Okay, okay. It’s been half a year, and I haven’t posted a thing. Sorry about that.

But I have some pretty cool news to share.

I. Wrote. A. Book.

Yep, that’s right. I wrote an honest to goodness novel. It’s not published — YET, but it has been an amazing adventure.

In February, I discovered the book No Plot? No Problem: A low-stress, high-velocity guide to writing a novel in 30 days. It’s by Chris Baty, who founded the concept of National Novel Writing Month. The basic idea is to spend a month — which he recommends defining quite literally — writing a 50,000-word first draft of a novel. I figured “I’m actually good at writing on deadline, so why not!”

Well, I ordered the book and it arrived on February 6, so — if I followed the rules — I would have waited until March 1 to start my draft.

I ignored that and over the next 30 days I wrote a book. And you know what? I really liked it.

I liked the writing and the finished product. I know the draft needs some work, and I have been toying with revisions in my head, but there’s some really good stuff in there.

So, why am I telling you this now? Because I have gotten discouraged (or maybe just tired!!) and have pondered the “If at first you don’t succeed, erase all evidence that you tried” path of moving forward. And I really don’t want to do that.

I want people to read my book someday. I want them to get to know and love Kelley as much as I do. And I know I have some work ahead of me to make that happen and I need encouragement for the journey.

I will appreciate any kind words or suggestions you have to offer. In the meantime, I’m going to pull out the draft and start my next round of revisions.