Yeah, I just placed my story to On Hold status for now. I haven't worked on it in over a year and a half, and I need to revisit the concept and work around that damn catch 22 in the story I've never really been able to work out. It has been a wild year and a half though.

I am very thankful for Sara and Maria for helping me through the initial processes of my story. I don't think I would have published the story and kept writing without them constantly pushing me to do so.

The story is on hold, eventually I'm going to just edit the chapters directly instead of taking the story down completely. It will mean you'll probably have to reread the entire thing when I'm done, but we'll see what happens.

I have a plan to work around certain aspects of the plot that's been putting my entire story to a dead halt. It involves a rubber mallet and very loud music. My boyfriend would hate being in the same room when this happens.

Oh yeah, bf! Yeah that happened - almost five months and we're acting like an old married couple already. Hell, we're so damn co-dependent I officially miss him while he's across the country spending Thanksgiving with his college buddy. Also, I have officially banished the bed in my house and deemed it as absolute crap... even if my bf has the exact bed from IKEA in his apartment. (his mattress is waaaaay firmer) I've taken a constant hobby of cuddling, something that he enjoys, so it works out. However, I have definitely done some weight gain because of my inactivity, which means guess who's back on a diet???

Reading through my old chapters, it seems like I had a very polished writing style - one I probably wouldn't repeat. There's a constant nagging feeling I got when reading through that there's like a neat, overly-polished writing, as if I took a little too much time fixing grammar (which Sara and I in fact did)... and honestly it's nice to read, but it's kind of sterile at the same time. I probably have a bit more dialog, internal or conversational, but it will be more casual to see if I can get potential readers to be able to connect with the character faster.

Aghhhh soooooo much to fix...

Anyways, I hope everyone's having a wonderful Thanksgiving today. I have work on Black Friday, so I'm really not looking forward to it. Seriously, only in America would we spend one day to be thankful for what we have, only to line up like drones and stomp all over each other the very next day to get whatever they can grab their hands on. Irony, folks, include it in your writing (subtle or not).

Turkey or not, think of those in your life who have influenced your life that you want to be thankful for, big or small. Spend a moment to thank them in person, or at the very least, poke them on facebook or something. Let them know they matter - you have no idea how many people spend Thanksgivings alone - and that thank you can make their day. :-)

~Jay