Busy Bee

So much is happening this fall! Things are getting very busy for me in the best and most exciting ways.

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I am very excited to announce that July 1 is the release date of my upcoming novel, In the Blood: Book One of The Blood Royal Saga!

The ebook is now available for presale at several online retailers.

Paperbacks are available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. When others become available, I will post those as well.

Since In the Blood is at the printers, and a large part of what I have to do involves waiting, I thought I’d do a sort of cornucopia of things I’m doing or that I find interesting.

Editing

I’ve got some editing work lined up for a book by another author which I’m planning to publish later this year. It’s a sci fi novel, which is nothing like anything I would write myself, but it’s FANTASTIC, and I’m very excited to help this writer bring his story to readers.

Once we’ve done a contract and things are finalized between us, you’ll hear about that since I’ll be working with him very closely throughout the process. All I can say right now is that I’m thrilled, and I can’t wait to make it happen.

Family

My mom had knee replacement surgery three and a half weeks ago, so I’ve been caught up with helping her with her recovery from that. Things were difficult at first, but before the end of the week, home health will be discharging her, and she can begin outpatient physical therapy. By this time next year, I expect her to be much more active, and you will probably hear about some of our adventures together camping and traveling in our tent. She’s really looking forward to getting back to that level of independence, and it’s not far away now.

Word Cloud

I thought it would be fun to do a word cloud to show the most common words I use on this blog. Turns out, the biggest word is “writing,” which shouldn’t be surprising at all. “Work,” “book,” “write,” “story,” and “books” seem to feature prominently as well, along with “time”  and “can.” These all seem both appropriate and positive and exactly what I would expect from a writer.

Bullet Journaling

I don’t know if you’ve heard about bullet journaling. I hadn’t until this past April, but man, now that I’ve started, I am obsessed with it.

It’s revived my love of doodling and calligraphy, which I love, and I really do feel like it’s made me more productive and organized. Plus, it’s just plain fun. So much more so than keeping a regular planner would be. It’s like planner meets scrapbook meets coloring book meets journal, all in one. I bought myself a bunch of supplies for decorating it, and it’s really made it a much more entertaining and interesting hobby. Best of all, the bullet journal is literally whatever you decide to make it. You have total creative freedom to organize and create it in whatever way works best for you.

If it looks like something you’re interested in, googling “bullet journal” or looking it up on Instagram or Pinterest will give you a ton of cool ideas to try. I also bought some books on cool lettering techniques, and I’m still experimenting with them.

Gardening

I’ve become an avid hobbist gardener, and this year we decided to dedicate our garden specifically to food that we could use in a salad. We planted two kinds of lettuce, curly kale, spinach, radishes, carrots, peppers, and cherry tomatoes. In addition, we’re also growing peas and yellow squash.

The raised bed made of concrete blocks sits up high enough we can sit on the edge to weed or harvest without having to strain to reach things.

In the past, I’ve used upcycled wooden pallets, but now that we have the raised bed garden, it’s unnecessary. We are fast approaching a time when it’ll be too hot for the lettuce, so we’ll have to find something else to plant in its place.

This week, I’ll be picking all of the spinach and kale that remains so it can be blanched and then frozen for use in eggs later on.

Other Writing

Here’s a roundup of my writing plans for the near future:

• In the Blood comes out July 1st.
• Book Two, Out for Blood, is currently being edited, and I plan to have it ready to be published this winter.
• Book Three, Trial by Blood, is well begun with about a third of the novel already written. It will be released in 2018.

But The Blood Royal Saga books are not the only thing I have plans to write.

• I’m working on a hard cover coffee table book with my mother about our trip to Newfoundland. It’ll have photographs as well as our retelling of events. I’m hoping to have that book published this winter as well.
• I have a YA novel I want to write that is Viking related. I don’t want to say too much and spoil things, but I’m very excited about the story.
• A friend of mine and I are planning a collaboration that’s got to do with pirates and werewolves.
• She and I are also discussing a collaborative vampire novel, and I’m extremely excited about this possibility.
• I’ve got several urban fantasy/supernatural/horror short stories in the works. Some will be sent off to journals and anthology publishers, but others will be published by me.

Various and Sundry

For a summary of everything I’ve talked/posted about over the last week, here’s my Paper.li page with all the stuff in it.

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All last winter and this spring, I’ve been finishing my manuscript, and then setting up my business in order to get the ball rolling with publishing In the Blood: Book One of The Blood Royal Saga, the first novel in my vampire series. Now that the manuscript is out of my hands and July 1st is set as the publication date, it’s time for me to shift gears from doing behind the scenes work to doing things out in public.

Being an author is a very private undertaking. Most of the time, I write in my office alone (other than my dogs, of course). But gearing up to sell the book means putting on my publicist hat, and that’s a whole different mindset.

Stepping out of my hermit-like surroundings, I will be going out into the world and meeting with people face-to-face. I’ll be sending out emails and posting on social media.  I’ll be contacting reviewers and scheduling some events. I’ll be setting up book signings and attending any conventions or book events that I think will help me connect with readers who like the sort of book I have written. I’ll pay for some advertising. I will likely do a few podcasts related to the book. I’ll go to meet with bookstore owners and managers to ask them to stock copies of the book on their shelves, particularly those in my home state where I would be listed as a local author.

I’m also planning a big party to celebrate my hard work. Though I’ll have books on hand for those who want a signed copy, that isn’t the purpose of the party. I think it’s important to stop for a moment and recognize my accomplishment. Not because I want to be patted on the back by others, but because I think it’s important to acknowledge all that hard work for myself and to celebrate its completion.

