Hello again and welcome back to the Writing Desk. It’s been a busy three days in the Sloan household! We’ve been occupied with early Christmas shopping, craft projects, and oh yes… my step daughter had her first car accident.

Don’t worry! She’s fine! There were no other vehicles involved; it’s more a scare than anything else. But it certainly made for an interesting Thursday night. Fortunately, she’s entirely safe; the car took all the damage just as it is supposed to. We spent this morning helping her sort out towing, insurance, and all the other fun details. She’s handling it like a champion, actually, and we’re very proud of her.

So that’s what’s been going on in our neck of the woods… Oh, and there has been some writing happening too, hasn’t there?  Drum roll please……

The current word count is……

Twenty-Thousand Words!

Yes folks, that’s right! On top of errands and emergencies I’ve also managed 2,000 words a day since I last checked in! All of those beautiful 6,000 words have been in the Hope in Darkness series, as planned. At this point it looks like How Can I Help will be splitting into (at least) two books. (What’s that? You thought I’d sent How Can I Help to the editing team? Silly, silly! Of course I wouldn’t jump the gun and issue a manuscript the night I finished it. What sort of amateur would do that? *glances around nervously* The good news is that everything I’ve done has just been added to the Revision A manuscript. All the editing feedback I get will still be helpful; just incomplete. Hehehe…)

I have also made great progress on the manuscript tentatively titled Tips, Tricks, Traps and Tools which is kind of the mirror of How Can I Help.

How Can I Help is aimed as those who have someone in their life who is suffering with depression. It’s for parents, friends, teachers, bosses, siblings, and others who want to know how best to support the depressed people they love.

Tips, Tricks, Traps and Tools on the other hand is written to my fellow depression-afflicted. It’s my collected wisdom on the day-in, day-out of living under the cloud. This manuscript also is probably going to be split into multiple booklets, although I’m not sure yet how I’ll organize them.

Also in the pipeline (but much less developed) are books dealing with “things no one tells you about your depression”, “lies your depression wants you to believe”, “scripture to give hope and healing”, and “depression treatments”. (Note: “depression treatments” are things like therapy and medication, which I’m discussing separately from Tips, Tricks, Traps and Tools.)

If you have a particular topic you’d like to see covered, please leave a comment below or shoot me an email and I will put it on the list!