Sunday I finished the second draft of The Trail Rules, which I wrote over the summer, so it’s perfectly logical that today I’m starting the first draft of The Edge Rules, the next book in the series.

Right?

If you’ve known me for any length of time, you’ve heard of National Novel Writing Month — aka NaNoWriMo — an annual competition to write a novel in a month. I’ve competed six times and won (finished) three, but my favorite part is the camaraderie among writers. We already spend a lot of time together online, but NaNo is the one time of year that A LOT of us are all starting on page one on the same day.

This new book will be the third and final book in The Rules Series and tells the story of Brianna, the absolutely awful mean girl from The Slope Rules. Ever since I wrote TSR, I’ve dreamed of someday telling Brianna’s story because, let’s be honest, no one is that horrible without a reason. Plus it’s fun to convince people to root for a character they don’t like.

Last weekend, Jeremy and I saw the musical Wicked (finally!), which tells “the unstory of the witches of Oz.” In particular, it explains how the Wicked Witch of the West became so wicked. She didn’t start off that way, but people judged her a certain way, then circumstances made her bitter until she became the evil creature we know from the Wizard of Oz. When we bought the tickets over the summer, I didn’t know we’d be seeing the performance days before I started writing Brianna’s story, but it’s worked out beautifully.

Now I can’t wait to get started.

Are you participating? Buddy me! I’m melaniehoo.

Also, I’ll be at Schuler Books on 28th Street tomorrow (11/2) for their local author night. I’d love to see you there!