Update on Instruments of Sacrifice (Kind of. It's more of a ramble than anything else.)

I'm at a weird place right now in my "what the heck do I do with those three fantasy books I published but have now unpublished?"

Some of it is more along the lines of publishing but there's also a part of me that wants to scrap the six years of work I did on Spirit Followers and start all over again. (Like...rewrite Spirit Followers but in the context of events that follow it in Keepers of the Crown and Time Passers.) There's just a lot of...mess with my first book because, well, it was my first book and I wrote it between the ages of 13 and 16. I am very proud of what Spirit Followers is just because a 13 to 16 year old wrote it. It is a version of me that I am proud of but not like anymore. 

There's way too much tell and not enough show in my book. It's difficult to connect with Cam. I connect to her so much better in the sequel. The climax is just downright disappointing lol. The first major reveal is like in chapter 4? There's hardly any foreshadowing and things come out of nowhere.  The major character death is emotionless. ANYWAY I KIND OF WANT TO PULL MY HAIR OUT?? I wouldn't be a writer if I didn't, so I don't feel that bad. I love Cam and I am excited to revisit this first part of her story and either rewrite or edit the heck out of it. I'm proud of what Spirit Followers is, but she needs a glow up. 

My struggle with going back to Spirit Followers is that I get tired of it. I feel like rushing to finish it again because I've SPENT SO MUCH TIME IN THE STORY. Like I wrote and rewrote and edited and reedited for like...six years I think??? That's such a long time. I think a bit of an overhaul will help me to find motivation rewrite it at a pace that works for me and for the story and produce a story that is...decently well written. 

As for publishing, I either want to start querying Time Passers to agents or write all 6 books (I have 2 more left to draft) and try self publishing again. I think I want to query Time Passers while writing the last two books in the series that way I don't have to chose one or the other. I think I just need to finish writing and make an entire beginning to end story that I'm proud of and then figure out how to give it to all of you. If you want to read the story before it's publishing again in however many years, I'll probably want beta readers (and I'll be willing to pay a few.) AHHH. Anyway, thanks for reading. I miss Cam a lot, so that's why I'm finally getting back into this. She misses you all as well. (She told me so.) 

Thank you for reading. 

Much love, 

Lydia