Storms at Noon, Sun by Evening

Today’s weather in Illinois can’t quite decide on a mood. At noon, thunderstorms break across the sky, but by mid-afternoon it’s intermittent clouds and warmth, climbing into the high 70s before cooling again tonight. A day that carries both tension and ease — storm, calm, brightness, rest.

That rhythm feels close to my writing and publishing life right now. A storm when I first put The Inextinguishable Marie Kelly into the world without resources to market it. Calm as I realized I needed to change course. Brightness now, as I ready myself to query agents and step toward traditional publishing. And rest soon, when I unpublish the ebook version and let the next stage begin.

Word Count Update

• Starting point today: 50,063 words

• Today’s final count: 57,787 words

• Progress so far: +7,724 words

• Distance to personal goal (60,000): 2,213 words left

I set 60,000 as my personal milestone — the base camp where I can stop, catch my breath, and look back at how far I’ve climbed. But the real summit rises higher. Most adult horror and literary novels live in the 80,000–100,000 word range. That’s where I’m headed next.

Marie Kelly’s Farewell Window
As of today, The Inextinguishable Marie Kelly and The Resistance Chronicles:The Awakening Of Clara Hayes is available for $0.99 on Amazon. For the next few weeks, that’s where it will stay. After that, I’ll be unpublishing it as I step fully toward traditional publishing.

Why bother? Because this is your chance to see where Marie Kelly started — raw, imperfect, but mine. The book that taught me I could not only write, but write something great. When it returns, it will be in a new form — a leap forward in authorship and in my own confidence. If you’d like to read it in this moment, this version, now’s the time.

[Amazon Link]

The Leap
What I’m chasing now isn’t permanence on a sales page. It isn’t clinging to the first version of myself that made it into print.

What I’m chasing is the climb. 60,000 words is base camp — proof I can get this far, proof I can survive the storm and find rhythm again. But the summit is higher. Unpublishing Marie Kelly and Clara Hayes isn’t stepping down the mountain. It’s leaving behind a trail marker and pushing upward, carrying only what makes me stronger.

Every storm, every calm, every return of brightness is part of the rhythm. And the rhythm is this: I can write great. I do write great. And I’m not done yet.

—A.L. Bellettiere