{Click Here for part one, and Here for part two}
Ok, so back to my editor. So he’s had the book sitting in his inbox for a week and hasn’t been able to do anything with it cause he’s amazingly busy as I mentioned earlier. And I’m starting to get close to red on the panic gauge. Not a fun time to be around me. Imagine me walking around coaching myself on breathing. Got the picture? And praying, always praying. And also realizing that really, no matter what happens God is in control and the book is going to happen some time or another.
So, one day I was exhausted. I climb into bed for a nap and then right before I close my eyes I decide to check my phone for any emails, because by this time I’m checking my phone about every two minutes hoping for updates from any of the various people involved with the project. Oh yes, side note, all during this time I’d been going over this huge problem in my head. Like going over it 24/7. You see, we needed to pitch the creation book that had to do with caving to AiG, because that was where their interest was at the moment. But, it was the forth book out of the six that I had written. Therefore, it was right in the middle of everything. And it just wasn’t going to work. Well, it could work, but then I wouldn’t be able to use the other books like I was hoping to in the future. I’m being serious when I say that my brain just kept churning the problem over, and over and over in my head trying to figure out what to do. And my mom (not adopted one) and older sister and I had been praying about a way to fix that right before I had gone to take a nap, but no ideas had come.
And then I checked my email. And there was an email from my editor (oh, happy day!), and he said something, and just the way he worded it, I suddenly had the most brilliant idea EVER. Yes, that’s not quite true, but oh well. I suddenly realized a way that I could take part of book one, and part of book four and put them together to create the perfect (ha! not really, you know what I mean though) book that had the caving adventure that AiG was looking for, plus it gave the characters intro’s like they needed and didn’t drop readers into the middle of learning that CJ was trying to get more light hearted or that the Carters were moving or… Yeah, you get the picture.
So yeah, jumping out of bed I flew to my computer (not really) and began pounding away, sending emails, texts and phone calls, just to make sure everyone was alright with it, then changing the book up and getting the new and improved book to the editor and the illustrator and… Yeah, I’m getting tired just remembering all of this!
And then I went to Hawaii. During a time that I needed to be focused on the book, I was in lovely Hawaii. But I still focused on the book. As in, the last thing I did before getting on the plane was sending emails and receiving them from my editor. And then working on it throughout the flight. Then calling my adopted parents to work through everything when we had our first layover. You get the picture?
My editor had gotten the first draft of the editing to me right before we left, so I was working on that on the flight, and then as soon, and I mean AS SOON as I could sit down and get my computer out of the bag once we had landed in Hawaii (which happened to be by the luggage pick-up area), I plugged in my computer and set to work getting all the changes I had made back to him.
And so it went. Me emailing him during very busy times, and then checking my phone constantly. Me texting my adopted parents, and then texting them and texting them and texting them. Plus, there was a six hour time difference. So, if there was something my adopted parents needed to know right away, they would text me and it would be in the middle of the night in Hawaii, so I would wake up, answer the text and then go back to sleep. This happened probably about half of the nights we were there. I loved it. Seriously, it was so cool.
One afternoon I was in the rental van outside a music store where my bro (the aforemetioned one, David) was buying a ukulele (what else would any self-respecting musical person do in Hawaii?) and I was on the phone to my adopted dad, trying to figure out what to name the series. We wanted something like ‘adventure’ but since Dad’s DVD series has that word in the title, we thought it would be confusing to go with that word. So we talked about it. We through this idea out and then this one. Each one was pretty much shot down right away, but we could not think of what it should be!
Then my dad (not adopted) and grandma got back in the van (even though everyone else was still in the music store) and so I asked them if they had any ideas of a word we could use. Dad got out his laptop and typed ‘adventure’ into the thesaurus. Then he began reading off the words. Maybe the fifth word he got to made me want to squeal in delight. It was a word I had recently just about fallen in love with (even though I don’t fall in love with words, but if I did, this would be one of them) because of a song. The word is Quest.
And the Creation Quest Series was born.
Noveltea 
Wow, Aidyl. If your books are even half as good as the story behind them, they're going to be great! Since you started posting about your writing story, I've been checking my blogger dashboard for the next installment. Lol. I guess your story inspires me because we're probably pretty close in age and it's nice to see someone else who's young achieve their goals. Keep up the great work! 🙂
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So yeah, I need you to post the rest of the story, not soon, not even tomorrow morning, but pretty much RIGHT NOW!!!
Of course I know the ending…but I just want to read the whole thing and you know how patient I am. Haaa
-Tu Hermanita
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I've always loved the word quest. 🙂 Great job figuring it all out!
Rebecca
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Goodness, Ashley! You sure know how to make me feel good! Thanks for your lovely comment. =)
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Awww, you guys are so sweet. I'm glad you like it so much! The rest should be coming soon. (Yes, there's much more!)
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Quest… Doesn't it make you want to sigh in delight?
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