Where Has the Time Gone?

I apologize for not posting for the last two weeks!

I've got two deadlines on September 30th. One is delivering books for The Books of Apep Kickstarter campaign to my lovely backers. The other is having everything out of our storage unit.

Speaking of The Books of Apep, the four novels and the short story have been listed on the series page. I'm slowly getting preorders uploaded to the various retailers and updating the links on the page, too. Death Goddess Walking (The Books of Apep #1) will drop to the public on November 15, 2026. The rest will come out in 2027.

Why won't I release Book 2 in December? Because I swear everyone in the U.S. goes crazy in December. I did retail work long enough that my fellow staff members and I had some nicknames, the nicest of which was New Hallowthanksmas. But yes, people are scattered and distracted, and the only thing I release are holiday stories with happy endings at the beginning of the month of December.

Anyway, once The Books of Apep are put to bed, I can go back to A Sprout of Wild.

As for getting the storage unit emptied, the goal is twofold. First, we're spending nearly $100 a month storing crap we do not need anymore. And I have to face facts--GK is never going to fit in the adorable Winnie the Pooh onesie again, nor will I have any more children.

Second, I refuse to turn into my parents and in-laws. There's something about the Silent Generation where they CANNOT throw anything away. Part of me understands. They grew up in a world where scarcity was a problem and things had to be fixed or you did without.

But after going through four fucking years of snail mail my FIL had piled around the first floor of his HUGE Victorian?

Noppity-nope-nope! I'm not doing that to my son!

So both the recycling and the trash bins have been very full the last two weeks. And I'm beginning to love the Gen Z minimalist approach!

If I get a breather between now and October 1st, I'll post a chapter or two of A Sprout of Wild.

Until then enjoy some glorious late summer weather, and make sure you're registered to vote!

I'm Still Alive!

Hello, All You Glorious Readers!

Yes, I'm still alive! Since DH and I returned from our trip to Georgia to see Genius Kid's promotion ceremony, I've been essentially glued to my laptop. So, here are the updates!

1) My lovely formatter is currently back to work, and she delivered the proof copy of A Barrel of Vintner (Justice #11)! I'm slowly going through it, but hopefully, the trade paperback version will be available at the end of June.

2) Death Goddess Fighting (The Books of Apep #2) is finished and sitting in the proverbial drawer. After its cooling-off period, I plan to start edits a week from today.

3) I'm currently writing Death Goddess Redeeming (The  Books of Apep #3), and it's currently at the 20% mark.

4) As a palate cleanser, I work on A Sprout of Wild (Justice #12) in the evening. It is also closing in on the 20% mark.

I hope to give you more frequent updates as the summer rolls on!

Release Day!

A Barrel of Vintner is out in the universe!

Well, the ebook version is. The trade paperback version will have to wait.

My formatter obtained a new bionic knee two weeks ago. She and her torturer physical therapist are still working out the kinks, and she can't sit at her desk for longer than a few minutes.

Trust me. It'll be worth the wait for her to properly format a paperback. I can do an ebook, but I know when I'm out of my depth.

For those of you who have already ripped through A Barrel of Vintner (and you know who you are), I have started on A Sprout of Wild, but

a) It's gonna to be in the 100K-word range, just like the last two Justice novels, which means it takes TIME to write!

b) I'm finishing Death Goddess Fighting first for various reasons, most importantly I'm at roughly the 75% mark and I need a palette-cleanser before going back to the Justice universe.

Seriously, my darling readers, I am not George R.R. Martin. I won't leave you hanging for a decade or three. I just need a break because the last two volumes of Justice are going to be INTENSE!

Anyway, I hope those of you who have your copies can sit outside and enjoy some lovely weather. Because those of us in Northwest Ohio have already had a couple of tornado warnings over the last twenty hours.

Dancing through the Fields of Editing

I completed the first draft of A Barrel of Vintner on Sunday. I shifted to editing Death Goddess Walking on Monday. And it's taking a little longer than I'd planned because I made a boo-boo.

My alpha reader finished consuming DGW nearly two years ago. Life matters became so crazy that I accidentally had corrections from the read-thru in two different files. *facepalm*

So I'm picking through the two files in order to integrate all the changes. Plus, I'm finding some typos I missed during the first two rounds of edits.

Hopefully, I should have things wrapped up on DGW today. Tomorrow, I need to finished writing the first chapter of A Sprout of Wild to be included as a teaser at the end of A Barrel of Vintner. Then I can go full-out on the edits for ABoV.

Soon, my gentle readers, you will have some new things to read!