With school being out for the summer, and everything that goes with it, I've been struggling to find blocks of uninterrupted time over the past month to focus on my writing. While I love writing, it's still a hobby. Real obligations always take priority when there is a conflict. Also, I have a vacation planned in July that will keep me from writing anything for several weeks. My editor, Nick, will be unavailable for a significant amount of time over the next two months as well. It only makes sense to slow things down for a few months.
So, instead of forcing out chapters that likely would be filled with errors, I've decided to put posting any new chapters of Melissa's Secrets on hiatus until September. I'll continue writing as my time allows and get back to a regular posting schedule then.
The story is reaching a number of critical points. Based on the Prologue, at a minimum sometime over the upcoming two weeks of the story, Melissa will be talked into becoming a cheerleader again by Ms. Stanton, Jennifer will become a cheerleader as well, Tammy will have her back-to-school party, and Jennifer will steal Melissa's boyfriend. Also, I can tell you that the big secret will be uncovered by Melissa and one other person. Who is that other person though? Sarah? Jamie? They're logical candidates since the secret affects all of them, but who knows? Maybe someone else?
In the meantime, I plan to do some blogging about some things that have appeared in prior chapters. I also plan to post some things related to questions I've gotten through feedback. Hopefully most readers will gain a better understanding of some of the various characters. There are a lot of clues to many things within what I've written so far. Some are very easy to overlook. I rarely put anything into a chapter that doesn't support a storyline occurring in the current chapter ... or future chapters.
The feedback I've gotten regarding the chapter titles has been very interesting. A few of you have come very close to figuring out what the titles foreshadow. However, few have even attempted to guess at "Chapter 54 - Cheap Sunglasses" means. I'll admit that there was nothing really to go on to guess anything about that one. It's a very obscure reference. But surprisingly one person's guess was in the ballpark. To be fair, here is a little more to go with - the "cheap sunglasses" belong to Melissa, and she is having a great time riding in a car wearing them.
Of course, "Chapter 51 - The Other Box of Books - Sunday, August 6" foretells of something very important being discovered, especially with only a few more weeks left in the story for Book 1. The guesses have been pretty good about Melissa finding something in this "other box of books", but just who's other box of books is it referring to?
Here is another chapter title for your consideration - Chapter 55 - The Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Girls - Thursday, August 10
Have a wonderful weekend!
Pookie
6/22/13