(sigh) …Well… We… Soldier On? I Guess? Maybe???

I feel like this is a situation that reminds me of this phrase I heard in a book, Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky by Sandra Dallas… “shikata ga nai”, and I really REALLY hope I’m not getting this wrong (If I am, I am very sorry and I apologize), but if my memory is supposed to be trusted (which, really, can be debatable), it means something like “It can’t be helped.”

There will be no July update on my blog this month.

Why?

Not because I haven’t gotten anything done. But because I just…. I really just can’t. The update will be all out of date anyway, because as of 1:58 PM China Standard Time, 5/8/2025, editing has been….

…

I’ve no words.

I feel like a shriveled up leaf.

(bangs head against the wall)

Again.

I went through this whole debacle with The Last Hope, and I’m going through this whole debacle AGAIN with my WIP, Island Keepers. Island Keepers is a standalone, and I think it’s always the books where I have to nail the emotional thread and climax that I struggle with the most. Aka standalones and the last books in series.

No wonder I like writing series better……… because then I can put off the BIG EPIC climax till the final book!!!!

But… here we are…

And really… it can’t be helped.

I honestly don’t know if I can move forward with my 3rd rewrite of the second draft because I can just FEEL that something’s off. So I’m going to take a step back, print out my book, hope it works… if not……..

Ehhhh I’ll probably be back to banging my head against a wall.

Not literally, of course — then I’d just be left with a splitting headache!!! Which I most certainly don’t want.

My dear friend, Bea, who helped with the gorgeous map you’ll now see in The Last Hope and the second ebook edition of Guardian’s Heir, made this image that I think captures the editing woes perfectly.

I later made my own which is nowhere near as good as Bea’s, but…

And my friendd also did have to just slam the hard truth down in my face and let me know that this draft is not going to be perfect in one go, like my brain wishes it would be.

(sigh)

So…..

More editing, here we go….. (does a very weak and utterly unconvincing “Wheeee!!!!!!!”)

Meanwhile, Izzy…

On a funnier note, I did do something hilarious and run my book through Google Translate (alright, a PORTION of the book… like, a few paragraphs) multiple times, going through 20 languages before heading back to English to get a hilariously translated sentence:

ORIGINAL PASSAGE:

“Never?” Rin asked. “You mean-”

“Ever. Grandma never takes me anywhere. She’s always complaining about her creaky bones,” Paige said, wrinkling her nose. “And she has four goats. They are pure chaos. Never up to any good.”

“Should a creaky-boned Grandma be raising four goats that are pure chaos?” I asked, blinking.

Paige shrugged. “Eh. She manages. Somehow.”

I decided I didn’t want to press any more.

“Do we have a plan?” Paige asked. “And by plan, I mean a real one?”

TRANSLATED PASSAGE:

Never?” Lynn asked. “You mean—”

“Never. My grandmother never took me anywhere. She was always complaining about my broken bones,” Paige cleared her throat. “He had four sheep. He never did anything special.”

“An old mother with no bones left, needs four sheep?” I asked, my eyes watering.

Paige shook her head. “Yeah. He always gets rid of them.”

I decided not to ask any more questions.

“Do we have a plan?” he asked. Paige asked. “And when I say plan, do I really mean plan?”

_______________________________________

…

I probably had way too much fun doing this with even more passages from my book (it totally botched the prophecy from Enchantria)

But yeah…

…Back to editing, I guess…. we must soldier on……………………………..

(stares at WIP)

(wilts)