Peace Maker Progress

It’s a rainy Saturday, following on the heels of a snowy week. A good day to stay home and write.

My manuscripts haven’t been touched in ten days. Ouch. Guess I (or they) needed a rest. I have been doing research, mostly via YouTube videos, and am happy to report that I hit the mother lode.

Last night, climbing into bed very early, I opened one of my reference books. After the YouTube payola, the passages I read spurred a slew of plot twists for Book Two, setting the stage for the beginning of Book Three and reinforcing the overall theme for the series.

Yes, you read that right. The series. Because in the midst of the week’s research, it occurred to me that a Book Four might be needed.

Huh. Imagine that.

Who knew one tiny little idea, received in 2010 whilst meditating on that porch in the North Georgia Mountains, would morph into a four-hundred-thousand-word behemoth?

Certainly not me.

But I am grateful. I am grateful to the Idea Fairy and to the Genius within that grabbed the idea and ran, throwing plot points and characters and themes and settings at me so fast and furiously I had to pay attention, though I was in the middle of writing a completely-different novel.

I put that novel down and started this series, the Blessed Are the Peace Makers series.

Now it’s six-plus years later and Peace Makers is coming to fruition. Book Two is set aside for a week or so while I focus on final edits for Book One, incorporating the excellent feedback from my betas.

Then I will begin the query process for Book One and proceed with Books Two, Three and Four, if a fourth is indeed warranted.

Have a great day!

That Rebel, Olivia J. Herrell (writing as O.J. Barré)

P.S. On the mental and emotional front, I seem to be emerging from the bog of depression, anxiety and panic. Yeehaa! Thank you to the team at Terry Reilly here in Nampa, Idaho, and to my sister and brother-in-law, whose support is helping me get back on my feet.

O.J. Barré is the author of the Blessed Are the Peace Makers trilogy. Book One, Coming Home, is in final edits. The first draft of Book Two, Coming To, is nearing completion and Book Three, Coming Full Circle, is swirling in the mists of creation.