2018 - the Year of the Warrior

2017 was a crazy, emotional year for me. On January 19th, I began writing a YA Viking fantasy, finishing it in March at 120k words. I was very proud of how quick I had written a book I'd felt so passionate about. Characters came out of the woodwork. Magic I had never attempted before, began to be written. Romance. All sorts of ... things I had never tried to write, were being written. With prayers and faith, I was steadfast in the work. By the end of the year, after not making it in to Pitch Wars after 4 requests for manuscripts from mentors, and after a few agent rejections, a few requests that ended in rejections, and an amazing writer retreat where I met Jennifer Nielsen and got personal sage advice on my query and 1st chapter pages - I began the journey again.

At the end of October, I went back to my book after a few weeks break and rewrote my beginning pages with a new scene (3x now as of a week ago). I rewrote my 4th chapter beginning. I rewrote or cut or shortened the heck out of many words, sentences, and paragraphs. I revamped. And I am still revamping. But this time, something really hit me.

The girls I am writing, the six daughters of a Warrior King, are just that - WARRIORS.

Maybe they are shy, stubborn, earthy, bossy, tomboy-like, but one thing I do know is I am putting them through hell AND high water and they are turning into warriors before my very eyes, and by my very hands. And not just in the sense of fighters, but in the sense of so much more. They honor their family, their people, their Norse gods. They stand for what they know is true and right. They attempt what shouldn't be attempted - crumbling a honored patriarchy system.

Through them, I am discovering how I need to warrior-up and take things more head on. How I need to say no and be okay with saying no when all I really want to do is say no. How I need to take time for myself doing things that keep my faith strong. How I need to foster the relationships in my life that make me feel good about myself. How I need to worry less about silly things and more about important things. How I need to make this book my biotch and get it exactly where I feel it belongs - on a shelf in a bookstore being stared at by a girl looking for something to escape her reality for just a moment. Or a few hundred pages :)

That is why this year I am making it the YEAR OF THE WARRIOR. It will be my word. I will be my reminder. It will be my mantra.

What about you? If you could define this new beginning to one word, what would it be? 

Love your guts,

-Tammy-