Updated layout and a little about my first ever book :)

I really just wanted to write a blog post to show off my updated layout. ;) Isn't it perty? I don't remember where I got this picture from or I'd give credit. I love NYC and saved this photo a year ago, almost to the day. Since I decided to use the falling leaves graphic, I thought it was perfect.

To update on my writing, since I finished my 45454th edit of A SCARRED MIND (slight exaggeration), I've been working on editing the sequel. It has been going well but I've lost my focus the past few days. I'm close to the end but can't seem to get to the end. So rather than force it, I pulled up the rewrite of my first ever book. I've been working on the rewrite since 2010. This is based on the first novel I ever wrote, back in 1990 at the tender New Kids crazy age of fifteen. What's changed, really? I'm considerably older now (you do the math) and I'm still New Kids crazy. Ha. :) But the years often seem to melt away and not seem as long ago as it was. I've often thought it would be cah-razy if that first book was ever published. The story means so much to me. In this age of YA, it may be my work most likely to "make it." I really hoped/prayed/thought A SCARRED MIND would be the one to be published and I still hope so. By the way, here's my pitch for ASM:

Jake has always had a way of knowing things but now that he’s foreseen the vicious murder of a stranger, he has to step out of his comfort zone and actually tell someone. Stung by years of ridicule and crystal ball jokes, he fears going to the police. He convinces two detectives to check it out, but as his visions become more frequent and intense, he learns the stranger isn’t the only one in danger.

Since it's still a work in progress, I haven't come up with a pitch for the redux of my first book, lovingly always known as "The Witches Book." This book became a series that I wrote throughout my high school and college years. Six books, each around a thousand handwritten notebook pages (wow), basically chronicling my life from age fifteen to twenty-two. So much fun to write. My BFF and twin sister were my biggest fans and hounded me to write this book daily. In fact, near the end of our high school years, in the days before our graduation, the school held a slide show of our class and in front of the entire school, they flashed a photo of Angi, Abby and I reading my book outside the library, where we often met in the morning before classes. We never even knew someone took a picture. ;) Good times. I think I was writing Part Four at that time.

The basic plot is brothers Matt and Zach move to rural North Carolina from the big city and find that their new town seems to be run by a strange cult. Jay, the guy who lives across the road from their house, witnessed a ritualistic killing and draws them into a world far more dangerous than the city life they've just escaped. The guys and a group of girls (me and my friends, of course) band together to try to stop the cult from making their next human sacrifice, which is scheduled to happen within days, if Jay's calculations are correct. This first book set up a seemingly unending war between the gang of good guys and the bad guys, who I dubbed "the witches" because I didn't know any better when I was fifteen. ;) This story is very close to my heart. The decision to rewrite the first book came in 2010 when I moved and couldn't find the original handwritten pages of that book. Recently, my BFF Angi found it at her house THANK GOD! I hated to think I had lost those pages. I'm sure the writing is wonderful :/ but still, it was my first book and despite the bad writing, will always be special.

So I guess I've rambled on long enough. Back to reading and possibly finishing the rewrite of this very special book. :) Happy Veteran's Day, by the way! Remember to thank a veteran and honor those who died so that we could remain free.