Thursdays are the first day off in the week for me. I have a part-time job where I work 12 hours spread out across, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This week has kicked my booty. I’ve had a headache every day this week, work has been worky, and people have been too peopley. And despite my best-laid plans today I have no energy or willpower to do anything other than veg out. But I can’t just veg out. So I’ll do the low-energy jobs that have to happen.
Amongst those low-energy jobs is desk work. I’ll sort papers and trash the junk mail, attempt to make my desk and work table look tidy. Maybe fold the baskets of clean clothes, I can sit with a movie on and do that. And the various other things that require low energy. But for now, I’ll type a list of debut novel-related information.
The Mask of Emmeline Jones
- The book is one of three. I’ve talked in some of my watch-me-work videos that this was a NaNoWriMo piece from 2016. It was the first year that I completed this challenge, after two failed attempts in 2013 and 2014. The story arc was three separate sections so when I decided to do this, to self-publish this story I knew I should break it down into three books in a series versus one giant novel. That way I could take each section and really give it all the details I wanted it to have and take it further. I feel like this has happened very well in the first book. The readers will be the judge.
- Why did I do NaNoWriMo? I always loved the NaNoWriMo challenge because my ADHD-rattled brain needed the competition to make me focus. Completing the 50 thousand words just made me feel amazing. The challenge, for those who don’t know, is to write 50K words in 30 days–forcing me to set time aside and write. Without the goal, the challenge of it is that it’s really hard for me to just say okay. I’m prioritizing my writing today. That’s why I always try to attempt the Nano challenge.
- Since the book is broken into three parts, there will be three titles. I have chosen:
- The Mask of Emmeline Jones
- The Education of Emmeline Jones
- The Redemption of Emmeline Jones
- The current word count of the Mask, is 30, 504 words. Comparatively, that same section of the original nano draft was 21,110. So I feel like I have added a lot to the original section.
- Every chapter has been turned in to my editor. And I am very proud of myself for that. The use of the library dates has really helped me complete that. It turns out Newton’s Laws of Motion are correct:
“An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.” (Via Nasa) Once I started the motion of going and moving forward the path has been forward moving. - My husband keeps asking what is next. And I keep being very vague with my answer. Because once we are done editing. I’m publishing– Which is the hardest part for me. Sharing these characters I’ve created, this idea I’ve created is terrifying. I have this world very close to my chest and the idea of showing my hand is overwhelming. I have a pretty decent idea of the formatting and have a rough mock-up ready. I have the cover art mocked up as well. I just have to get to the final draft. Then it’s go time and that’s the finish line and it’s close. And as much as I want to cross it, what happens after is what scares me.
Obviously, I want the book to do well, sell hundreds of copies, and have praise and adoration for what I created. But the reality is I have no idea how it will be received–it could be hated. It could be rejected. It could be called trash or worse. And that scares me. I’m going to do this regardless of the fear. But yeah.
Okay, that’s enough on this list.
Thanks for following on with the journey.
MM Hurley 
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