TheMindborn

Today I am over excited because something beautiful came into my book path. While I am working on reviewing, polishing, rewriting, and moving around chapters, I realized that while Beta Readers are an incredible resource to make the book better, I need a professional to really get to a point in which I can understand if, with all the work, the book is good enough for publishing or if it will stay as my hidden treasure and I will keep it like Gollum. The beautiful thing that came into my life is an editor who worked on wonderful books and agreed to help me through my path, and I have to say that she seems as excited as I am about this. I will not mention her name; precious things need to be protected, but I want to share the happiness of knowing that, in the Spring, I will start working with her. Spring is the best time for me to be happy and energetic and ready to work my butt off even more. Now all my efforts are focused on making sure she will not be disappointed. Life always opens doors if you are willing to knock. Somebody else is knocking on a door right now in my book, so I will get back to that and wish you the same joy.

So many things to be thankful for. Each year the Thanksgiving time is one of the best times of the year, the time in which you stop and think about how many blessings are in your life. Maybe I adore this festivity more because we do not have it in Italy, and I feel that we miss a lot of the family time without the rush for presents, in which you look your family in the eyes and thank each one of them around the table.

Today feels a little unreal.I’ve just finished the beta version of The Mindborn. It’s strange to think how many versions came before, and very hard to know if I missed anything good along the way, if this version is really the strongest. If the first chapter is strong, or if it would have been better to use another piece of the story instead. But at one point you need to jump, and this is my time.

Sometimes you describe a character’s outfit to give a hint of who they are, to let the reader get a sense of their presence before they even speak. The way I pictured him in that dancing panda hoodie was my perfect image, rich in silliness and great for the character entrance. I had no idea that as the story unfolded, I would end up spreading tears and pain over the same image that had first made me giggle.

When a chapter finally clicks, I save the document and breathe.Sometimes I need the space after a storm of sentences. Sometimes I feel the peace in knowing that I finally hit what I was longing to achieve. My daily idea is that closing a chapter can be a moment to pause and enjoy, but many times my mind, instead of switching off, keeps whispering the next line of the story. If I don’t write it right away, I might miss the spark, and so I forget the pause, the lunch, the kids to pick up at school.

Before I open my manuscript, I line up the essentials: a tea mug and the notebook where I keep writing pieces when I'm not in front of the screen, pieces that come to me at the most unexpected times, when I don't think I'm thinking about my book, and yet I guess I am. So, tea mug and notebook, and I can begin.

There are moments when I question how much of myself is left in the things I create.Fingerprints are carried by sentences, characters’ feelings and the habits I associated with them. Tiny ghosts of the person I was when I wrote them. I find them lurking in early drafts and in broad light on final versions.

I've been around teenagers a lot over the last few weeks. They all served as a reminder of how vibrant that age is, whether they were mine or friends'. Loud, considerate, impetuous, humorous, and unexpectedly tender.

Yesterday, something small and official changed everything.

Sometimes you just need to get away from the screen.

I’m in Italy this week. There’s espresso, my gosh, finally a real one, and somewhere in the middle of all that, I’ve been deep inside my book again.