIY tips along the way.
Even though the house restoration is taking up a huge part of my life right now (especially since we keep getting thrown curve balls that call for creative fixes), I have managed to carve out an hour of writing/researching a day. And I am so happy to announce that I’ve finished writing the second life of Infinite Faith. That might not sound like a lot, but at nearly 100,000 words it could easily be a novel on its own and the first life of this book clocks in around 75,000 words. This is still only a first draft and I’ll need to do the proper beta reads and revisions on it, but it’s progress and I know my loyal fans have been patiently waiting for this next installment so it might help them wait a little longer for the last life of the book to be written. I’m already cracking open my research books for this next glimpse of history and hopefully the house project issues will die down as things start to fall into place and I can get more writing time this winter.
So, please forgive me for all of my neglect and delays. I still love writing my series and promise to keep sculpting it. Can I give an exact time that it will be released? Not yet. I never expected this last life to be so long, but my stories sometimes take me in unexpected directions. This next life will most likely take me on a similar journey. I can only promise that I won’t put this fourth installment out until it is everything I’ve dreamed it to be. Thank you all for being so patient and supportive (and sending good vibes to my little gingerbread house is also greatly appreciated).
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