I’ve posted a string of negativity and disappointments over the past several months. Well, spring seems to have sprung early in the northeast, and with it, some positive activity with my writing.

As you may recall (I whine about it enough), my work days are very long, due to my long commute and my habit of getting up extra early to fit in a gym workout. So I don’t get a lot of writing done during the week, especially since the travel restrictions on my job have reduced my train trips to New York City. I used to do a lot of writing on those trips! Anyway, my primary time for writing is weekends, but I’ve been so disenchanted by my lack of success, I haven’t been highly motivated and always seem to find other chores the MUST get done instead. But the tug still is there. So I gave my motivation a boost by signing up for the Advanced Novel Writing course through Writers Digest University. Never one to miss a deadline, I got to work last weekend preparing my first 10,000 word submission, due April 5th. In one day I managed to complete a draft of 5000+ words toward that goal. I’ll finish the rest over the next week. There’s something very uplifting about setting a goal and meeting it!

And then there was the phone call I received last Tuesday – a preliminary inquiry about a possible movie option for Autumn Colors! Now, if any of you know anything about this process, you’ll know that it doesn’t mean anything until the option actually is purchased, and that doesn’t mean it will be a movie (where more significant money changes hands) unless a lot of other pieces come together. But it was just the boost my ego needed at a time when I’ve been so beaten down I’ve considered giving up writing entirely. Hearing that voice on the other end of the phone telling me his preliminary reading told him it had potential as a movie, either big screen or made-for-television. It was the pain and tragedy that got to him, he said – a romance but with plenty of tears. Next step is to have it read by a screenwriter, who will assess its potential to be converted and identify what might need to be changed to make it work for a movie. Whew!

Any day now, no later than the first week of April, I will receive the galley for In Her Mother’s Shoes. After having it slammed by a reviewer, I started to have so many doubts about it. But then I thought about the reactions of the early readers, in addition to the professionals I paid for critiques, and my conclusion: it’s not a bad read. The reviewer was just one opinion, balanced by many others who gave it positive reviews. I had hoped it would be much stronger than Autumn Colors, but because I ignored my instincts and changed things where recommended by the professional critiques, I think it lost some of my original intent. But it still is well written and has a message, whether that negative reviewer “heard” the message or not!

So my point to all this is that spring brings new life and color to everything, and my perspective on my writing career is no exception. Do I wish I’d written The Hunger Games? Duh – that’s a no-brainer. My writing is different and it is evolving, and with a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work, book #3, with a working title Kiss Petey, will be the lucky charm.

We interrupt this posting for a commercial break:
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Autumn Colors may be purchased for Kindle or in paperback at Amazon, OR ordered through any bookstore, OR signed copies through my website: www.dawnlajeunesse.com.

In Her Mother’s Shoes will be available in late May/early June at all of the same locations, plus formatted for Kindle and Nook ($2.99!) – more information when the release date is finalized.

Watch for more information (and maybe a few tease excerpts!) about Kiss Petey as the story develops.

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So, let the sun shine and the warmth of the coming months bring color to all our lives.