Category: Updates

On Thursday, I made it to Day 1000 of my writing streak! 🍾 This streak dates back to January 22, 2022, when I was still writing My Brother’s Keeper.   I have continued writing Kevin’s story every day since and am proud of my consistency.  There were definitely days when it wasn’t easy to maintain, but most days, I’ve enjoyed the process.  It has been slow-going lately due to regular old real life getting in the way, but I’m still plugging along on the sequel.  Chapter 63 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!  This is the last chapter I’ve finished, but the next one is well underway, so you hopefully won’t have to wait too long for it.  Thanks for reading!

But they can’t touch me ’cause I got you. 😊

It was so nice seeing Nick and a few of my Backstreet besties last Saturday!  It was just what my fangirl heart needed after a stressful start to the school year.  And after a fun-but-busy weekend and a long week of work, I’ve been looking forward to doing as little as possible this weekend.  Writing doesn’t count, of course.  I’ve been craving a good, long, productive writing session for the past few weeks, so I enjoyed sleeping in and then spending a few hours writing in bed today.  My favorite way to spend a Saturday morning!

I have to say, it’s interesting going to Nick events now that I’m not writing a Nick story.  For years, whenever I would go to a Nick or BSB concert, I was writing some tragic fanfic wherein Nick went through some sort of trauma or turmoil.  The first time I saw Nick solo was in July 2003, when I was about halfway through Broken.  The second time was in February 2012, a few months after I finished Curtain Call.  I was writing Sick as My Secrets when I went to the Nick & Knight tour in 2014 and the All American tour in 2016.  And I saw two DNA shows in the midst of writing the most disturbing section of A Heart That Isn’t Mine.

As much as I try to separate the fictional versions of the Boys in my stories from the real life versions, there are times when my mind can’t help but connect the two.  Music makes it harder because I’ve come to associate certain songs with stories.  When Nick sang “I Got You” as the music video played on the big screen in the background, I thought of Broken because I watched that video so many times during the writing of that story.  “It’s funny how life can take new meaning… You came and changed what I believe in.”  When he sang his cover of “Lovesong” by The Cure at soundcheck, I thought of By My Side because that was one of the songs on the Nick and Claire playlist I made and listened to for inspiration while I was writing that story.  “Whenever I’m alone with you… you make me feel like I am whole again.”  When he sang “Just Want You to Know,” I thought of Curtain Call and how I used Cary’s performance of that song in the first and last chapter to bookend everything that came in between.  “I just want you to know… that I’ve been fighting to let you go.  Some days I make it through… and then there’s nights that never end.  I wish that I could believe… that there’s a day you’ll come back to me.  But still I have to say… I would do it all again… Just want you to know.”   And when he sang “Quit Playing Games With My Heart,” I thought of A Heart That Isn’t Mine because of how that song is referenced in that story.  “Even in my heart… I see that you’re not being true to me.”  (If you know, you know.)

Since I write so much angst and whump, these moments usually make me feel guilty.  But watching Nick shine on stage this past Saturday, I just felt grateful.  Grateful because my stories are fictional.  Grateful because Nick is happy, healthy, and whole.  Grateful because he continues to fight and triumph over the demons he’s faced in the past and the trolls who are still trying to take him down.  Grateful because he’s still making music, touring, and performing.  Grateful because he and the Boys are still such a big part of my life over a quarter of a century after I became a BSB fan.  Many musicians are not so successful, and many fans are not so lucky.  We are truly blessed!

Seeing BSB live usually makes it harder to write about them because of the whole guilt complex I mentioned in the previous paragraph, but since I’m not currently writing a Nick story, that was not the case this week.  Chapter 62 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!  I enjoyed writing this chapter because it has some good hurt/comfort content, which you know I can never get enough of.  I was even able to work in another one of the songs from my old Nick and Claire playlist.  I hope you’ll enjoy reading it!

And, finally, I want to wish Kevin a happy belated birthday!  I’m beyond grateful for you, too! 💙

It’s been a busy few weeks, but I’m finally back with an update on The World Will Be Waiting!  Chapter 61 is up.  I’ll be at Nick’s show next Saturday (yay!), so don’t expect an update then, but I’ll have more where one came from soon enough.  Hope you enjoy!

Nothing like waiting until the last day of the month to update again! 🙃  I apologize again for the delay.  August is always a busy month for me, and besides the usual back-to-school shenanigans, I’ve been hanging on to the next chapter of The World Will Be Waiting, waiting until I got a little further into the next arc of the story and felt comfortable with it to start posting it.  My drama-loving writer brain has a tendency to plan plot elements early on, get excited about them, and then take so long to actually get to the point of writing them that by the time I do, I’ve lost some of my enthusiasm for the ideas and start second-guessing myself.  Some writers write scenes out of order to eliminate this problem, but I’ve never been able to do that.  So I’ve been sitting on Chapter 60 for almost two months, making sure I felt committed to this particular arc before I put it out into the world.  But in the meantime, I’ve still been writing every day, keeping my streak alive.  953 days as of today!

Anyway, thanks, as always, for being patient with me!  Chapter 60 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!

Yikes, I can’t believe it’s already been a month since my last update!  Sorry my updates have been so spread out this summer.  I got back from a family vacation a week ago and have spent the past week trying to get back on track with my writing, which has been very successful! In fact, the reason I’m updating at midnight is because I couldn’t stop writing long enough to do it earlier. I hit Day 900 of my streak earlier this month and have written over a thousand words almost every day this week.  I’m three chapters ahead of the one I’m posting today, which will give me a bit of a buffer to get through back-to-school season.

The Olympic Games may have captured the world’s attention in real life, but it’s Super Bowl Sunday in Chapter 59 of The World Will Be Waiting!  Kevin’s heading to Georgia to spend it with Brian in this chapter, which is meant to bridge the gap between the previous two chapters and the next few.  I know there haven’t been nearly enough Backstreet Boys in the story lately, so hopefully this will help with that, too.  I’ll get back to the other Boys soon, but I must admit, I’ve been having fun with my original characters in the meantime.  I hope you don’t mind.  This story’s about to turn into BMS 2.0 with how long it’s becoming.  I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or a bad thing… I guess it depends on how much you guys like it!  I’m still enjoying writing it, and that’s what really matters most to me.  It’s no fun trying to finish a story you’ve lost interest in.  Your comments help keep that interest alive at times when real life gets in the way, so thanks to those of you who take the time to let me know you’re still reading!  I really appreciate it!