UPDATE: The winner is…Misty Dawn!
*~*~*

I’m currently suffering from a flabby middle.

I don’t mean the rolls that come with middle age, although I do have those. I’m talking about the flabby middle of my current book. The halfway point when the story can get mired and struggle to make headway toward the happy ending. Add the fact this is the second book in a trilogy, and I’m dealing with a double whammy: I’m in the flabby middle of the flabby middle. It’s quicksand for an author, and I’m up to my ears in it.

I love this aging-cyborg trilogy and I had such high hopes for this second book. Such enthusiasm for these characters and this story… but it all just seems to wander around aimlessly. No focus, no energy, no—Gasp!—mojo. Something is seriously wrong with my story!

These are the times when an author sits down and has a heart-to-heart with her characters. I don’t mind my characters running amuck with my anticipated plot… as long as they’re, you know, moving in some direction even if it’s not the one I’d planned for them. But my conversations with my characters are like talking to my teen children. Lots of mumbling, some grunting, eye-rolling, and heaving sighs. You know, real mature behavior coming from characters who are in their thirties! *gives characters the stink eye*

Or maybe I’m the problem. Beginning late last year, I’ve undertaken being in charge of my unmarried, aging aunt… her finances, her health, her wellbeing, and her neglected house. All this from a state away. It’s been an enormous and very-daily responsibility, and it has zapped my creative juices. The care and feeding of active teens have evaporated the rest. I’m in the flabby middle of my life, mired in obligations and struggling to make headway.

My muse is depleted to a greater extent than even during last year’s quarantine crisis. The spirit is willing to write, but my focus, my energy, my—Gasp!—mojo is gone.

But enough whining! This all shall pass and I will emerge on the other side of this saggy middle—my life and my cyborg book—with a strong, engaging story my readers will love! In the meantime, I’m celebrating placing second in the PRISM contest’s Sci-fi/Futuristic category with the first book of my cyborg trilogy, Tin Man. And I’m giving away a $10 Amazon gift card to a random winner for commenting on something (big or small) in your own life you’d like to celebrate!

About Ava Cuvay

Ava Cuvay is an award-winning bestselling author of Sci-fi Romance featuring sassy heroines, gutsy heroes, passion, and adventure… often set in a galaxy far, far away. She resides in central Indiana with her own scruffy-looking nerfherder and kiddos who remind her daily she’s not nearly as cool and hip as she thinks. She believes life is too short to bother with negative people, everything is better with Champagne, and Han Solo shot first. When not writing, Ava is thinking about writing. Or wine. And she’s always thinking about bacon.

website: https://www.avacuvay.com/
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Ava-Cuvay/e/B01E5OIZ0I
Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15051407.Ava_Cuvay
Facebook: https://facebook.com/AvaCuvayAuthor/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ava-cuvay