Quote of the Moment

"What's Past Is Prologue." - William Shakespeare

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Heat Wave, Pokemon GO, Kids, and Thorns Entwine the Blade

Welcome to a mishmash post! It has seriously just been one of those months where I've felt like I'm only treading water and not making any forward progress. You ever feel that way? I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I know I've made some progress, though, even if it doesn't feel that way. I did another revision of Void of Intuition (the pre-order is up on Amazon, and it will be released on August 13). And I've started Thorns Entwine the Blade! If you'd like to see a really short snippet of the prelude (this is early draft material, remember), keep reading.

OK, so I haven't updated my progress bars for a while. Ignore those. They lie. It's obviously not June, and I do have some progress on Thorns, really. I'll try to update them next month because this month is already a lost cause for tracking anything.

One of the issues this month is that it's been so damned hot! Last week Tuesday the temp just jumped, and its been hanging in. We don't have central air, and right now our only window A/C is in our bedroom. It's kind of hard to cloister myself in there alone with a toddler (who naps in our bed). This weekend I wanted to run out and get a cheap A/C for the computer room, just so I could be cooler. I can't think in this heat! Right now I'm having a hard time putting words together in this post. And well, you didn't see a blog post last week, did you?

I wish we had enough money to tear up our house for central air, but with radiators for heating, that's not going to happen. If wishes were horses... Yeah, you know how it goes.

I'll admit it, though, it hasn't just been the heat. That first week of July when hubbie was home to work on the bedroom, well once he was done it kind of turned into a vacation for the both of us. Mainly because Pokemon GO was released (the timing couldn't have been any better - it was released the evening of the day he finished the room). I needed the break, anyhow.

Yes, I've still been playing Pokemon GO, but not as often as the first week. This week, though, eldest daughter is done with summer school, so now I have both of my little knuckleheads at home all the time. You'd think eldest could play and entertain youngest while I get stuff done. Oh, no. No no no. Youngest gets mad at everything eldest does, and eldest doesn't know how to interact with youngest to make it so she doesn't scream as much. I'm getting nothing done because when they're both awake, all I'm doing is putting out the flames of an angry toddler. And when youngest is napping, I'm so exhausted from the heat and the tantrums that I make progress on nothing. And even if I try, I have eldest singing the "Can I?" tune every five minutes.

Ah, kids.

That's enough excuses for this post. Again, I have gotten some things done, but at this point, I'm calling summer a bust for huge strides. August I'm going to spend some quality time with my girls, deal with the Void of Intuition release, prep the pre-order stuff for Beguiling Moon, and announce wide status on several stories (more on that in another post). Oh, and I'll aim for 1k words a week on Thorns because if I reach any higher, I'll be sure to splat.

What, have you been waiting to read that snippet from Thorns Entwine the Blade. Well, here's a look at the beginning of the prelude, which is part of the history of Leera, so I'm not spoiling anything that happens in Mind Behind the Mind.

The sun was the color of God's yellow rose. A rose Teela Mahron would never smell again.

It was her choice, of course, which made it even harder. But there was no other way, no other person willing to sacrifice her closeness to God. Her God, who didn't condone blood to be spilled, no matter the reason.

And Teela had a perfect reason. She had to eradicate God's Bane from Leera, lest the witches poison the hearts and souls of all those whom God sheltered. To hunt the witches, she had to step out from under God's shadow and follow her own path.

Today was the day she'd take that first step, on this prairie.

The witch trembled on her knees, hands clasped and raised in a plea, Teela's curved sword blade at her throat. "What have I done?"

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Sunset Street Excerpt

Yesterday was another release day! Time to take a different turn compared to those wacko fairies from last month. Sunset Street is a YA urban fantasy, and it definitely has a more somber tone.

Per usual, you can now get Sunset Street from Amazon!

I have also slowly been pulling some of my titles out of Select and going wide with them. I'll have a post in a week or two with more information and links.

Until then, here's an excerpt from Sunset Street.

Rain showered down on the scene, an occasional flash of lightning and rolling thunder in the background. Kind of desolate. I wasn't sure if such a game would help me forget the ache in my chest or if it would only exacerbate it.

I squinted, catching a flash of green behind the rain. A street sign, labeled Sunset. Of course.

