I'm Baaaacck!

     I haven't done much posting in the last few months, between the kids being back at school and working on both a short story and a novel.  I just finished up the short story, and am submitting it to Tor.com, so let's all cross our fingers that they'll love it as much as I do!

     The novel has been tougher to work on, simply because of its scope and size, and I'm a much more "hands on with a pen" person when it comes to edits.  Hopefully I can carve out a little time each week to work on it and get it ready for publication.  

     Oddly enough, my best successes have been personal stories about my life and family, but my short story and novel are complete fantasy.  The only similarity is that I've been writing these characters since I was 12, so to me they feel very much like my own personal story.  I am pretty hard on myself, so I've edited a lot, which sometimes means big re-writes throughout different sections.  I'm desperate to have my audience love my characters as much as I do, and sometimes I re-read and realize I've got to explain something that's in my head but not on the page.  

     Any fiction/creative writers out there?  What do you find is your biggest challenge?