Once upon a time, a long time ago I had a dream – a desire – an inspiration to write a book about family bonds, adventure, friendship, a luxury yacht, and an evil doer. It didn’t take me long to write the book, but it has take taken me a long time to drag this book back into the light.

I know I haven’t been blogging recently – so consider this an update.

Mediterranean Dreams is just about complete. I have finished my final edit, and I’m currently doing my final read through. There are a few things I’m picking up on, and fixing in the process, but it’s just about there. Soon I will have to write the synopsis and cover letter, and let this manuscript go.

Is it scary? Definitely. I have only ever submitted short fiction before – never anything this ‘big’. Really the process shouldn’t be any different… but for some reason size matters to me this time round. I have a great team of people around me who are supporting me get through this – and I know that without them I probably would have taken forever to get this show on the road.

It’s funny, because I have read hundreds of blogs by different authors who all talk about their journey of the trials and tribulations of their road to publication, and I always thought that I wouldn’t blog about mine. But it’s taken so long to get where I am today due to other life commitments, and really – it’s this really huge thing that looms before me as a writer – just as it was a big thing for all those other authors before me.

I look at the past year, and wonder where it’s gone. I look at the past five years and wonder what on earth I was doing. But I know that I was writing and pumping out books. I just never prepped any of them like I have this one – for publishing.

This year I honestly thought that I would be able to get some serious writing work done while I was at home with Abby as a full time Mum for six months. Never did I expect her to not want to sleep for hours on end during the day. She is an active and engaging child, even when she was a newborn. Therefore I put all my 2012 writing aspirations on hold, without a moment of regret.

Now that I am back at work full time, life has become a journey into time management and coordination. I’m up at five am, Abby is up at six, I’m then on the train for an hour into the city, and writing my little heart out all the way. Then I walk a couple of kilometers to work, and start my day in the office. After work, I walk my way back to the train station, and head home – writing my way there, and once I finally get home at 6.15pm – I’m in the throws of sorting out dinner for us all, bathing, and bedtime. It’s insane. And then the very next day I get up and do it all over again. But I am getting results in terms of my writing. Some how, I can tune myself in and get work done while I’m on my way to and from work. At least it’s progress – even if it has been a bit slower than normal. It’s getting done.

I have also started writing something new. At the moment, I’m keeping it under my hat, but it is one of the ‘Night Series’ books. I can’t wait to get Mediterranean Dreams off my plate so I can turn my full focus to that project. I’m already four thousand words in – and I can’t wait to get to eighty thousand. At the moment it ‘feels’ good – probably because it’s all new and shiny. Good fun!

I’m going to get back into the blogging world just as soon as I can. I know that I have been slack on the blogging front – but I just don’t seem to have enough hours during the day to turn my attention and focus to it. Now that I have finished the major edit etc, I may be able to sort out my blog with a bit more coordination. In the mean time – you will all just have to bear with me.

This year is the first year in many that I am not participating in NaNoWriMo – but I will be cheering people on from the sidelines. Between working full time, Abby, my wifely duties, submitting Mediterranean Dreams, and writing my new book – I just don’t think I can juggle it. Those of you that know me, know that I am a huge and avid supporter of NaNoWriMo. I can’t wait to hear how everyone goes with it. It’s an awesome process, and you really can write a book in 30 days. Everyone knows that a first draft is crap, and usually it needs a thorough cleaning up job done on it – but its brilliant to be able to get down the foundations in 30 days.

And that is the end of my quick update.

For those of you who are unsure about whether to take the NaNoWriMo leap – here is a little image for you: