Greetings, friends! Life is too busy for much blogging, but I'm hoping to be active again over here soon. For now: here is a little follow-up on Christine Smith's blogging tag and linkup. I'm talking about my novels, Trucker and The King's Daughter. If you'd like more info on those, part one of the tag can be found here. Without further ado: the questions!

1. How’s the writing going overall?

Haha I think I  have made zero progress since my last post. Maybe a little more than that. But very little writing has been done, mostly because life has been SO insane. More details on that to come, but for now, suffice to say: there will be more writing this year. I WILL finish these books by the end of the year. That is all.

2. What’s been the most fun aspect of writing this novel so far?

For Trucker: getting to explore the settings of the brutal, rugged PNW and delve so deep into the way that this particular setting affects all of the characters. I don't use a lot of setting to drive story--it's not usually one of my strong suits, but I have really, really enjoyed this one. 

For The King's Daughter: I'm really loving the way that my characters are adapting with my own experiences. For instance, one of my villains in the OG was a terrible person...and that was it. With this draft, he's become a much more developed person. He's still evil, but there's a lot more nuance to him, which will also help make my actual Big Bad more evil (since he isn't nuanced at all. Lol).

3. What do you think of your characters at this point? Who’s your favorite to write about?

Trucker: They confuse me. They confuse me so much. I can't figure them out and I'm desperately trying to understand, but they're surprising me daily and I don't know what to DO with them.

The King's Daughter: They're my old babies and I love them dearly. I have been with these characters, in some cases, since I was 8 years old, and I'm obsessed with them. However, they still wish to end my life at all times. The mixed bag effect is real.

4. Has your novel surprised you in any way?

It's been shocking to realize that my novel is better when I actually let the characters do their own thing. I used to want to control them way more, but now they just kind of make decisions, and that's how I've made progress lately. It's been strange but very fun.

5. Have you come across any problem areas?

Everything? Haha. I don't even know at this point. I tend to feel heavily like I'm messing the book up when I don't know what's going on, and letting things come full circle is difficult difficult lemon difficult. I am a control freak--can you tell? You can't tell, right?

6. What’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?

Progress. All progress is good progress at this point. I'm also actually seeing chemistry between my male and female leads in Pentegreens at this point, which is Good and Important considering everyone has shipped them for decades but they've never felt, to me, like they had much chemistry.

7. If you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? Would you take any different actions than they have?

In Trucker, I think I'd be Donna. She's the love interest's older sister, and I think I'd do exactly what she does: sit in my house, eat food, wrap up in lots of blankets, and turn the volume up in my earbuds while everyone else is screaming and causing explosions. She really had it right.

In Pentegreens: I'd probably just end up being Elensha, at this point. She's a side villain. I would have left my situationship and probably been way happier than she ends up.

8. Give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

Trucker: 

There is one rule for living out here: if you can’t handle it, you’re not in the right place.

Ash crunched under Tyler’s feet as he leapt down from the truck cab. His leather jacket made him look three times bulkier than his actual bodyweight, and that was a good thing at Barb’s mid-mountain gas line.

Kicking pieces of asphalt out of his way, Tyler entered the building. There was no bell over the door anymore, though he could remember the days when Barb’s had a bell tinkling when everyone entered and chocolate at the counter for every child.

He wasn’t a child anymore. This was real life.

9. Share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far! (For example: Have you made any hilarious typos? Derailed from your outline? Killed off a character? Changed projects entirely? Anything you want to share!)

I mean...in Pentegreens, I have 100% let one of my villains try to kill my protagonist in a way that would never have been acceptable in my older drafts. Things are messy and violent over on that side of things and I'm also FINALLY letting Kariana use the occasional bad word. Not too many, mind you, but occasionally. 

10. Take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like. Where do you write? What time of day? Alone or with others? Is a lot of coffee (or some other drink) consumed? Do you light candles? Play music? Get distracted by social media (*cough, cough*)? Tell all!

All I can say for right now is that I am very much looking forward to getting into a normal writing day routine in the near future!

That's it for the book! If you'd like to share what you're writing in the comments, I'd LOVE to know. Chat with me down below about things you might want to know about the book! I'm looking forward to sharing more once I have actual thoughts!