Howdy!

All three things happened in the last week and a half, believe it or not.

I went on vacation for the first time in probably 4-5 years. Isn’t that terrible? My family had planned a two week trip out to Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee and I decided kind of last minute that I’d be able to with them for a week of it.

We started in Galveston, TX for Memorial Day. We stayed with some friends, got to go to the beach and go fishing for the first time! Didn’t catch anything, but it was really fun and I want to go again. On our beach day, it was overcast and blustery, so we decided we were just going to go for a walk along the beach and head back in the afternoon when the weather was supposed to be better. So we didn’t wear swimsuits or anything. But within being at the beach for five minutes, my sister and I ended up in the water among the crashing waves and got soaking wet. So we just kept going. 🙂 I’m really not sure why we thought we wouldn’t get in the water in the first place. 😛

Then it was off to Georgia. We spent all day on Tuesday driving from Texas to Georgia. 4 states in 12 hours. 10/10 will never do that again. We made it to Savannah on Wednesday and stayed until Sunday. I kind of fell in love with Savannah. It’s not a big city and I loved the vibe. The historical stuff was fascinating and there was something otherworldly about the sprawling live oaks draped in Spanish Moss. And I’m not a photographer, so I have basically no pictures to share. Sorry. The only ones I took were more snaps of things I might use for books. 😛 We saw sites from the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Colonial period. We also headed out to Tybee Island to see the lighthouse and spend another afternoon on the beach where we saw dolphins! There was a huge pod swimming not very far from where we were. It was so cool!

Monday, I flew out of Charleston back to Midland so I could get back to the study grind. I had a blast and came back super relaxed. Crazy how that works right? 😛

On to part 2 – while on vacation, I got a call from the clinic I interviewed with several weeks ago. They had a job offer for me! So, I’m happy to say that I accepted and will be starting in August, on my birthday actually. Of course, this is pending me passing the biggest test of my life in July. 🙂 But it’s really reassuring that I have a job ready to go. And this is a week after I had pretty much decided that since I hadn’t heard anything, they had gone with another candidate. Basically, God is awesome.

Part 3 – The Rooglewood Press contest fairy tale was announced last week and as I hoped, it’s Snow White. Why did I hope that? Two years ago when I participated in the Sleeping Beauty contest I got an idea for a Snow White set in the Wild West. So I’m excited to finally get to write it! BUT. I watched Pirates of the Caribbean the other day and got an idea for a pirate/smuggler/fantasy/gender bent story. Help.

But wait, there’s more. While at the lighthouse, I got an idea for a Little Mermaid retelling set in Revolutionary War America. And when we visited a train museum, my sister gave me the idea for an Aladdin retelling centered around a train (either in the early 1800’s or in 1920. I know, big difference). Then Mulan was brought up and I thought French and Indian War. Then I figured Cinderella could probably work in Colonial America.

The point to all this, is the girl who vowed she’d never write historical fiction will probably be writing a series of fairy tale retellings set through American history.

Sound like something you’d be interested in?

So that’s my super long update from the last two weeks. lol! I’m also still working away on edits for the Aredor series and typing up The Wolf Prince. And trying to read books. And working out every morning. And trying to get a lot of studying in each day. My test is July 19, so after that I will probably just crash for a week. 😛

How’s your summer looking? Any awesome vacations planned?