October 2025: Morning meetings

Hey everyone!

Angie’s had a life full of gaps—friends across the world she hasn’t seen for long stretches, weeks away followed by homecomings, extended breaks from her work in education. Each return brings its own nervous energy. Will things pick up where we left off? Will students remember how the classroom works? Will her people be the same?

She’s learned that the formula is simple: approach the return with a good attitude and an open heart. Trust her ability to reconnect. Know she’ll have what she needs.

So what does all this have to do with writing?

Well, we’re back to work on Wolfe’s Blood. And it brings its own nervous energy—will we sync up again? Will we argue? How will we do it? What are we going to work on? Is it too early?

So let’s talk about the return, the work, and what it all means.

The Return

The past few months have been rough. They brought sadness, mourning, and recovery.

So when David reached out a few weeks ago to return to the regular weekday morning meetings, Angie was excited!

She woke up early and made sure she had already eaten her breakfast so she could be fully focused—like the first day back at school. Her open-hearted approach meant the excitement outweighed any nervousness.

David felt differently. He was anxious. His life was still returning to normal, but he knew he needed to get back to work. He’d made commitments to Angie and to finishing the book.

To balance these two opposing energies, we chose an easy step back in.

The Work

Instead of diving straight into new writing, we decided to address Angie’s notes.

Months ago, Angie had read through the last draft and commented on story issues, character motivation problems, disagreements with a word or phrase, and needs for clarity about a sentence. Sometimes she’d leave a note that she liked a particular moment or line.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

So on returning to the work, David is going through each of them, making changes, finding solutions, or simply giving Angie’s notes of praise a little “(k)” before moving on. Most of the time, it’s pretty easy work.

Then in the morning meetings, we review the responses, weigh the solutions, and move through all the notes as quickly as we can.

After five books and almost 30 years of knowing each other, we know how to work together—discussing rather than arguing, focusing on what’s best for the story rather than egos.

What It All Means

For Angie, the system of a scheduled day isn’t boring or annoying—it’s grandly productive and helpful, a formula for success and completion. Her openness to the work means it feels like they haven’t skipped a beat, and she’s confident it will lead to an excellent finale.

For David, having concrete problems to solve provides focus and structure. He wasn’t nervous about the return, but the work itself has opened him back up, just a little—helping him rebuild his world.

Until next time, happy reading!

Angie & David​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​