craftingmom

I know how that feels...

Thank you 😊. You all have been more than patient with me. I appreciate it.

😨 *ducks the pitchforks* I am sooooooo terribly sorry to still have not finished this story. Not to offer any excuses, but I think the reason I've been so bad about it lately is that I'd slowly fallen into a state of depression over the last half of the year without realizing what was happening until recently, mostly because of health issues. But I've been working on making some significant changes over the last three weeks, and I'm starting to feel a lot better. I promise, Cachondeo, that I will finish it. My daughter just told me that if I can get on her about her homework, she gets to get on me about writing again! Thank you all so much for your concern and inquiries about where the next chapter is. I need to do a little re-reading just to get back into groove of Ripped again.

Hehe, maybe just Christmas! No, seriously, thanks for the nudging; it does help motivate me. I admit to being a little lazy lately. (At the moment I'm watching the NNL (National Ninja League) qualifiers for the 13-17 age group on Facebook Live. My daughter Taylor is up to compete soon!) UPDATE: YAY! She Placed FIRST!!

😊 you're welcome! Happy birthday!

Congrats!!!

--Declan— They sat for a while cooling down and resting before they tackled the last of the yard chores. As he hefted a bag of mulch with ease, Declan couldn't help but flex his muscles a little more as Bailey watched him. The bags were more cumbersome for Bailey only because his arms were smaller and the bags were bulky. They plopped them down around the flower bed before grabbing a hoe and rake to help spread the mulch. Afterwards, Bailey grabbed the hose to water the flowerbed whi

Thank you Litlover for such a wonderful review!!!! (And thanks Tim for pointing it out.... I missed the posting yesterday because I was at Kings Dominion, and pretty exhausted afterwards!). Kayden is still one of my favorites as well!!!

Oh, hell, if that were the case, I'd be serving a life sentence!

Parker was sooo helpful in working out all the scenes with the administration and helping to make them so much more real. I've relied greatly on his knowledge of the workings of private schools. I was a public school teacher for several years, but there are some major differences with a residential private school.

My oldest daughter and I read the first few books together, but then she took off reading them on her own. I did read at least two of the Egyptian books too, while we were waiting for more of the Percy Jackson books to come out. ( This was a few years ago of course). I grew up studying mythology and minored in it in college. Then I somehow passed that love on to Katelyn. She still gravitates to myth based books along with other fantasy...

--Bailey— Bailey sagged against the bathroom door as soon as he'd closed it. He could hear Micah and Logan laughing and talking from behind the closed door on the other side of the bathroom. He shook his head at Declan's suitemates, a tiny grin lifting the corners of his mouth. They had given Declan a hard time, but Bailey could tell they were good friends. At least his body had recovered from waking this morning secured in Declan's arms, even if his mind hadn't. That feeling of being

We saw it last Friday, and my daughters loved it. The youngest loves Blue and was excited to get a picture with him at Universal this week. (the oldest was more into Harry Potter world).

Hehe! Good timing! I actually just sent the next chapter to Parker and Caz to edit!

Thanks everyone for reading and the comments! I can't guarantee a story for Eddie yet, so I won't make any promises. I'm desperately trying to finish Ripped, then have thoughts on the third Neko installment. I'd also like to finish The Line shorts in the anthologies (hopefully for the fall one).

Well, of course there's always the possibility that some readers will have a harder time reading it than others. And while I often get brutally real, I also always try to lead my characters to a happy ending where they can at least begin healing. Most of my characters are still healing well after the end of the story. I try to be blunt with the fact that a story contains some kind of abuse, and I think by now readers understand how much hardship and pain many of my characters go though, and hopefully trust me to bring them out on the other side. I guess while my readers have to trust me to some extent to give them hope, I also have to trust that my readers will know what they can handle and choose not to read a story that's too much for them. I know some won't read my stories until they are completely posted for similar reasons, and I totally get that. I know my stories are tough to read and are definitelynot for everyone. That being said, there was a tiny moment when I debated letting Wyatt succumb, and then focusing on the aftermath for Bryan. But as much as I put my characters through, I have a very hard time killing them off. I've only done it once or twice, and those were in my early, young adult work.

Actually, I have the weird schedule. I head upstairs "to bed" at like 8-9, but then watch TV, read, etc. And when he comes up to bed at 11ish, that's when I (at least used to) get up to go write. For some reason, I write best in the middle of the night around midnight to 3am, which he knows, so he PLAYFULLY shoves at me to go write. It's a bit of a joke in our house because he keeps 'advocating' for my readers to make me write. I sleep until about 11am if I'm up that late as do daycare for my nephew who I pick up at 2:00 in Charlestown, WVA and bring back to my house until his dad can pick him up. So yeah, I'm the odd one with the 'night job' so to speak. (plus, for some reason, I think I sleep best from 7-11 am--maybe because I do have the bed to myself ).

Thanks everyone! keep on nudging! I'm getting there. Next chapter is looking to be much longer (already 3k+). My husband is doing a good bit of shoving me out of bed when he comes up to sleep to go write lately, so I'm making more progress...

😬 I'm sorry! I know I'm guilty of this lately! Ever since my mom was diagnosed with cancer at the end of 2016, my activity on the computer in general has declined significantly, and I'm sorry (I used to spend at least an hour or so on it daily, now I may go days without getting on it). I know I need to be better about responding to comments. I do read them all (usually from my phone, and typing/responding on that tiny thing is not easy). I do try to make sure I "like" each comment, even if it's not right away--often, it's as I'm coming back on to post another chapter (which I know have been few and far between lately). Again, I'm sorry! I'm trying to get back to spending more time checking out the forums and stuff. I do miss it, finding the time to spend enjoying reading everything is another thing.

I know I use speech tags a lot like Carlos said. I know I've read a lot about adding more than just 'he said' is too much, but I can't get away from describing how it was said. If/when I use similes or metaphors, I think it's more unconscious than planned as well. I know I'm bad about describing the setting and often have to go back and add in more of that, usually I try to describe it as part of the characters actions to hopefully make it more interesting.

Thanks for the comments! Just finished the interview questions and sent them to Cia for Monday! (and yes, I'm still working on Ripped--this next chapter is getting rather long)

Hope so!!

--Bailey— Bailey wriggled under the heavy blanket covering him, wanting to burrow even farther into the bed. Morning was trying to make itself known by casting its warm glow across the room, hitting the wall in front of him. Although, strangely, his alarm hadn't gone off. At the moment, he didn't care. For the first time in months, he felt at peace... safe... whole. Maybe he should bury himself in a ton of blankets every night. Then he remembered why he didn't do that.

I know, I've been soooo bad about writing. But I have just sent ch. 24 to be looked over; It's been mostly written for a couple months and I just kept going back and tweaking it. But I've played with it long enough... so you should have the next chapter in a day or so. So sorry this is taking me a long time to finish--- and I'm so close to the end too!

--Bailey— "Woohoo! Go! Go! Go!" Cameron practically yelled in his ear as the Heritage receiver took off down the field. Bailey had no idea who it was. He only remembered that Lachlan was the quarterback, and Declan was number 24. He hadn't had a chance to learn everyone's numbers or what position they played. "Jeez, Cam, you just about broke my ear drum," Luke complained, rubbing his finger in his ear. Bailey chuckled as he yanked a few times at the collar of his shirt, try