Welcome!

Hello, Readers! My name is Lorena Hanks, author of The Rise of the Synija. Its sequel, Valley of the Dying Sun is near completion! I thought for the third book it would be fun to keep a blog of the ups and downs of writing a fantasy novel- or any novel for that matter! For those of you struggling to finish your labor of love, I will give you the real life drama, writer's block, juggling work and writing, and pure joy of creating a book.
Along with narrating the day-to-day challenges I will face writing my third book, I will give instruction on the overall book writing process. I will give tips of how to overcome writer's block, and examples of how I overcome my own.
Technically this will be my fourth book written, as my first is an older version of The Rise of the Synija before I re-wrote it. I wrote The Synija, the original version in about six months. The Rise of the Synija took me about a year, but Valley of the Dying Sun has taken nearly a decade. To keep me on task, I have set a deadline of exactly one year to finish the third book in The Synija series.
As my sequel, Valley of the Dying Sun is still under construction, the year will start when this is complete. I have one week from today (6-28-10) to finish the first draft, and the rest of the month to proof read. So on 7-28-10 or sooner I will begin work on Book Three!
I hope whoever is reading this will follow me in my journey, and gain wisdom along the way.