Maegan M. Simpson's Blog, page 6

Back to Colorado…

Hello hello!

Good news! I’ve made it to the climax of the next Agonizomai book! Kinda sad news, I’m moving back to Colorado for school this weekend and can’t just sit down and write until I’m finished (which is what I want to do). Instead I have to pack, and do laundry, and drive. *Sigh* But I’m close enough to the end that I might actually meet my hesitant goal and finish the rough draft before I start classes again!

I think I’ve mentioned before that this is my senior year of college. Exciting! And a bit nerve wracking. I’m still not sure how much writing I’ll be able to do this year, but since it’s such a weird year I might have more free time than I usually do (not counting any extra time classes might take), because it’s not like I can go out and do stuff. Even the tutoring program I volunteer with is moving online for this year. It’s gonna be weird. We’ll see how it works!

I don’t have ton of news beyond my writing progress and the beginning of another school year…not that I can think of right now, anyway. (Goodness…I’m rather boring currently, aren’t I? I’ll have to find something to fix that…). I’m still hoping to work more on my website in the near future, but that’ll have to wait until I’m in Denver, I’m afraid. At the moment I’m focusing on soaking up what I can of home before I have to leave.

Keep an eye on my Facebook page for excerpts and fun when I finish the rough draft! Maybe I’ll even give you (*gasp*) the title!

Fun Website Stuff

Hello hello!

Today I finished one phase of a project I’ve been meaning to take on for months: updating my website. There’s some other fun stuff I want to add that I won’t tell you about yet (It’s not ready yet…shhhhh), but the part I finished today was adding new banners to all the pages of my website! A couple have been up for a while (you might have noticed the Welcome page has changed a bit), but I added the last two a few minutes ago. Go check them out! They’re all ink drawings I’ve done, so while they’re not the fanciest…they fit me, and I hope you guys like them.

I honestly don’t know when I’ll get the other things I’m planning up and running, but I’m going to try to finish at least one other project before I start school again. What I want to do isn’t hard exactly, but I have zero training in website building, so it takes me a lot longer to do anything than it would for anyone who actually knows what they’re doing (I am very grateful for internet tutorials, and I have sooo much respect for the patience of professional website builders. This stuff is complicated!) Anyway, it’s a little thing, but it makes me happy to see the page banners fit the theme of my website better.

Stuff is still coming alone nicely with the next Agonizomai book. I’m nearly to 60,000 words, and I think just a little under two-thirds through the rough draft (I say tentatively, with a nervous laugh). I’ve gotten to the point in the book where I know roughly what needs to happen in the rest of the book (middles for me are tough…a lot of the time I have to figure out what happens as I go), but I don’t really know how long it will take for everything to happen. It could be fast-ish, it could take a lot longer than I think. We’ll see where the characters take me.

I hope you all are doing well! Talk to you in a couple weeks.

Update and Excerpt

Hello hello!

Another couple of as-normal-as-you-can-get-during-a-pandemic weeks have passed, and not too much has changed. I’m still writing a lot, but I’m also working on an online literature class, so that does cut into my writing time somewhat. Still, I should break 50,000 words by the end of the week, if not today.

To celebrate progress, and because I don’t have much I can think to say today (it’s too hot for deep thought…why in the world does that rhyme?!?! *sigh* English), I’m giving you guys another excerpt from Agonizomai Series book 3! (It has a title, but I’m not sure if it’s the real title, if you know what I mean, so I’m hesitant to share it.)

So here you go! Not as tense as the last excerpt, but fun! Hope you enjoy! (and please remember that this is the roughest of rough drafts and thus has not been edited)

“Now stop,” Tuan ordered. Sioned obeyed, flexing her fingers as she stared at the rock and waited. There was a crunch of footsteps as Tuan and Maryth walked, and then silence. “Now look up.”

Sioned obeyed again, and the scene before her stole even her thought. She’d thought the view from the doorway was beautiful…this was breathtaking.

She stood on a crag that jutted out over a small lake of blue green water, lined with plants in every green imaginable. Some were covered in white and pink flowers larger than Sioned’s hand. The plants continued above the water, even clinging to rock walls, and were broken only by the small streams cascading over rock and filling the air with light mist. Above, instead of rock, the ceiling was open to the sky. The morning light fell through the hole and lit the entire room, reflecting off water and filtering through the many leaves that shone like jewels in the sun.

