Patti O'Shea's Blog

When I was writing The Power of Two, I used to take these twenty minute power naps. They were enough to refresh my brain, but not so long that I ended up feeling groggy when I got up. This seemed like a good solution for me yesterday. I’d do a power nap, wake up refreshed, get a lot of work done, and then be able to sleep that night. Sounded like a good plan.

I left my blinds open so it wouldn’t be dark. I didn’t turn my air cleaner on because I’m used to sleeping with that running. Twenty minutes, I told my subconscious/higher self/unconscious.

An hour and fifteen minutes later….

I finally woke up. I was groggy and had a hard time focusing my thoughts. I was also pretty awake at 10pm, but I had to try to go to bed because I get up at 4am. I’m not sure how long I tossed and turned last night, but it was a while, and this time, I didn’t get any brilliant ideas for the WIP.

So I’m tired. Again. I overslept. Again. I’ll have to answer comments later because I’m pushing right now and I’m moving at about quarter speed–both mentally and physically.

On a slightly more interesting note, I found a blog where my books and writing are liked! I swear I didn’t search my name. I don’t do that anymore. I was hesitant about checking it out because if people don’t like my books, I’m much happier not knowing. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because she reviewed Shards of Crimson and had some interesting observations. The one that caught me had to do with Kimi’s age.

My original plan was to write Kimi when she was older, like done with college and out in the world for a couple of years, but I couldn’t because it’s part of the series and we had to stick closer to that time frame. Because I was stuck with Kimi being 19 in Through a Crimson Veil, the most I could age her was to 20. I think she grew up a lot during the course of the book, but she was young enough that she was still learning who she was. That made things dicey for me because Nic was much older (he’s a demon and long lived) and I didn’t want her molded by him. Does that make sense? I was hoping that by the end of the story, that the reader had a sense that she’d grown up enough and had developed enough confidence in herself, to hold her own with Nic.

But I do wonder what she would have been like and what the story would have been like if I’d written her when she was older. I write by listening to the characters, so her age would have changed everything.