The bleakness made me reconsider my afternoon plans. To clear my head, I went to the window. It squeaked, as reluctant to open as I was to put forth any effort, but finally gave. The sweet smell of rain drifted toward me, causing my mind to wander and dream of less lonely times -- those few boyfriends who had ended our relationship before I felt it had even gotten started. My need to be with someone was a show of weakness, and once they realized that, it was all over.

I returned to my computer, determined to do something to distract myself. If the game still seemed too dismal after a few minutes, I'd stop.

But I studied the little scene a bit longer. Maybe the houses hid amazing adventures, the bleakness a facade. What would it be like to stand in the middle of that street? To think I was the only person left in the world?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, so I could get the full effect of the scent of the rain drifting through the room. The smell grew stronger and stronger. Ah, sweet rain. I imagined my upturned face feeling the drops shower down on me.

When I opened my eyes to play the game, I was no longer sitting in front of my computer. The scent of rain was overpowering -- I had given my imagination too much credit because the rain actually fell on my face.

I stood in the middle of the deserted street.

Be careful what you wish for.

Stuck in her dorm room alone on a Friday night, Leah can’t imagine her loneliness getting any deeper until she pops a new game into her computer... and gets sucked into it. Trapped in a world of darkness and rain, she fears she’ll never see another living soul again. Until she meets Zach. He may be the balm for her heart she’s been searching for, but fulfilling her wish comes with a price. Is she willing to pay it?

Friday, July 08, 2016

1001 Reasons Not To Clean - #1 through #5

So, this whole dealing with the house stuff got me thinking... Yes, I think too much, and I like thinking of silly things.

Which brings me to a new blog series. 1001 Reasons Not To Clean! You don't think I can come up with 1001 reasons? I decided to aim for that high number because I want a challenge. 101 would have been too easy. If you know me, I don't make anything easy for myself. Let's see how many I can list. I have no set schedule as to how often I'll post for this, so we'll see where it goes. Also, this idea exemplifies how much I hate to clean.

1. 5 minutes after you clean the outside of the window, a bird poops on it.

2. It's hard work - hard work sucks.

3. The outdoor hose faucet is right next to a duck who made her nest against your house, so when you go to wash the blinds, the duck attacks you. (NOTE: This is a high possibility. We really do have a duck that made her nest near the faucet. I'm shocked she didn't attack me!)

4. It's a Sisyphean task. Once you clean something, you're just going to have to clean it again, which makes you wonder why you even cleaned it in the first place.

5. You'd rather play Pokemon GO.

Oh, did you want to see the bedroom complete? It's all painted! And all but our pictures and some video games have been moved back in. Here's a picture before we moved everything back in. Yup, I chose the color, and hubbie was non-committal on the purple, so if he hates it, it's his own fault for not speaking up.

Saturday, July 02, 2016

Challenge Fail - Onto the Next?

Nope. You didn't see any after pictures of the girls' room. I got everything out! As planned. Then I started slowly moving stuff back in and sorting into piles, but that didn't actually start happening until after Sunday, and then between summer school, swim lessons, and sheer exhaustion, not a lot of progress was made during the week. Because I also wasn't going to do it all on my own. My eldest is old enough to help with her crap.

So, we had to get things ready to deal with the bedroom. Everything (except a bunch of my books) is back in the girls' room, though for the most part in sorted piles. I'm not about to take a picture of that, though, because now there's even more stuff in there from our bedroom. Yeah, things are a mess. Here's a nice picture though of when I emptied the room out!

This means we're onto the next project, and I'll have to finish organizing the girls' room (and my books - I did manage to select one bag of books to be taken to Half Price Books - that's a tough job for me!) after the bedroom is done.

Now, for the most part, hubbie's taking care of the bedroom. I, of course, helped him move everything out, but he'll be dealing with the wall repairs, the priming, the painting, and the ripping out of the ugly brown carpet. It sounds easy, doesn't it? Not in a 100-year-old house it isn't. The walls are plaster, and we have some pretty huge cracks. Plus he needs to be extra careful because there's lead paint in the room. He's not even touching the closet (a project for a cooler week).

Sorry that my blog's been taken over by life stuff, but right now, this is what's going on! Sadly, life can't be writing, gaming, and fun all the time. I'll leave you with one of the before pictures of the bedroom. You can see the horrible blue wall as well as the nose-wrinkling brown carpet. Sadly, I'm guessing the blue and brown combo is back to being an in thing? I sure hope not. Here's hoping the hardwood under the carpet looks nice!