Slowly Writing and Re-Writing Only by Moonlight

I've been having some pretty serious physical difficulties over the past couple of months. I've been diagnosed with a bevy of autoimmune illnesses, depending on which doctor I've seen: first it was fibromyalgia, then rheumatoid arthritis, then chronic fatigue syndrome. Now I'm being tested for mitochrondrial diseases. 

Despite the variance in diagnoses, the end result is over a decade of chronic pain that is somewhat controlled by eight methadone pills per day and a great deal of sheer exhaustion. I've overworked myself since the first of the year, and life is catching up to me at the moment. 

After completing Pinned but Fluttering, I took January and February off from writing. In early March I picked back up with my new story, Only by Moonlight. The response to the Prologue and first chapter have been amazing, but I've really struggled with the second chapter. 

Then this week it dawned on me: because this story was written in third person limited omniscient point of view, I was feeling too distant from my characters. As I drafted, I felt that I was "telling" more than "showing"--relating the story through a filter of distance rather than capturing the raw emotion and reactions of a first person narrator. 

So I've since rewritten both the first chapter and the half to two-thirds of the second chapter of Only by Moonlight in first person. I'll be switching the new first chapters on Wattpad and FanFiction.net later today and will keep working on Chapter Two.

And I do have an image of Bella's quilt for Chapter Two that I'll be posting when I upload the chapter. :)  

So thank you for your kind understanding of my physical condition, my busy schedule of homeschooling three teen boys (one graduating this year), teaching an overly-full high school class in expository writing, and teaching online courses for homeschooling families at Brave Writer, plus keeping my own essay grading business afloat. 

I took this week off after Easter--no homeschooling, no teaching, no grading, and it's helped some, but I really need an additional week or two (or perhaps a month) off in order to feel a real change in my health. 

But I'm also missing the creative outlet of writing fiction, so I shall continue, albeit more slowly and painfully than I would like. ;) 

BTW, I'm thrilled that Pinned but Fluttering has passed 1.6 million reads on Wattpad (and an overall total of nearly 15,000 votes on all my works combined there) plus over 1500 reviews on FanFiction.net. 

And even the mere seven pages I've posted of Only by Moonlight has garnered over 90 votes and over 100 comments on Wattpad plus 64 reviews on FanFiction.net; the reads/views on each site are comparable at about 1200 each. Thank you for reading, voting, commenting, and reviewing my stories!! You all just overwhelm me with your love and support!! :)

And if you're interested in the fan fiction stories I've been reading, check the sidebar under "Fics I Have Read in 2013" for a complete list of all the completed stories I've been following. :)

Thanks again for your compassion and understanding, and I hope to be posting more chapters for you soon. :)

Warmly,
Cassandra :) 
xxxooo