So, the super, big, incredible, holy-gods-never-thought-it-would-happen news……

I’m a gonna have a baby!

I won’t go into the long of it, but the short version is, i and hubby and most were under the impression this was a near-impossible to impossible thing to accomplish, made more so simply because it just kept not happening. So, after many years, and many hiccups, surprise for me and my family, i get to be a mommy come this July! Whoo!

Unfortunately, the fun part of this is we STILL have not moved, and well, we really want to before kiddo arrives. So, we’re twiddling our thumbs while i ride out the weirdness of pregnancy, and hope that things will lay out for the best.

What this means for writing:

Whelp, i’ve been down quite a bit because growing a human is hard, BUT I’ve managed a lot of quality over quantity, and have actually finished large portions of WW:U3, to the point where i’m only four scenes(one chapter, three branches) away from starting NEW chapters, which honestly I haven’t done in like, two years. And if we can manage to move and find a house with a nice mother in law suite for my mom, i’ll have a much more structured home-life and extra hands to watch kiddo while a work. (and a shorter, less stressful commute and less stressful money situation would overall add to writing harmony.) Tazu Saga 3 is still with my publisher over at Red Adept, and because they’ve gotten so much bigger over the years the wait times are simply longer to get into editing at then publication. Luckily, i’ve got 85k written for the Tazu Saga 4 already done, and i’m just waiting for what the editors want to do to #3 before finishing it. So, basically as soon as content edit is done there, i’ve got maybe 20-40k words to do and then #4 will get submitted.

Until then, i’m working while i can, doing what i can on WW:U3. here’s the overall update since May last year (updates in bold):

01 Precognition Class (done; 1,975 wc)

02 Decide plan for helping Illyan– A or B (done; 6,290 wc)

03 Surprise Party (done; 36,616 wc )

04 Recruit help for plan; Confront Jun (100% Complete; 27,020 wc)

04 Recruit Person A (100% done; 20,747 wc );  Recruit Person B ( 100% done; 21,057 wc);  Recruit Person C (100% complete; 36,250 wc);  Recruit Person D (100% complete; 30186 wc);

05 Next Step Plan A (100% Complete 16,947 wc);

05 Next Step Plan B_intro (100% Complete 1087 wc) Next Step Plan B_path1 (100% Complete 22,344 wc) Next Step Plan B_path2 (100% Complete 24,192 wc) Next Step Plan B_path3 (100% Complete 9498 wc) Next Step Plan B_end (100% Complete 1115 wc)

(to give an idea, the original wc for this one section– one branch on a two pronged chapter with 3 distinct options– was only 30K in word count in May. i finished it this week for a total of 58,236k words. This was super complicated and took me most of the time i’ve been working just to untangle it.)

06 Classroom Adventure Bio (60% done 15905 wc) 06 Bio-cut class with Umbrave (1% done 32 wc); Bio-cut class with Kess (25% done 675 wc)

07 Activity Class (plan B clue) (10% done; 658 wc)

08 Second Step Plan A (10% done; 1,509 wc); Second Step Plan B (10% done; 1000 wc)

Hopefully, the latter half *should* look something like this:

09 Telepathy Class; Energy Manipulation Class

10 Third Step Plan A; Plan B

11 Prank Sem (50% done 5,986 wc)

12 Fourth Step Plan A; Plan B

13 Semryu Past Life Regression (60% done; 27816 wc)

14 Climaxes Plan A; Plan B

15 Epilogues (Climax fall out, academics and romances)

As you can see, i’ve mostly been untangling messes in the Chapter 5 plan B half of the two-plan plot-line. It’s a pivotal section, that, i’m not going to lie, has been the source of much angst over the past few years, but now that is finally sorted, i can move forward with the confidence that i won’t have a major plot hole issue if the reader doesn’t choose certain choices. I honestly can’t even talk about the amount of dead words that were deleted and rewritten in that one section, it was nightmarish, and im glad it’s done. it’s a relief it’s done.

And now i get to work on further chapters, finally. 🙂

Wish me luck in all things, and keep and eye out for strange updates!

~J. Leigh