I'm now managing two blogs.

I've started up an officially spiritual blog, which you may visit by clicking here. The reason is because Universal Faith is launching in December, so I thought it'd be fitting to have a Wordpress as well as this. You'll probably see the same blog posts here as there, though this blog will be more writing and art focused. The layout is just too gorgeous for me to abandon it, I spent a long time working on it.
Unfortunately, I won't be writing for a while. After two surgeries for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I'll be taking a long-needed break, and instead focusing on reading and blogging. Maybe without so much writing I can develop a strong personality of my own. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning my projects. The Water Nymph Potion will be published, but it will be very different from how it was before. I've found lots of things that need changing, and ways to tighten the plot. Beautiful Dancing will be written someday as a Christian novel. The Wishing Well is probably going to be a thriller. The Shadow and all its sequels will be a fantasy series. My vampire books...well, I don't know about them. It depends on how my mind reinvents them when I start writing again...
...which won't be a while. My parents are watching me. My case of CT was really, extremely bad. So I'm finding some other hobbies to distract myself with in the meanwhile, including raising my voice about my religion. I'm learning what I believe and how to defend it. At this moment, I actually see myself more as an public figure inspiring people to become saints, than a bestselling author. We'll see what happens.
Both my blogs will be updated, so stick around. There's a lot going on in my head. It might not be a novel, but it'll be interesting.
P.S. I am praying for my bishop every Monday. If you're Catholic, you should pray for yours, too.

This cover wins.

Pitch for BEAUTIFUL DANCING (Yes, I finally have one!!)

Pauline Hemingway is a ballerina. She's spent all her childhood trying to express herself with grace, in a stuffy Alabama mansion where things are always so quiet. For most of her life there hasn't been much noise except her music and the fights between her parents--shouting she never listened to, whispers she couldn't be bothered with.

Then one day, sixteen-year-old Pauly is injured at dance class, leaving her no choice but to come home early. She finds herself walking in on a dark secret that will slam the doors shut on her dreams.

Rumors fly. Pauly is pulled out of school and her dance class for two years, wanting nothing more but to escape. On the night of her eighteenth birthday, she does just that.

The music has long since fallen silent in the halls of her house, leaving nothing but her parents' fighting to fill in the silence. With a soul thirsting for art and beauty, she will no longer wait for it to come to her. On the night of her birthday, Pauly escapes to New York in search of beautiful dancing.

Will she be able to find it?

WHOA. That was unexpected.

It happened. Like, in one second. The entire plot for Beautiful Dancing changed.

 

Or did it? I'm starting to wonder if it ever had a plot. If it's ever going to have a plot at all. Pauly's a liar, a blatant liar and she can't stop. It feels like this book is just a lie, and it's getting all these pretty covers and things...

 

I've told a few of my friends the plans I had for this book and everything. But everything you may know about it now has changed. In just the blink of an eye, what was isn't and what isn't...well, that isn't either. It's all one big lie.

 

Can I pull it off?

 

I don't know how long this book is going to be. It's up to the book. But I'm not making any more goals ahead of time.

 

I'm excited. I'm on fire to write it now.

I'm spending more time designing covers for this book than I am actually writing it...

So if I write 500 words per day for the next 141 days, until November 11...

I can finish BEAUTIFUL DANCING at 70,500 words.
Knowing me, it's gonna be a longer book than that, but I hope not.

And THE WATER NYMPH POTION is going up on July 23.
If I write 500 words every day for the next 30 days, that'll give me the 15,000 words needed to complete the book. But if I write faster then I can edit it as well, at least the first 10k that will be up.

I'm reading THE WISHING WELL and getting ideas on how to make it more powerful based on the HarperCollins review.

There's my progress in one short, sweet blog post. :D

I think I'm having way too much fun with this.

 

But I'm really, super excited about this project.

And I chose just about the most epic release date ever.

Leave it to Mariella to start plotting a new story when she should be editing an old one.

I'm pretty sure I can do both, though.
And this time, I'm going for a love story. No magic. No supernatural stuff. Let's try something relatable:

The cover I made for BEAUTIFUL DANCING.
Pitch coming soon!

See? It even says in the cover that it's a love story.

So, in honor of this unusual event (SARCASM!) I'm creating a works-in-progress section on the sidebar.

Editing one story, finishing another story, beginning another.

I honestly can't picture myself doing anything else with my life but writing!