Dreamer's Sanctuary

Happy May!  As a teacher, it always feels exciting to reach the first of May and know the school year is almost over.  The countdown is on!  I’m looking forward to some time off this summer to relax, rejuvenate, and write.

My friend Dee convinced me to participate in Camp NaNo in April, which is a variation of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  I’ve always wanted to do NaNoWriMo, but November is one of the busiest months for me at work, so I know there’s no way I would ever be able to write a 50,000 word novel that time of year.  Thankfully, I found out NaNoWriMo’s site also offers a couple of Camp NaNos in other months of the year, specifically April and July.  After talking about doing this on the Absolute Chaos forum, Dee created a group for us, which anyone can join here.  I set a goal to continue writing every day of April and add 20,000 words to my current novel, My Brother’s Keeper, and I’m proud to say I made it with 45 minutes to spare last night! LOL.  I found out you can continue setting goals there even after the camp ends, so I set a new goal today to write 50,000 more words between now and the end of June, just in time for the next Camp NaNo in July.  You can see my profile page and track my progress here.  Today marks my 50th consecutive day of my current writing streak, so now I’m aiming for 100!  I want to go into summer with some momentum so I won’t waste the first few weeks of vacation struggling to get back into the writing groove.

With that said, I really appreciate everyone who has been reading My Brother’s Keeper and giving feedback.  That is so motivating to me!  Chapter 6 has been posted, and it’s the longest one so far.  I hope you enjoy it!

I also hope Nick tells us his daughter’s name soon because I am dying to know!  But I’m also just happy that everyone’s home safe and sound – that’s all that really matters.  Congrats again to the Carter family!

It’s sure been a week in the Backstreet fandom, hasn’t it?  Odin celebrated his fifth birthday on Monday, BSB celebrated their twenty-eighth anniversary on Tuesday, Nick and Lauren welcomed their new bundle of joy on Wednesday, AJ released a new song and video on Friday, and it’s apparently Brian’s parents’ 50th anniversary today!  Congratulations to all!  My prayers are with the Carters that things with Baby Carter continue to improve and they’re able to come home from the hospital soon.

I wish I had a happier chapter to post today, but this story I’m writing is a huge downer.  I promise it won’t be depressing all the way through.  Chapter 5 of My Brother’s Keeper is up!  Thanks to those who are reading and leaving comments; I appreciate hearing your thoughts!

Technically, no, but it’s been a long week, so I’m updating a little earlier than planned!  Chapter 4 of My Brother’s Keeper is up!  This is the chapter that I got stuck on three years ago with this story, but after some rewriting, it’s finally ready to post.  I can’t tell you what a good feeling it is to get to this point.  The writing has been going a lot better since I came back to this story in February; I’m working on Chapter 14 now.  Thank you so much to those of you who have taken time to read and leave feedback.  I really appreciate it!

Thank you to everyone who read the first two chapters of my new story, My Brother’s Keeper!  I’m back with Chapter 3.  Hope you enjoy!  Feedback is appreciated.

I said in my last update, “I said in my last update I hoped to have a new story ready to post by May, and guess what?  I made it a whole month early!”  That part wasn’t an April Fool!  I have been writing a real fanfic, and I’m ready to start posting it.  It’s not the Brian horror story, but the Kevin and Nick drama, My Brother’s Keeper.

This one has been a long time coming.  I actually got the idea for it way back in the summer of 2013, but I had just started Sick as My Secrets, so it went on the backburner.  I came back to the idea in the summer of 2017 after I finished SAMS, and wrote the first few chapters between July and January.  I was feeling so good about it that I put up the first two chapters as a sneak peek on New Year’s Day in 2018.  I wanted to get further into it before I started posting it “officially,” but I was pretty sure I was committed enough to it to be able to continue it.  Then 2018 happened.  I didn’t write a whole lot the rest of that year, until I got on a roll with another new novel, A Heart That Isn’t Mine.  I still loved the idea for My Brother’s Keeper and felt fairly confident that I would return to it when the time was right, but I had to get AHTIM out of my head first.  But now, three years later, the time is finally right.  I’ve been working consistently on this story since February, revising my first draft and writing six new chapters.  I have ten total now and am on a 21-day writing streak, so things are going well enough that I feel ready to commit to weekly updates with this one.

The first two chapters have been “officially” posted, and I’ll be back next weekend with Chapter 3!

Synopsis:
As the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2008, Kevin Richardson felt like he had it all:  a wonderful wife, a beautiful baby boy, and a newfound freedom to do whatever he wanted to provide for his family.  Not like his former bandmate, Nick Carter, who could barely take care of himself, let alone someone else.  But when a tragic accident changes Kevin’s life forever, Nick is forced to step up and start caring for his friend.  Will he rise to the occasion, or will Nick crumble under the pressure of trying to support Kevin and straighten out his own life at the same time?

Genre: drama
Starring: Kevin, Nick
Status: incomplete
Published: April 2021 – present