By Catherine Hedge

It used to be easy to be a pen pal.  If you only responded when you received a letter, you had at least two weeks before you had to write another one…a week for your letter to arrive and another week before you’d get one back.  I assumed that my pen pal would grace me with a day or two to get my thoughts together…or a week or two.  I had the most annoying pen pals, the ones who are really good at writing quickly, cleverly, and including pictures.   I always felt like Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, immobilized by time with nothing interesting to say.

Now, in an instant, I can click “Like” and someone will know I’m thinking about them.  I have a tool that checks my spelling, makes my writing look tidy, and throws my words out to the world instantly.  The only problem is I still need to write the blamed thing!

I am surrounded by amazing, driven, efficient writers.  You’d think I could learn something from them.  Instead, my best hours are right before a deadline, the dark hours late into the night before our group meets.  I think if they ever saw me with my normal bright eyes and vigor, they’d think a Doppelganger had emerged from the basement.

Oh, how I admire my colleagues!!

Mark is editing his third novel, designing his cover for his e-book.  Maybe a month or two away from release.

Marie is resting after her blow out party to celebrate the release of her Valknut, The Binding.

Char is mid-way through her rewrite of her first novel.  Her fingers are on fire!

And Donna Gillespie…TA DA!  has just today uploaded her classy novel, The Light Bearer, (A best-seller on it’s original release) onto Kindle and has already had sales!  (Her blog will appear as soon as all the links are finished for her upload.)

Meanwhile, Uncle Bill and I keep plodding along.   You’ll have to be patient with us.  But, like those old pen pal letters, we hope you’ll find the final pieces worth the wait.  He should ask his wife,  my Aunt Danelle.  I still haven’t answered her last letter from when I was 17!

Uncle Bill is getting some responses to his writing, however.  Below is  a glimpse of what his older brother did after he read Uncle Bill’s blog.