I haven’t written in so long! I hope you won’t view me as a fair-weather author who only writes when the inspiration flows, but life has been quite busy. This month, rehearsal for Scarlet: The Outlaws of Nottingham, a musical written by me and my husband – which I am directing – began and it has been a whirlwind. Four-hour-long rehearsals twice a week, with nine-hour-long vocal recording session every Saturday. Add in all of the planning, preparing, and e-mails and I’ve got a part time job with the show alone.

I have been squeezing in whatever writing I can outside of Scarlet, commission work, and trying to keep the house in some sort of order, so it comes in bursts: a couple hundreds words here in the Book Book, a chapter or scene edit for the Varken, banging out some lyrics for our current musical project.

Directing is certainly stretching and growing me in a lot of ways. As my production manager and choreographer says, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape”. God is certainly teaching me to be flexible this summer! As a super-outliner, planning rehearsals comes easy for me, but then it’s a long day on my feet, talking talking talking, brainstorming, teaching, and giving insights to the characters and script. It is certainly overwhelming at times, but also some of the most fun I’ve ever had.

Just like when I first published The Keeper, there is something truly magical about seeing your work come to life. To see actors bringing our characters to life, singing our songs, and being impacted in ways we had never planned is an amazing experience. I’m so excited for opening night on July 28th, but I’m energized about the journey to get there.

Check out the teaser trailer my production crew through together with the help of the kids at the theatre!

On another note, the last chapter of Bronze: A Short Story about Rosi Kallard was sent out in my monthly newsletter this month! It was a fun glimpse into my current novel project, the Book Book (title TBD), and one of the main characters. If you aren’t subscribed to my newsletter, you can click below to subscribe and read through the previous months to catch up on the story! I am thinking about including the rough-rough first draft version of Chapter 1 of the Blessed as a fun insight to my writing process in the July, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!