New Milestone with book ... the final stretch!!!

Hey guys!!!

So I finally reached 50,000 words yesterday, which I am really excited about, because I was sort of doing my own little National Novel Writing Month for fun (except it was in Dec-Jan), and since I started my book on December 23rd I did it (YAY!)! :D

I'm currently on the third to last chapter of The Zebra Stripes; I have one more scene to write out in this chapter, and then I need to write the last two chapters, and then I'm DONE (well, with the first draft anyway ;))! I'm so excited with how it's coming along (I know I say that a lot, but I REALLY am and I can't stress how badly I want all of you to be able to read it)! :D

There's also a fun little surprise somewhere in the last half of the book that I'm VERY proud of; but I won't say which chapter it's in, nor will I say what it is or anything else about it, because that would ruin the fun. Just know that I worked VERY hard on the surprise and I hope that readers will like it. :)

In other (good) news, I finished my final paper that I had to do (and I need to pass in on Monday), so all I have left for my fall semester is one more final exam this coming Friday ... then I'm completely done with the semester! :D

So current word count of The Zebra Stripes is: 56,315 words
This chapter I'm on is DEFINITELY the longest chapter in the book. I defintiely think that I'm going to end up with at least 65,000 words when I'm finished with this first draft (then it's on to editing).

Oh, and I've also gotten two more rejections of Query Letters I sent out in November and early December for my first book. I'm actually kinda happy to say that they haven't really phased me that much; I just feel like The Zebra Stripes is SO unique from other books out there in SO many ways, so it definitely has more potential and more of a shot to not get rejected by agents. I also think that it's generally written better than my first book, and I only say that because (1) I definitely feel that my voice is stronger when I'm writing in first person than in third; and (2) I'm starting to believe more and more the claim that an author's first book is really their worst and usually something that they shouldn't ever publish or show anyone.

I don't know if what I'm feeling is a good thing or a bad thing, but that's kinda where I'm at the moment HAHA. :)

X <3 O