I haven’t made an update about my book in a little while, mostly because I’ve been working on it for so long that at this point I’m embarrassed to even mention it :D I have been working on it this entire time though! Actually I kind of drove myself crazy with it.

Over the past few months I’ve gone over the entire thing again, this time keeping an eye on writing technique (“show, don’t tell,” use strong verbs rather than adjectives, omit needless words, use active voice, etc.). This was useful because there were a few parts of the book that I wasn’t 100% satisfied with, and these writing techniques helped me see how I could improve those parts.

For example-
Before:
“It was very dark when I arrived. It felt salty and slightly humid.”

After:
“I couldn’t make out the beach in the dark, but I could hear the waves breaking in the distance. The air felt salty and slightly humid, though I could sense that I was in the desert.”

- But- when I edited those two sentences, for example, I also had to do some research and check if what I wrote was accurate… Where was I exactly, and was that coastline considered to be a desert? -Yes, it turns out that a coastal desert is one of four types of deserts! (Not Desserts!! -also gotta check the spelling/grammar…) :)

So over the past few months I’ve basically gone over every word of every sentence in the book and changed little things. This didn’t come to me naturally, so sometimes I would struggle with one or two sentences (or even one word) for hours, or even days. Sometimes I gave up and reverted back to what I had before. This wasn’t good for my mental health (or for some people around me), but I’m done with that now and I think in the end I have a better book.

Yesterday I sent my book to two wonderful people for proofreading, so if they have time to give me feedback that would be fantastic, if not that’s fine as well (I’ve gone over it like fifty billion times already so it really shouldn’t have any obvious mistakes).

Either way, I will put the book on hold for the next few months to deal with our money situation. I feel really awful that I’ve been living with @Tio and his family for so long and I haven’t contributed anything because I’ve been so trapped in this book and I ran out of money. I was always planning to pay them back for their amazing hospitality though, so if the book never sells, I will go back to the job game, somewhere, somehow. Hopefully soon.

There is an added layer to the bullshit we have to deal with though… Tio and I got “married” in 2020 so that I could stay with him in Europe. But getting “married” is not enough to have legal status. In order to stay and work here legally, I need to get a “family member card.” But I cannot get this card if my “husband” doesn’t have a job which pays him over 1,000 euros/month- so imagine that, they’re saying that if you’re poor, your partner doesn’t deserve “legal status”- and also cannot work here to help you with your “being poor” problem… That is discrimination written in the law.

So we’ll try to get this card another way, but it may not be possible for a while. And imagine this- the only way to sort this shit out is to pay a lawyer! (Which of course we cannot afford, but it seems that there is no other option.)

And since I’m here with an “irregular status,” this also means that I shouldn’t leave Europe until we get this sorted (or else I can get deported or who knows…)- and that means that I can’t just go back to Hawaii or something and play the job game there…

Anyway, we’ll see how that goes!

bigworldsmallsasha.com/book