The Meadow's Journey

Good morning. Someone asked me about the journey of my MS, so here it is.

I had a dream. I know, so trite but true.

Saturday morning I got up and typed all day. When I finished I had a short story on the computer titled, The Meadow. I e-mailed it to a couple of friends for their input and was told it was really good and unique so I decided to finish my character's stories. The back story came very easily. I started writing in two places: the continuation after the meadow and the beginning. I know it is a strange way to write but that is me: strange, actually I'm a little backwards. I honestly think when my mom dropped me on my head as a baby it scrambled my brain a tiny bit...my husband would disagree. He would say it scrambled it a lot.

I let my wonderful piano student, Amanda, have it before I had the two parts connected <----oooh, passive voice, bad Jennifer!! Ha! Anyway, it forced me to write and finish the first part. That was exciting to see the whole thing put together. I got stuck many times. On the way to California, I had an epiphany and figured out an important part of the story. I typed non-stop on that plane. On the way home, I was excited. I got out my wonderful MacBook (I looove my Mac and have withdrawal if I am away from it for too long) and waited for the next part of my story. Ten minutes later - still waiting. Ten minutes later - still waiting. Two screwdrivers later - still waiting. I was frustrated. During those stuck, frustrated times I went back to the beginning and revised. I revised and edited the entire time I was finishing the MS so it wasn't a daunting task once the book was finished.

I wanted to write something with strong characters, life decisions and adventure that my daughter could read but I have language and boy/girl relationships so my genre became Young Adult. After 45,000 words I realized I still had a lot of story to tell so I wrapped up The Meadow at 51,000 words. I am currently working on the sequel tentatively titled: The River.

Guess that's all for now. I have a family to get back to. I will write more about the journey at a later time.