Jill here. I hope you are all having an amazing summer. I am. Even though it’s a very busy summer. Learning is always fun for me, and I am greatly enjoying my master’s degree program. I finished my first two classes already and am two weeks into my second set of courses. I have a literature class this time around (hooray!), and one of our assignments was to write out my literary journey. So basically, the story of how I came to learn to read, write, and speak.

Aww yeah. That was my kind of assignment.

I didn’t remember way back then, though, so I had to ask my mom, who told me that I first wrote my name when I was two-and-a-half, but that it was mostly straight lines, so it wasn’t as hard as some names. (My mom’s name is Marlene.) Mom also told me that I learned to read in kindergarten, and that when I brought home my first reader (she thinks it was a Dick and Jane book) I was so very proud. She said I read it over and over to my sister Beth. I found these pictures of me and Beth and just had to share because #adorable. Plus, look at us reading books on the left! I just love that so much!

Fast-forward to age nine when we moved to the land my dad bought in Alaska. I was already a reader, so that was good, because no electricity meant that I did a lot of reading and exercising my imagination. No wonder I’m a writer! (That is a real picture of me on my tenth birthday! I remember feeling very pretty that day.)

So that’s my school update. When I’m not in school, I’ve been hard at work on the Kickstarter project. All the books arrived at my house (21 packages!), and I spent almost a week sorting them into sets, then numbering them and signing the autographed copies. A few of the books were damaged, so I had to talk to the printers and get replacement books ordered. I should be able to start shipping these out on Thursday! So. Excited.

One of my publishers (Enclave) has created an ebook “boxed set” of my Blood of Kings trilogy, which they put at a special low price of $4.99 for a limited time. If you’ve never read this series and always wanted to, now is a great time to grab all three books at a deal. Here is the link to the set on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2LDZerM

And now the question you’ve all been waiting for. Jill? Have you finished your book yet?

Ahh… no. And it’s been driving me crazy!

I want to finish it so very badly.

:-/

But I did take a proactive approach these past few days. I printed out several pages of my book surgery form and paged through the whole book, writing down all the scenes in each chapter, one chapter to a box, until I’d made it through the whole book. This is my attempt to edit the King’s War way. (See this post for details on this type of drastic book surgery.) I also made a character list as I scrolled through, because I kept forgetting the names of minor characters and I couldn’t remember what scene they were in, so I’d invent them a new name. Then they had two names. And, seriously. Nobody has time for that!

Now I can look at the book at a glance. I can think about what’s broken without having to have my laptop open and be “in the zone.” I’m hoping this will allow me to make some plans for the places that are broken, some plans for rearranging and cutting and what needs to change. I realize this isn’t a lot of progress, but with grad school, it’s all I’ve managed to do. Ideally, I’d like to be able to make all the plans I need to make so that when these two classes end and I get my three week break before the fall semester starts, I’ll be able to make a stab at finishing.

We shall see.

So that’s where I am. How are you all doing? How is your summer? How is your writing? How is the chasing of your dreams and goals? Share in the comments. I want to hear from you.

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms, and the author of several young adult fantasy novels including the Blood of Kings trilogy. She loves teaching about writing. She blogs at goteenwriters.com and also posts writing videos on her YouTube channel and on Instagram. Jill is a Whovian, a Photoshop addict, and a recovering fashion design assistant. She grew up in Alaska without running water or electricity and now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two kids. Find Jill online at jillwilliamson.com or on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.