I joked with my cousin today that I feel like I’ve just given birth, and it has been the longest labor ever. That deserves a party.

When the book is finally printed and in my hands, I hope that it’s a beautiful baby. But if it has flaws, I’m going to remember that it’s my first, not the only, book I’ll ever write. It may not be the best book I will ever write either, but it’s the best book I am capable of producing right now. There will be lessons I will learn from the process, and I’ll take that knowledge with me when I work on the ones that follow. I have done the very best I know how to do, and while it may not be perfect, that’s okay. It’s perfectly mine, and that’s enough for me. If I waited for perfection, I’d never finish a thing.

I hope that readers enjoy the story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. It’s been a joy and a struggle, and I hope that as a result of this book, people will be willing to go on future adventures with me as well.

In light of all that, here is the trailer for the novel.

That said, I’m also going to try to make sure that I’m not beating the drum too much. Nothing turns me off more than constant advertisement, so I won’t be doing that myself either. I plan to go on being myself and posting about things I care about. Sometimes that will be my books, but most of the time, it’ll be a lot of other stuff too.

Ways you can help me, if you’re so inclined:

There are a few things people can do to help me get the word out. I’m not going to beg for it. But if you are willing, these are things that can assist me in getting my feet off the ground.

• Go to your local bookstore and request my book. If enough people do that, their computer system will see a demand and start stocking it on their shelves.
• Tell a friend about the book if you think he or she would like to read it.
• Write an Amazon review.

That’s it. It may not sound like much, but it’ll make a huge difference to me.

I am very excited to announce that July 1 is the release date of my upcoming novel, In the Blood: Book One of The Blood Royal Saga!

The ebook is now available for presale at:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Kobo

As soon as the paperback presale is available, I’ll provide links to that too!

Last year was touted as “the year of the woman” with film after film and book after book focusing on strong women in lead roles forced to save the world from dire foes against impossible odds. This year, it seems, we are being asked to put what we learned into practice in our everyday lives.

We are only just reaching the end of the second week of Trump’s presidency, and it’s been a complete disaster – so bad, it seems like some sort of poorly written dystopian novel. Mom and I have gone to three protests in the last two weeks and will be going to another one on Monday. It’s that bad. So completely horrible, I can’t even list all of the things that shock me here. Every day is worse than the one before, and it is already making people exhausted by continual outrage and disbelief. As for me, I’m finding it very hard to concentrate and get work done or even have a semblance or normalcy to my day-to-day life.

I find myself reposting article after article, consumed with keeping up with the latest news.

It is easy to become numb, to lose oneself in escapist television or books and ignore politics altogether. But we have seen the world that results from apathy and shock. Letting oneself succumb to helplessness and stunned dismay until we are overwhelmed – that’s what happened to educated Germans in the 1930s. They couldn’t believe that their fellow citizens were so stupid, refused to believe that it was possible for those things to happen in their country. And then they were subsumed by tyranny and fascism.

I can’t let that happen to me, however difficult it might be. Being quiet and ignoring what is happening is not going to make it stop. Thought the reality is painful and repugnant, I must face it and act accordingly. I have a duty to humanity to do so. If those of us who disagree with what is happening do not speak up, who will? Who do we think is going to step up to save us?

We have to save ourselves. It is hard work. It is painful and discouraging. It is not going to happen overnight. But it is vital not to give in without a fight. I cannot. My conscience will not let me.

Mom and I have ordered t-shirts that read “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty – Thomas Jefferson.” I am taking that quote to heart. I need to believe that there are others who feel the same way and who will resist what is happening to our nation.

I would like to wind back the clock a couple of years when my social media was full of silly memes and cat videos and kid’s birthday parties, but that isn’t the world we live in right now. And I don’t want to become complacent or tell myself I have to pretend this is the “new normal.” I don’t want to get used to the way our government is operating currently. I am not going to be quiet and accept it. I plan to do everything I can in order to make sure my voice is heard and to encourage others to speak out as well. This isn’t a time for being silent. This is about human rights. Human dignity. Human beings. I cannot in good conscience allow myself to sit quietly and pretend the house isn’t on fire. It’s time to sound the alarm and do what I can to fix what is wrong.

This past summer, my mother and I drove from our small town in Missouri all the way to the top of Newfoundland where Leif Erikson landed. The journey was absolutely an adventure, encompassing  over six thousand miles of driving and three weeks of camping in the rain. 

While we were there, I read the Vinland sagas alongside the book written by the woman who was the archaeologist who discovered the Viking site at L’Anse Aux Meadows which was their headquarters while they explored the land they called Vinland. 
Since my return, I’ve been fascinated to learn more about this exploration, and have been gathering and reading several books to help me in that quest. 

The map of Vinland has been something of a contentious quandary among historians and experts, but the controversy surrounding the manuscript doesn’t change the irrefutable evidence that the Vikings did indeed come to this continent in search of land and perhaps even to satisfy an innate curiousity about the world as well. 

My studies also made me curious about the women who went along in this voyage as well, and so I’ve been learning about them also. 

Is there a book in all this? You betcha. 

The landscape is beautiful, wild, and vast. It’s hard to capture the sweeping magesty of all that we saw, but I can easily understand how the Greenlanders, coming here on their longships, would turn it into a place of myth and legend. 

I am not yet sure what shape the book will take, or even if there will only be one. What I do know is that I am inspired, and writing is soon to follow.