Maria Linn

[No one]: I wonder if Maria will ever make a new blog post.

[me]: I’m so glad you asked!

[Literally everyone in the universe]:

[me]: I can feel your anticipation and enthusiasm. It’s electric!

[Literally everyone in the universe]:

[me]: For today is the day I shall post to this poor, neglected blog!

Friends, a lot has gone down since I’ve Pressed any Words here. A lot.

This is what I’ve been up to, mostly: sequestered in my hermit cabin of revision, drinking lots of hot, caffeinated beverages and staring into the void.

In non-metaphorical terms, that means I: scrambled to write to The End on my second MG novel, made it by the Pitch Wars deadline and submitted, and found out I got in!!!!

I made this aesthetic for my manuscript, THE SPIRIT OF THE SEA MYSTIC, awhile back. It had a different title back then, the characters mostly had different names, and I brought one of them back from the dead, and between early November and today, I’ve rewritten every single sentence. But, amazingly, this aesthetic still captures my book pretty well. It’s a beachy, ghosty kind of story.

The past three months have been a whirlwind, a rollercoaster, tears and madness, rainbows and sunshine and baby goats in PJs. I’ve burned through many notebooks, ink pens, post-it notes, bags of Cheetos, and mini M&Ms. On Friday, I was panicking, not sure I’d get done by my deadline.

But thanks to my amazing mentors, Rajani LaRocca and Remy Lai, I think…we did it! All of a sudden, it’s actually finished! I feel the same way I did one time when my yoga teacher made me try to do a forearm handstand and I succeeded: shocked, proud, dizzy, and slightly sore. I fully expect to have a massive crick in my neck tomorrow morning.

Speaking of my mentors, who were Pitch Wars mentees in 2017 and are total rockstars in every sense of the word, here’s a picture of their novels, PIE IN THE SKY and MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM. They’re both wonderful reads, sweet and funny, full of heart and truth, and both of these books are winning all kinds of awards as well as all kinds of fans of every age. And rightly so. You should buy them right now, like I did for my lovely mother, as you can see below.

Remy’s second MG novel is available for pre-order and Rajani’s will be soon! Do yourself a solid and get in on that pre-order list.

And now, it’s time for me to collapse into a pile of non-writerly laziness for a minute. But only a minute. Because an idea for my next WIP is nagging at the edges of my brain and is not going to be ignored for much longer.