Kathleen E Adams

Wow, I have not written a post on this site for a long time. But a lot has happened, but also, not much has happened with SIREN RISING.

After my last post in April, I finished a complete draft of my book. It was not polished or perfect. It was most definitely rough. But I took a step back and felt a little uncertain about some things and knew I wanted to make other changes, but I just wasn’t sure what direction to take. So, I decided to get a little help.

My friends and family had read my draft, but I wanted an objective, semiprofesional review just to get a sense of what I wanted to work on before trying to get a manuscript ready to send to agents.

I found a freelance editor on Reedsy to review what I had. So, I had about a month of hiatus where I was waiting for her feedback. When I got the annotated manuscript back, I was already on summer break and visiting family in Spain.

After Spain, I went to see my family in Atlanta and finally got back to my manuscript. My mother and sister are my biggest supporters and make up my stellar writing team. They helped me sort through the feedback, brainstorm, and outline.

At the end, I decided to just start writing fresh from the start, chapter by chapter. Doing so, I got four chapters written, reviewed, and edited to a final version. Chapter 5 is still a work in progress.

I’ve not been great at writing since the summer ended. I’m a high school English teacher and the start of this school year was particularly challenging. And I feel like I’ve been really sick a lot this year.

Additionally, I’ve struggled a lot with imposter syndrome and feeling a bit defeated of whether or not I will ever actually finish this trilogy. I also went through a bit of a revamping revision process this summer that led to a complete fresh start. Which I think was good and needed but definitely put me behind. I’m essentially starting my book over and I’m on chapter 5.

It’s not all bad. I’ve had lots of travels and adventures and fun things going on as well that have taken up my time for writing.