Tuan and Maryth stood a few steps away, watching her. When Sioned turned to them in wide-eyed awe, they both grinned. Sioned turned away, drinking in the beauty and wondering if such a place could be real.

“Sometimes we swim here,” Maryth said. “Or lay on rafts on the water. The stars are so beautiful.”

I want to see that. Sioned walked closer to the edge, and after a moment’s hesitation sat down with her legs hanging over the edge. Tuan and Maryth joined her, though they sat a bit separated from her, a gesture Sioned was grateful for even though it also made her a little sad. But there was too much overwhelming her senses to hold on to sadness.

“How…how did you find this place?”

“My ancestors came here after the dragon kings fell,” Tuan said. “And my grandfather started bringing others here. Mostly people he found hiding in the wastes, people who had nowhere to go.”

Sioned nodded, once again wondering about the stories of the people she’d met. Were they anything like hers?

Update and Pictures

Hello hello!

I hope everyone’s summer is going well! This is such a weird year, and for many a very difficult year, but I hope you all have some piece of joy during these strange times. For me, it’s writing. There’s so much I usually do in the summers that I can’t do this year, including work at the Bible Camp I usually spend four weeks at. It’s sad and I’m still mourning it, but the extra time does allow me to focus more on writing my next book.

Speaking of my next book, I have a writing update! Book three in the Agonzomai series is progressing nicely. Yesterday I broke 40,000 words (which I think is somewhere between one-third and half way through, but you all know how bad I am at estimates, so don’t quote me on that). It’s pretty early for setting a release date (early for me, anyway), but I’m loosely aiming for early spring 2021. If that changes I’ll let you know.

The Beauty of Green

Hello hello!

You guys have probably noticed that I like plants, what with Henry’s powers and my springtime obsession with The Secret Garden. There’s something about growing things that excites my imagination.

A funny little basil in my family’s garden (guest-starring an odd view of my hand)

Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up in Southwestern New Mexico, where the color green isn’t something you take for granted. But when green does come…oh, it’s beautiful. When the rains finally come in the summer, the hills can change from the dull dead-grass color they are the majority of the year to a beautiful bright green of new grass in days. Even in the dry times of the year, there’s something so awe-inspiring about the mountains covered in dead grass and juniper, bluffs of dusty purple and red volcanic rock, giving away to the deep vibrant green of the cottonwoods following the river.

And there’s so many kinds of green! There’s the bright, almost neon of new mesquite leaves in spring, the dusty green of junipers and piñóns, the deep green of blackberry vines in the shaded canyons, the queer blue-green of the spruce, the varied shades of the dozens of nameless wildflowers dotting the mountainsides… And I’m not even sure why, but the sight of afternoon sunlight shining through grape leaves makes me think of life. I live in a place where I know how to go without green, but when I find it…oh, when I find a haven of green I feel a little more alive. Like I can finally breathe again.

Larkspur! (also in my family’s garden)

Another aspect of living New Mexico is that we have to fight for every bit of greenery we try to grow, and water is our secret weapon. When I win that fight, when plants grow and brighten up this dry bit of earth I call home, that is a satisfaction I never tire of. I’m still learning how to keep plants alive, but it’s a skill that’s so worth the effort.

Long story short, prepare for more plants in this next book! There aren’t any gardeners in this one (Henry is a bit busy elsewhere at the moment), but there’s plenty of plants! And a bunch of stuff I’m learning about herbs is making its way into the story, too. So much fun!

Do you guys have gardens? What do you love growing? And do you have a green thumb, or (like me) a brown thumb? (Mine’s not black, not anymore, but I’m not quite to green-level either…)

Book in Progress…

Hello hello!

In my last post I promised some information on the book I’m writing now that Born in Darkness is out, and now I’m here to follow through! Before I tell you what it is, though, a bit of a funny story… I have started four books since finishing Born in Darkness. Yes, four. Only two have more than a few disjointed scenes. I think I’ve figured out which one is my main project for the next few months, but…yeah. It’s been interesting.

[image error]This is a picture of Hang Son Doong, the largest cave in the world. What does it have to do with the next Agonizomai book? You’ll have to read to find out…

I’m Back!

Hello hello!

I have two pieces of good news! First, Born in Darkness is available in paperback now! Click here to see it on Amazon. Whew! That took longer than it should’ve, but life got a little crazy (well…a little more crazy).

