Will I Finish?

Not having the bset of times. Perhaps it's age, perhaps it's health and age and the world which has worn me to a frazzle or all three, but it's wearing me down and making it hard for me to write about my favorite MG characters.

When I started writing Middle-Grade fiction in 2015, I did finish my first WIP -- all 70,000 words in about 6 months.

Then came the second story, or WIP No. 2-2017 in 2017, unfinished because the topic of a teen amputee requires a lot of time and research and that's all right.

The third WIP or No. 3-2018 came that year, and though unfinished like the second novel, I have a very good understanding of the main character.

In fact, all three are the same age (13 -- I'd make it 14 or 15 but 14 is the gray area in publishing (neither fish nor foul, MG or YA) and 15 puts them in the YA category), so 13 it is and all are somewhat selfish and snarly with a plucky sense of humor, but at the same time don't mind talking to and even caring about the adult who is there for them. One of my MC's might even threaten to leave home and in fact in the first WIP she does -- at least as far as the Burger King. But in the end, all three know their Mother or Father (or Aunt as in the third WIP) is doing the best he or she can, to keep their tween safe -- and out of jail.

I took a lesson from a WB cartoon of the 1990's and do have the MC from my debut story make a surprise appearance or several in the second novel and at least in name in my third WIP, all three living in adjoing small towns in the "left index finger" of Michigan (if you are from there you know what that means).

All that said, will I finish them?

I don't know, because my health was only a single problem in 2015 but now is several and you know how it is -- when things start piling up, that's when there's trouble.

All I can do is hope and pray that they will be finished, but if not the first one in particular is fine, the premise of the story consistently receiving compliments from published and non-published group members, as well as editors and agents. I did some checking with the librarian near my community and she agreed the story is nothing she's heard of or read.

I even checked the Library of Congress web site and again nothing mentioned, surprising to me because I'd think it'd be one that someone would have thought up by now, the inspiration for it coming from my volunteer work at a children's therapeutic camp back in the early 2000's.

So there it is -- we shall see...