I should have expected this, but it's been a long time since I had to sit down and write something from start to finish.  Both Home Decorating for the Real World and Ghost Country were already finished, I just had to do some editing and they were ready.  Writing the new novel has been exhausting!  The ideas wake me up at night and sleep is something long forgotten.

This has been a strange experience to say the least.  Writing has always been therapeutic for me and for the first time in years I feel like I'm getting back to the real me.  I think everyone can relate to that.  You grow up, get married, have kids, and suddenly what you want isn't as important anymore.  It's no one's fault, just other things take the place of the things that were once so important.

Now, years later, I'm picking up where I left off and it is a great feeling.  I'm back to who I'm supposed to be.  I announce proudly that I'm a writer.  I can function on less sleep than I got when my daughter was a baby.  Life has me energized and I look forward to all of the possibilities.

In a moment of "ain't life great", I posted 10 Reasons It's Great to Be An Indie Author at Indie Author Guide.  You can read the post at http://www.IndieAuthorGuide.blogspot.com.

Well, this new writing project is just full of surprises.  The latest?  Apparently I don't need sleep anymore.  What is up with that?

Now I have always been a person that required at least ten hours of sleep a night.  It didn't matter when or how I got it, but I had to have ten hours of sleep.  That was really difficult during the diaper and bottle feeding days, but that was just the way it was.  I needed my sleep and that was that.

Since starting my new novel, I've noticed that I need less and less sleep.  I may only sleep four hours, or today only two.  I wake up energized and ready to go, ideas spinning so fast in my head that I can't write them down fast enough.

I am used to the idea that a novel is written from beginning to end and that it will leave me exhausted at the end of each day.  Honestly, I'm less tired when I'm doing manual labor.

This novel has been different from the start.  For one, the idea came to me from no where.  For two, I actually outlined this one.  That is something I haven't done since my very first creative writing projects in high school.  For three, I'm writing this one out of order which makes it much more intense.  And lastly, this one is not leaving me exhausted, but instead is waking me out of a deep sleep with too much energy.

I've always loved the rush of that "I'm a freaking genius moment", but this time it is a consistent rush.  I won't even begin to try to understand the reasoning.  I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts.

I never get tired of discovering new authors and my new favorite is Amanda Hocking.  She can absolutely blow you away with her stories.  I kept thinking about all the things I had to do, but I couldn't put her books down to actually go do it.  Here I saw supposed to be working on writing my book, and there I was unable to put her book down!

I've read the Trylle Trilogy and all I can say is wow!  Switched is by far my favorite.  I'm moving on next to My Blood Approves.  This is one talented writer and anyone who has a free day (you won't be able to put her books down I'm telling you) should pick up Switched.  You'll be hooked.

Now that I have the Trylle Trilogy read, maybe now I can finish my new book and then take a day off to read My Blood Approves.

Check out Amanda Hocking at her blog.