Happy May! - A Personal Update

It's been awhile since I've written; almost all of April I had been suffering some rather serious side effects from a new medication a new doctor was having me try -- I've been accidentally off it for a week now and I have never felt better! Granted I have to go back on it today, and I'm not looking forward to it, but they're going to try to get me off as soon as possible. Anyhow, I wanted to write finally because I haven't been quite feeling up to it until now. So on that note, happy May! Though I am a day late to say as much. But I wanted to say it anyways.

In light of these struggles, I have done a lot of personal/self-exploration in regards to who I want to be, who I am, etc.; it's been much easier to focus on that than my suffering, I'll be honest. And something that has made me incredibly happy and has put me at ease, is the idea of changing my first name. I know I've talked about implementing the name "Kay" for myself (a derivative of my middle name), but while I've worked on implementing that into my daily life, it still hasn't felt quite right. During this time I have been consistently working on my new novel Edgewater (a temporary place holder of a title). The name character is nicknamed Brie, which readers immediately learn was a name given to her by her brother and is actually short for Emberly (how she got this nickname from her brother is a story in of itself). I've been trying to figure out her birth name, an exploration that has coincided with my own. I decided to do some searching into the meaning behind a few of my favorite names, and discovered one which is incredibly perfect. After a free "journal write" (me just typing away at my laptop) I think I will actually choose this for myself. Now I know that might sound odd, suddenly just changing my name (again) but I am going to share with you this journal write which has helped me come to such a meaningful and final conclusion:

[click to enlarge]

Speaking of writing, I am currently still searching for an editor for my Shattered Lives novel. I am also still writing my new book which I have taken to simply calling Edgewater as a nickname - though it's only a temporary place holder until I can figure out an actual title, mostly as I am still trying to figure out what it's "main goal" is (what it's truly about). Maybe you as a reader of this blog can help?

Edgewater is a sci-fy novel which focuses on a young woman, Brie, who has lost over a decade's worth of memories. In search for these missing pieces, she must uncover a web of secrets exposing the organization known as "Edgewater" (hence the title place holder), and its founders. Through non-consecutive story telling (the novel jumps around in time, each chapter is titled with the date, time and location to indicate which time period we're in), the readers learn these secrets along side the characters in the book. 

Funny, after writing the above synopsis (in bold), I feel like maybe I've been over thinking the title. Perhaps Edgewater is the perfect name for this novel! And maybe, just as Robert Singer (Supernatural TV show writer) named a character after himself, I can do the same with my own character? After all, she is the apple and I am the tree--I have been writing her in a fictionalized sense of my own self. Maybe then it is only natural that I name her "Sabrina" too....