Hey Crew,

17 years ago, I woke up early because I had a lot of work that needed to get done. I got logged in and had an instant message from a co-worker that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York only a couple of minutes before. There was no other news and everyone had assumed it was a small plane. I got up from the desk and went to turn on the TV.

I didn’t leave the television except to wake up my wife. We watched in horror the entire day.

My mom always told me that she could remember exactly where she was and what she was doing the day Kennedy was assassinated. I never thought I’d have a moment like that in my life. 9-11-2001 changed that. It’s a day I’ll never be able to forget. It’s a moment in time that changed our country forever. Odds are, even if you’re not from the United States, you also know about this event in great detail as well.

Take a moment today to reflect on what’s important to you and make sure to let them know they’re important to you.

On the same note, my thoughts are with those on the East Coast this week. I hope the reporting is wrong as to the level of devastation the incoming hurricane may cause. Stay safe. Be strong.

On the writing front, 1786 words today. I’ll take it. Still short of where I would have liked to have written, but given how things are going, I’m happy to get any words. Lots of flux at the moment and hopefully things will settle down.

I had hoped to be done with ASH2 in two weeks. That was from a week ago. Doesn’t look like that’ll happen. Might be closer to three weeks. I’m just shy of 70,000 words and something happened.

I’ve said before, I’m not really a plotter. I don’t sit and plan my books for every little action scene and plot point. I have a vague idea of where the story is going and if it takes a left turn because that’s the way the characters want the story to go, I roll with it.

Tonight, I got hit with a left turn. In my mind, I’ve planned the coming battle scene. I had a good idea what would happen. I was wrong. That’s not what’ll happen. Not at all. This left turn, well, it was interesting and at the same time, EXACTLY where the story needed to go. I see that now.

Had I kept going on the track I was going, there was only one outcome for all the characters. This new twist, things changed completely for all the characters.

BUT!

The story is still headed in the direction I need it to head, just not in the way I had thought it would.

It’s this part of writing when a character doesn’t something you’re not expecting and you look at the page and think “Wait, you’re doing what? Hey! Let’s roll with that and see where it goes.” That’s what happened tonight and I’m now reinvigorated with this story. That excitement is what I needed and now it’s time to turn on the afterburners and see where this ends up. 🙂

For now, I’m off to bed.

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!