Patience and Drive

I received a photo of Shepherd’s Call from a reader on holiday in the Dominican Republic. He’s been a long-time fan of our books but doesn’t read them until he’s on a beach. He’s patient. I’ll give him that.

Am I patient

I think about the jousting parts of me—driven and patient. One part wants to give ‘er, and the other is cool with taking it easy. However, one of the many lessons I’ve learned in this experience as a co-author is that both drive and patience matter at different times.

Sometimes, we hit the gas because we have to get the work done or because we have a fantastic story beat that we want to put down on paper. Sometimes, we slow down and take smaller steps to problem-solve something in our novel. And sometimes we need to take a break from writing because we are busy with life.

When we first started the Shepherd and Wolfe series, I sometimes felt frustrated with the pace of the work. But now, as we reach the end, I’m good with the day-to-day because I’ve grown to embrace it. I also have faith in the quality of our books. So how however we do the writing it seems to be working. The list of nominations and awards speaks to that success.

I think I am patient

I can be a workhorse for getting things completed when it’s necessary. Goals matter to me and I think that I can credit part of that value to my teaching career—working to an end and being focused on the finish line. I also feel like as long as I’m working forward, all things happen when they are supposed to no matter how much or little I push.

We’ll finish this last book, Wolfe’s Blood, soon enough and move on to creating new stories and worlds (my favorite part of writing). But until then, I’ll be patient and enjoy the moment because I know I’ll miss our two boy detectives once we’re done.

As always, thank you for reading lovelies.

*Photo credit to Jeff Hamon