What the Hell Is Going on with Suzan?

It's been a little insane at Casa Harden over the last few weeks. The chaos started with one of DH's remaining uncles passed away. It ended with me slipping on ice, tripping over a landscaping brick, and somehow falling on the frozen ground instead of the concrete driveway the day before the Alberta Clipper swept through our area.

I'm still unsure how I managed to injure my right thumb in that delightful show of clumsiness.

Hey, at least, I didn't fall on Princess Bella. The poor thing was merely trying to hurry to get her final constitutional done for the night because even she was cold wearing a t-shirt and her winter coat. (She's a toy breed, and you have to bundle them up because they cannot control their core temps the way a larger dog can.)

There's been a lot more happening in between the emotional and physical aches, but I won't bore you with those details. What it comes down to is I am behind.

So woefully behind.

And what happens? I get invitations from two different editors asking me to submit short stories for their holiday anthologies. For 2025! By the end of the month!

*sigh*

Folks, I literally just finished sending last year's Christmas presents to people!

So, what does it all mean?

It means I'm busting my ass trying to get the books y'all are expecting. I merely took the dates off the Release Schedule because looking at the page was triggering my anxiety.

Today, I skipped yoga, I made sure I had plenty of coffee and tea, and I will be back on the keyboard as soon as I get home from the COVID booster stab.

That's assuming I don't bash my brains on the asphalt in the pharmacy parking lot.

Status Update - November 2024

Despite my best efforts, A Cup of Conflict is not finished. I'd much rather be late than publish a substandard story. So what does this mean, other than Justice #10 won't be available on Friday?

I'm switching my current efforts to finishing Feline Navidad (Millersburg Magick Mysteries #4) since it's supposed to be released on December 1. And with peppermint mochas and Red Cups at Starbucks, it'll be easier to get into the winter holidays spirit.

Once Feline Navidad is squared away, I'll finish A Cup of Conflict. Come hell or high water, it will be released in 2024!

Status Update - October 2024

I finished the zero draft of Death Goddess Walking Sunday evening. Normally, I do a first editing pass before sending a novel to my alpha reader, but this time I didn't.

DGW was started nearly twenty years ago. I was roughly halfway through it when I made the mistake of showing it to someone. This person was a New York Times Best Selling author, back when it made a difference in a writer's reputation. This was before the new indie publishing started.

They said it sucked.

I was hurt and disappointed. I took their response to heart and put away the manuscript.

Until I was cleaning out some old files three years ago. I started reading the DGW manuscript and realized it wasn't as bad as my critic had said. I decided to finish it.

Unfortunately, I had other commitments, so I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the book until 2023 at the soonest. Then we had two parental deaths in 2022, which shoved my schedule back even farther, but the zero draft is done.

I even sent it to my alpha reader without making a first editing pass, which is why it isn't marked as completed on the public project list. Mainly, I sent it to get it out of my hands so I had a chance to focus on  A Cup of Conflict.

Therefore, my main focus for 2025 will be to finish the Justice series and The Books of Apep series. It will definitely be a busy year.

Story Drop - A Place at the Table

If you didn't get a copy of Halloween Harvest, an indivdual copy of "A Place at the Table" dropped today! Heck, I even managed a pink jack o' lantern for the cover. (Read the story and you'll understand why!)

A PLACE AT THE TABLE

Amara follows her family’s Earth traditions because they keep her and the other colonists alive during Darkfall on Onizuka. But when a group of foolish scholars from Earth refuse to heed the colonists’ warnings, can Amara save them and herself from the beasts that prowl in the Dark?

Amazon
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Google Play
Kobo
Smashwords

October Is Breat Cancer Awareness Month

I normally just post this over at Wild, Wicked & Wacky, but enough people are reading this blog now that I want to make sure as many people as possible hear the message.

As a breast cancer survivor who discovered her cancer during a self-check, I believe in self-examinations. You know your own body better than anyone else. So don't be afraid to check your own breasts, and report anything unusual to your doctor. Early detection is the key to surviving almost any type of cancer. So I try to post this video every year.

And guys, don't think you're immune. Breast cancer can occur in men, too. It did in my family. Plus, Mike & Molly's 100th episode titled "Mike Check" deals sensitively with the concept when Mike's doctor finds something unusual in his chest.

A Place at the Table on Pre-Order

October's release is on pre-order! Happy Halloween!

BLURB
Amara follows her family’s Earth traditions because they keep her and the other colonists alive during Darkfall on Onizuka. But when a group of foolish scholars from Earth refuse to heed the colonists’ warnings, can Amara save them and herself from the beasts that prowl in the Dark?

Amazon
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Google Play
Kobo
Smashwords

Halloween Story on Preorder

I've started setting up the pre-orders for October's release, A Place at the Table. It's a short story originally published in WMG's 2021 Holiday Spectacular and reprinted in Halloween Harvest in 2022.

This tale is set in the Solar System Services, Inc., universe a few centuries after Alone is Not Lonely on the planet Onizuka. Because the planet's tilt is greater than that of Earth and has a slower rotation, it experiences longer days and nights depending on the season. Most colonists live in the equatorial band, but some hardier souls live north or south. Travel during Onizuka's winters are next to impossible.

As a result, the colonists have found some of Earth's historical stories and culture provides them with the means to survive an Onizukan night. Some whimsy remains though. The colonists won't waste edible pumpkins and turnips as Jack O' Lanterns, so they carve native pink-fleshed tubers for their Halloween tradition.

And if the name is familiar, I wrote a college paper about the cultural contributions of Japanese-Americans, including NASA Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka prior to the Challenger disaster. He'll always have a place at my table.