Yes indeedy, I finished my fourth novel. Granted it’s 1st draft quality and will require much editing, as they always do, but to finish is a great accomplishment, one I am both grateful to get to do and excited about.
This one, called Hide and Seek is, of course, my new favorite. I finished at 99,156 words which in page-count (like the size of a paperback that you’d buy from Target?) is about 397 pages. Yes, that will be cut down in editing, but it all had to be written to be edited.
When I look back on what I’ve learned in the course of writing, it’s tremendous. I can’t thank my friends enough for their constructive criticism that pushed me to better writing and better storytelling. Without them, I’d have done the same thing over and over, but I don’t anymore and that makes my 1st drafts closer to 2nd drafts in much needed 3rd and 4th draft formats. 
Where to now? Novel #5 of course. When I started writing last May I thought I’d come up with one story and that would be it. Apparently, my head is full. So while Lexi and Tripp have reached their romantic end (and let me say that the end of Hide and Seek is my ultimate favorite to-date) Cassie and Zach need to get back moving. They’re sitting waiting for me to pull them from a really bad dinner date. 
Where are you with your writing? What accomplishments have you reached today?
Aimee Laine is my pen name. I am a North Carolina photographer who moonlights as a writer.
My articles "The Making of the Vagina Monologues" and "It's all in the Details" were published in 2009 in local media including my town's newspaper and a prominent local magazine.
As a business owner, I have been single handedly responsible for all written materials and regularly include personal stories as well as short works in our studio's newsletters and other print publications since 2005.
I'll tell you that the success of my high profile photography business is in the emotion filled messages that accompany the images published in the studio's blog.
I live in Apex, North Carolina with my gorgeous husband Ron, our son and identical twin girls.
I finished the first draft of my first novel, Mirage, June 1, 2009. 
