My Desk: New Novel Quotes and Updates

Are you ready to hear the latest about the two novels sitting on my desk? I’ll share my writing update and a few quotes. Enjoy!

Out of the Ashes had spent November and December with my critique team. I wish I could give you a release date to circle on your calendars but that’s not possible right now. Just keep praying and we’ll keep working. I’m in the middle of a phase where the manuscript spends time in the hands of others which frees me up to work elsewhere or grab a little break of my own.
Now that Ashes has been approved by my team, it has several rounds of clean up to endure. We call this Line Editing. It’s where gifted people read over the manuscript and study each line, poking and prodding it, questioning every comma and word on the page.

Since Ashes is the third of a series, how about I share with you THREE (pre-proofed) quotes from the novel? Enjoy!

The major theme of the novel is finding healing in Christ, so naturally bitterness also becomes a reoccurring theme for the characters. Here’s a couple of my personal favorites on bitterness:

“Bitterness becomes a prison and forgiveness is the only key. By the grace of God, you can release yourself from your homemade prison walls if you’ll only use the key set before you.” – Brother Mark

“Focusing on what you once had isn’t going to make the plants grow. It’ll only grow bitterness.” – Frank

This one was a favorite among my critique team:

“Out of fear, I call him Mr. Williams, and out of resentment he calls me nothing at all.” – Melissa

If you’re already a fan of the series, you might be interested to know that Ralph’s birthday is coming up and I’m searching for the perfect cranberry cake for him. I’m extending the contest one more week. You can catch all the details on how to submit your recipe and enter to win one of the cake recipe books up for grabs by following the link. 

If Only it were Yesterday:

I spent most of November adding to the first draft. The word count is currently up to 30,950. According to my mental outline, I’m about 45% through. After working with Ashes for so long, it still seems odd to look at such small numbers and to celebrate those small 10,000 word markers. But it’s also exciting to see it grow and to watch the characters and their story evolve.
I’m having fun. I never would have imagined that a break from my Maple Grove cast would have been needed but the Lord knew what He was about when He led me to start a new series. It’s been refreshing, not that I’m tired of my old friends. 😉 But it’s refreshing nonetheless.

And since If Only it were Yesterday is the first book of its series, I’ll leave you with only one quote from the new novel in progress.

“Don’t make the mistake of comparing a great reality with a flimsy fairytale.” – Betty Tanner