What I've Been Up To

Hello, everyone! I’m finally posting another of my sporadic updates on what I’ve been doing lately. First, though, I’d like to apologize for not doing one of these updates since April. I’m going to do my best both to stop letting procrastination get the best of me this summer and to do more worth blogging about!

• I finished writing the novel around the middle of May that I started on Easter. It ended up being shorter than I expected, though I think it still turned out fairly well. I’m currently in the process of editing it. It’s going well, though much slower than I’d like, since I’ve had to make a lot of changes from the original draft.
• I also started a new novel around the end of May, based on an idea that I’d been playing around with for a month or so. Like most of my novels, it’s set in another world, though this other world is very similar to medieval England. It’s about a girl who’s grown up in a wealthy family, and thus is expected to be the perfect lady, wear the latest styles, attend social events, and think about who she’s going to marry. My main character, however, isn’t at all interested in this, and would much rather spend her time out in the forest. When her father is kidnapped, she goes looking for him and ends up, of course, on the adventure of a lifetime. It’s going fairly well, though slower than I’d like.
• During the past two or so weeks, my family also went on our annual trip to the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. I had a lot of fun, especially since most of the hiking trails we did were ones I liked. It also helped that the weather was much nicer than it’s been in previous years, which meant we did a lot of marshmallow-roasting! Also, as you may remember, when we went to the area last October, I lost one of my arrows. Well, when we went back this year, we found it! (Actually, Mommy found it.) The tip is a bit rusty, but overall, it’s in surprisingly good condition.
• Speaking of archery, on May 5, my sister and I went to a one-time archery class. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot, including that I’d been shooting with my non-dominant eye. It also made me want a new bow, a recurve bow to be exact. What’s a recurve bow? Well, you may know what a longbow looks like. It’s the kind that people like Robin Hood and Legolas use in movies. A recurve bow is similar, but the ends curve back.
• I’ve also been doing the summer challenge from the Focus on the Family Clubhouse magazine with my sister. The challenge is to earn points by doing different types of exercise, and the goal is to earn 260 points by the end of August. So far, I’ve learned that when it comes to getting points, hiking is better than walking, and that jumping rope is more strenuous than it looks.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for waiting so patiently for this post!

-Sarah