Sara R. Cleveland

Where do I even begin? 2020 was a crazy year for me in more ways than one, and not just the obvious. You would think being largely trapped at home I would have had plenty of time to get some writing done, right? Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.

So let’s just hit the highlights. Last year in August I married the love of my life.

Matt and I at our wedding

Before that we adopted a kitten. Her name is Zoe and she’s spoiled rotten. She loves her big brother Mayhem.

Zoe and Mayhem

I went back to school for my bachelors. That’s been a trip. I may have a post about that in the future if anyone is interested.

And finally, we sold our house (finally closed this month) and moved into my childhood home. The first thing we did upon moving in was replace the flooring. A lot of flooring. We still have the room that will be my office to go. I hope to be uploading some pictures of my sweet new office set-up by the end of the first quarter. In the meantime I am doing my writing and my normal day job sitting at a desk crammed in the bedroom. Since I sometimes start work super early in the morning my poor husband has learned so sleep with me typing literally three feet away. The things we do for love, right?

But Sara, what about your writing? Are we ever going to get that long-promised sequel to Saving the Dragon?

Yes, my friends. I have finally had a breakthrough and am once again making good progress. I’ve been stuck in this sort of in-between state where I’m not really revising but also not really writing the first draft anymore and it has been hell. At this point I am writing the “first draft” of the remaining scenes that are needed to complete the ending and go back and fill in some things I now know I need back at the beginning. Once that is complete I have a list of revisions I know I need to make to the first 2/3s based on some serious character changes. After that I can go into a full, normal revision pass and work on cleaning it up before getting it to some beta readers. I am optimistic about getting the draft completed sometime in the first quarter. Be on the look-out for a new release date announcement.

In other news, I’ve started working on an overhaul of the website. I know that doesn’t seem like a productive thing to be doing in light of the unfinished writing I have, but hear me out. In addition to being a part of my platform as an author, my website also serves a more practical purpose. It gives me a real-world project to experiment with for skills that apply to my day job, the thing that still pays the bills (because let’s face it, writing ain’t paying no bills right now). So the website re-write has been an on-and-off work in progress for a while. I’m playing with a framework I have some experience with, but have never built a site from scratch with before. I have to say it’s been quite fun (and frustrating). I hope y’all like the finished product. If I’m lucky I might be able to coordinate the launch of the new website with the release of Courting the Dragon.

I think that’s pretty much it for this update. As part of my plan to get back into the game here I will be trying to post at least one monthly update to the blog, plus some meatier posts as the opportunity arises. So stay tuned, and Happy New Year!