I didn’t think it would take me this long to make my little announcement but life got complicated… 

On April 30, I completed the first draft of my first full length novel!  I struggled for nearly a month with the last chapter (it’s a little emotional) but I finally got most of the words I really wanted down on the page and called it DONE.  Yeah, I cried a little, both because of the final scene and because ~ OMG! ~ I’d just written a 64,000+ word book!!

That night, The Husband and I celebrated with dinner and a shared chocolate and caramel sundae at Woody’s Diner.  Immediate gratification was required.  But what I really wanted to do was a quick day trip to Balboa Island, near Newport Beach (CA).   Which we finally got to do yesterday.

Balboa Island is the epicenter of my Living at the Beach dreams.  It’s actually three islands connected by bridges (one island is private).  The outer rim of the two main islands comprise a 2.5 mile walk past unique beach houses and views of the harbor and boats of all kinds.  We realized that we haven’t been there since the pandemic lockdown!  We used to go quite a lot when we lived a little closer, but never during the summer.  Too many of the houses are rentals and the crowds get crazy!  It was awesome to walk around today, though, even with the May Gray, a day-long haze.

Here are some pics!

From the island, you can take the Balboa Island ferry to the peninsula and walk through the Fun Zone to the Balboa Pier and watch the ocean waves.  I could stand on the pier for hours, just watching the waves break and listening to the crash and shush of the water rushing up the sand and back again.  Even the busloads of high school seniors couldn’t harsh my calm today.

So, now that I’ve finished the draft of my mystery novel, I’m editing the Christmas romance novella I finished last year.  I think writing was a lot easier than editing is turning out to be…  I’m definitely on a learning curve here!  Once I get these two big projects edited and feel like they’re ready to publish, next up is learning the self-publishing game.  Every time I start to get stressed out about all these new things I have to navigate, I remember this:

Hope everybody’s having a good day and giving yourselves rewards for doing the hard things! 

Even if the ocean breeze makes your hair frizz!  (It was totally worth it ~ LOL!)