A Merry Christmas to all, and to all…oh, whatever. Just read my book.

Here’s another update, swooping in at you from the gross off-white soggy-cloud skies that have been keeping the sun captive for way too long. Sunshine would be nice. So would being allowed to go outside in general.

I knew it was going to be a challenge to finish writing my book this year, and to finish the five hundred side hustles that go along with getting it ready to publish, but sweet buttery basket of buttocks, I had NO IDEA that 2020 would slap me the way it did. I’m pretty sure I even muttered some thought before I decided to hop off the cliff into the publication abyss that was something like, “I mean, what could go wrong? It’s not like the world will come to an end.”

I did it. I’m positive I’m responsible for the world shutting down.

Me and my big mouth.

Now I get to try and finish editing a book with kids telling me they’re hungry for snacks every three seconds, and blowing lactose-intolerant fart kisses around the house we’re all trapped in, and a baby licking my ankles, and all of them fighting over who hit who and why and how and when and *major snort* I’m not cut out for this.

The good news is, I’ve gotten close to being able to send my manuscript off to my editor (I’m pretty sure I said that in my update last month, but I lied then. I’m telling the truth now.) I’ve turned into a party girl, and by that I mean I party by myself with my laptop and blue-light glasses late into the night, because for a while the only time I was able to get away with really focusing was after all my kids fell asleep, from 8pm onward. But little by little I’ve gotten there. I’m finished working with my amazing beta readers, I’m finished with the rewrites, I’m just going through my LAST touch-ups so I can send this lengthy thing off to my editor who I’ve kept waiting for way too long. Once I send it off, I can take a breath for a while as my editor goes through it. (Then I get to go through it again myself, wohoo!)

It’s so much more work than I ever imagined. It’s a full time job, plus more. I’m trying to stay positive and send prayers to the people who are in the same boat as me, and especially those who are at home without jobs right now because of this turn the world has taken. Be blessed, friends! This will be over before we know it. And then we’ll all flood outside like the animals off the ark, and have a way more appreciative attitude towards all the things we took for granted before. Like Kelsey’s chicken fingers.

Keep me in your prayers, friends! (And I’ll keep you all in mine.) By the grace of God, I WILL finish this book this year and be a published author!

(And a special shout out to my brother Jesse who has read so many pieces of this manuscript and my rewritten versions to give me his feedback, I’m sure he wants to throw this book in a wood chipper by now. You and me both, buddy, you and me both.)

Kropf out.