Limbs vs. Limps

I know the difference. I swear. I swear on the life of my mother, my father, even on the lives of my two precious, adorable, frickin' awesome guinea pigs.

Well then, Arreana, why is it that whenever someone's limbs go limp, you write 'limps go limb'?

I don't know.

If someone is 'limping' I'll invariably type 'limbing'

If someone has 'limbs' I'll say that they have 'limps'

I've convinced myself, in a fit of self-loathing over the limp-limb phenomenon, that everyone has at least one chronic typo they can't overcome. Right? I mean, surely I can't be the only one with a problem.

Also... 'withouth'. Why the 'h'? Why, fingers, do you feel the compulsive need to press that button? Let's see if I can type this sentence withouth -- BAH!

Dear readers, don't obsesses over these things or you'll end up as neurotic and as me.

Dear Arreana, never publish a novel withouth first making sure that limps aren't limbs and limping is limbing - no! Limping not limbing.

...And I just saw that second 'withouth' typo. You know what? I'm going to leave it there as a testament to my ongoing struggle.

The Beginning of my End

When I put it that way it sounds very dramatic, but there you have it. For years I've been writing now, from my first hormonal-charged mess at the age twelve to my most recent (and still cloistered) novel 'The Scorpion King'. In all I've written a total of eleven completed novels, but I've never really shared any of them. Now here I am, with 'Farro' and ready to do the impossible -- the unthinkable: try out self-publishing.

Yeah, me and a million other people. Will I be a success? No, probably not. Will I make enough money to finally buy myself that Welsh Corgi Puppy my husband and I have been pining for? Maybe.

I wrote 'Farro' on an impulse. I sat down, and without any planning or plotting, I just... wrote it. In three weeks. It was a mess, but an entertaining mess. So I let it simmer on the back burner a bit as I tampered with the Scorpion King (a research-based monster) and tried picking it up again. It was worse than I'd thought. Think of cooking a really good stew in a really awful pot; you let it cook down for a couple hours, stirring it occasionally, but when you finally dish it up there's this thick layer of sludge burnt onto the bottom. That was 'Farro'. That was my challenge.

I'm rewriting, editing, and - quite frankly - taking all my verbal, self-flagellation too seriously in regards to this novel. For all my struggling I can say this much about myself: I'm not perfect but I'm dedicated. I truly love writing, even if I'll never make a living off it. I don't write for money or fame, nor do I write for the popular market. I write for the satisfaction of it, for the joy of creating a character I love to completely antagonize, and I also write for those people that have read my work and made me feel like a million bucks by saying, "Yeah, go for it."

So okay, here I go!

Begin reading Farro online!