And that brings me to my next piece of good news! I’m finished with another year of college! It was a little touch and go for a while on whether or not I’d make it through with my GPA (not to mention my sanity) intact, but there were no notable fatalities, so I’m calling it a victory. (Video conference discussion classes are not for the faint of heart…I will be very glad to go back to an actual classroom)

But being over with school for the summer means more time for writing! Even more than usual, actually…the sad bit is that the Bible Camp I usually work at isn’t happening this summer because of Corona Virus, and with everything still shut down my family hasn’t been getting out and about much. But there are still stories to write!

The last few weeks of the school year I didn’t write much (at all, really). Well, I was writing, but papers don’t count. But now I’m moving forward again, and it is a very nice feeling. Once I get a little deeper into my writing world I’ll tell you guys what my next project is (and maybe even give you an excerpt).

Not What We Planned…

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

…but in some ways it doesn’t feel very happy, does it? This year there’s no Sunrise service, singing praise to our Savior as the first rays of light break over the mountain-tops. There’s no gathering of hundreds of believers declaring in one voice that our Savior is risen. There’s no Easter lunches, talking and laughing together, adults watching children’s unbridled joy with quiet smiles. Instead there are overflowing hospitals, stay at home orders, and so much fear… This isn’t what we hoped for. This isn’t what we planned.

We do what we can…drive-in Easter services, Zoom meetings with family, celebrating in our homes. But it’s not the same. And there’s such an aching to miss spending this day with other believers, with our family. This is a day of joy, of celebration, of praise…not sorrow. And yet we’re here, with fragile smiles and empty chairs. And for many it seems almost impossible to have joy this day: instead there’s fear, there’s grief, there’s loneliness, there’s an aching certainty that this isn’t what Easter is meant to be. This isn’t what we planned.

How many people have said that over the centuries? How many people have collapsed with broken hearts, crying “this isn’t what we planned”? It feels like everything is collapsing all around you…or maybe you’re numb, or maybe you smile as you go through the day but somewhere in your heart there’s a whisper that something’s missing. How many people have lived through uncertain times? How many people have wept for lack of hope?

I don’t have an answer to bring back the joy. I don’t have words that will take away the fear, the sorrow, the loneliness. A part of me is crying too.

But there is hope. There is light. And even though this year we cannot gather, we still remember the day so many centuries ago when another group wept “this isn’t what we planned.” We remember that their sorrow turned to unspeakable joy. More than everything, we remember Jesus’s victory over death.

We remember that when He came to Jerusalem, He didn’t say “this isn’t what I planned.” Instead, He said “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12:27). As He walked with His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane, He didn’t wonder what the next day would hold. Instead He told His disciples “Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy”  (John 16:20). When He was beaten, mocked, shamed, hung on a cross… as He struggled for every breath, He wasn’t taken by surprise. He didn’t say “How could this happen?” And three days later, when they found His tomb empty, when the disciples were gathered in fear with the doors locked, He appeared. He didn’t ask what they were doing, He didn’t begin by explaining why everything had happened…instead, He said “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19).

Our hope doesn’t fade when our plans go awry. Our joy doesn’t disappear when the days are uncertain. Our peace doesn’t flee when chaos seems to reign around us. Because our hope is in the One who defeated death, our joy is in an empty tomb…and He gives us His unfathomable peace even when fear surrounds us. Though this day is not what we expected, not what we wanted…we can still have peace. Our reason for gathering on this day remains even when we stay in our homes. Our reason for singing lives still, and He hears the praise we offer Him even when our voices are scattered in a thousand different places. Through all the uncertainty, through all the sorrow, we can still declare with certainty and wonder “He is risen!”

Born in Darkness Released!

It’s here!!! Born in Darkness is available on Amazon! (the Kindle version…the paperback will follow in a few days). Click here to see it on Amazon.

I’m so excited, you guys. This book…this book has such a special place in my heart! I hope you all will be as enthralled with Henry’s story as I am.

Born in Darkness Cover!

Hello hello everybody!

As promised, today I’m revealing Born in Darkness’s cover! Many thanks to my amazing cover designer (my Mom)!!! I painted the picture, but my Mom’s the one who made it cover-worthy and did all the formatting (that stuff confuses me deeply, so I’m very grateful for my Mom’s work!)

And drum roll….

Ta-da! What do you guys think?

That’s all for now, but don’t forget that Frosted Fire is discounted starting tomorrow! And keep your eyes out for a description reveal…