Why Jo?

Oh hey, blog! Long time, no . . .

Okay, yeah. It hasn't even been that long since my last entry. It just feels extraordinarily long to me because I've tried three or four times now to post something and each time I get halfway through my entry and realize I'm not even making sense.

And then comes the delete button.

Plus I feel like I'm running out of interesting questions to ask myself. Does anyone out there have a question they'd like answered? Because I'm tired of talking about all the things I normally talk about.

Ahem. Speaking of questions, today's is about my author name: Heidi Jo Doxey. Why the Jo?

Well, first of all, I'm only planning to use Heidi Jo Doxey for fiction books I write. I'll stick with Heidi Doxey for everything else.

Second of all, I didn't just make it up for the aesthetics. My middle name is actually Joanne. I'm named after my grandma, Joanne Bushman Doxey.

She's pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. Check out this article about her in the Ensign. Or this video of the Tabernacle Choir singing a song she wrote.

I had always planned on passing on the middle name "Joanne" to one of my daughters, but just in case that never happens, I figured I might as well get some more use out of it myself first. Because I love my grandma and I hope that what I'm doing as a writer will honor the legacy she's given our family.

So that's the biggest reason. But there are also some bonus perks.

By using Heidi Jo Doxey for my novels, I get to keep them somewhat separate from Tiny Talks and sort of distinguish between the nonfiction books I write and the fiction books I write. I'm not sure if this will actually prove useful for anyone except me—right now it seems to be more of a nuisance than anything. But I like it because at least in my mind it's like I have two separate writing careers, each with different goals, projects, and priorities.

Another thing I like is that the name Jo already sounds authorial. It reminds me of Jo March and J.K. Rowling. I could use some of their karma.

And finally, signing books as Heidi Jo Doxey means I have a fancier signature. I know. It's silly. But when you're sitting in your college classes, not taking notes on the psych lecture you're supposed to be listening to, you have a lot of time to scribble in your notebook and practice your signature—just in case you ever become rich/famous. And trust me, after all that practicing and several variations, Heidi Jo Doxey was by far the coolest-looking version I came up with.

I just had to write a book so I could use it.

And speaking of my books, I have a few bits and pieces of author news to share:

1. May 12th is only 80 days away. Crazy!

2a. I'm closing in on halfway done with my first draft of The Jane Journals book 2. :)

This is my chart I use to track my progress. In case you can't tell from the blurry picture, I'm at 18000 words out of roughly 40000. I tend to add not subtract when I rewrite, so I aim low with my first draft and then make up the difference. In case you're interested, the final word count on book 1 was 49176.

2b. I may have also come up with a title for book 2, but I'm going to keep mum on that for now.

3. The board book I've got coming out in August is now up for pre-order on Amazon.

It's called 1, 2, 3 with Nephi and Me! and I'm really excited to see how it turns out. So far the illustrator has done an awesome job. Check it out if you're interested.

4. We almost have a final title in place for the sharing time resource book I'll be writing for a November release. I wrote the ad copy for it the other day, so I will keep you all posted on that book too.

So many books! It's awesome. I love being an author.

Phew. I finished a post without pressing delete. Go me!