Surviving Spring by Megan O’Russell
Ahh Spring. The time when flowers bloom, wedding planners make money, and Megan shuts down and waits for it to be over.
Don’t get me wrong, I love flowers. I love picnics and sunshine. I love long walks through the budding woods. But none of those things love me.
I have terrible allergies, and every spring it’s like a gauze curtain has been pulled over my head, blocking my brain from the rest of the world. Think of it as hibernating but staying awake and trying to be coherent enough not to accidentally walk out into traffic.
While dealing with the spring haze, my writing tends to slow. The length of time it usually takes me to write seven hundred words now produces a measly two hundred. I’ve come to accept this yearly cycle, and I try to budget my time accordingly.
But there is a strangely good upswing to the fog. You know how some people say, “write drunk, edit sober?” Allergy season is basically two months of writing drunk for free!
Gone are all considerations of what society deems acceptable. I got out of bed, and I will write whatever I want as a reward for leaving my covers. Sense says I can’t extend the series to include a fourth book, allergies say yes I can! I can’t see out of my drippy right eye, but I’ll get through jotting down another novel in no time!
Okay, so maybe there is a dangerous side. Summer Megan might be really pissed at Spring Megan for allowing her characters to reach such compromising positions. But the cocktail of Zyrtec, Sudafed, and Benadryl says everyone deserves a little joy. And if that joy involves naked time, so be it!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from living in a brain haze for a chunk of the year, it’s to just keep powering through and fix it in post. I would rather edit two months of unreasonable adventures in writing than have a giant gap where I’ve created nothing. And sometimes that devil may care attitude is just what you need.
The freedom to throw up your hands and say, “I don’t have the energy to fight my characters if they want to take their pants off so badly.” To boldly look at your computer and say, “I will not cut one third of this book and try and tie up the story without extending the series.” To open an email from your publisher asking you for a blog on spring and shout to the world, “This is my antihistamine-induced opinion of your pretty flowers!”
For all of you lucky people out there who can walk through a spring garden without an emergency stash of allergy pills, I encourage you to take risks this spring! Write as though you no longer have the ability to care about what is expected of you. Let yourself fall down the rabbit hole of your characters like you don’t have the strength to shovel yourself out.
It could lead you to somewhere wonderful that you never would have discovered if you sat down everyday expecting a high word count that perfectly follows your outline. Give yourself the freedom to fail without regret for a little while. If you hate what you have, that’s what editing is for. If you love it, you can thank me in tissues.
Get Your Copy Today!
Boy of Blood
by Megan O’Russell
Series: Girl of Glass
YA Dystopia
Fiery Seas Publishing
Publishing Date: April 10, 2018
After Nightland’s vicious attack on the domes, the safety and perfection of the world within the glass has been contaminated. Desperate to rebuild, outsiders are allowed into the domes to help, breaking the cardinal rule: outsiders and Domers must always be separated. But the city is in shambles, crumbling into chaos without the Vampers of Nightland to keep order, and one name is carried on the wind: Nola.
Clinging to Jeremy, Nola struggles to find a way to exist in the domes, turning her back on all she learned in the city. But when one of the outsiders brings the dark secrets of the domes to light, the line between survival and murder blurs against the spectre of the dying world.
Can Nola follow the dark path laid out by the Domes? Will the dangers of the night become her new sanctuary?
About the Author:
Megan O’Russell is the author of the young adult fantasy series The Tethering, and Nuttycracker Sweet, a Christmas novella. Megan’s short stories can also be found in several anthologies, including Athena’s Daughters 2, featuring women in speculative fiction. Megan is a professional performer who has spent time on stages across the country and is the lyrist for Second Chances: The Thrift Shop Musical, which received it’s world premier in 2015. When not on stage or behind a computer, Megan can usually be found playing her ukulele or climbing a mountain with her fantastic husband.
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