Updates and a "hi!"

 Hey darlins!

 

 

Just in case you're new here or coming back after a while away (I saw that comment!) HI! Also, I still can't comment on my own freaking blog, so sorry if this is impersonal, it's all I can do right now. *grumbles for fiftieth time*

In news you'll probably want to know, I just signed a contract for Mutable to go up on a serial story app in the next few months, so...if you've been wanting to re-read it, do so now before I take it down.

I'm writing a different story for another serial app company that I'll post more about later--hopefully this turns out to be a good decision. That one will be a really fun m/m/m fantasy story, so we'll see!

I'm re-releasing Cambion: Dark Around the Edges at the end of the month. I have a gorgeous new cover, a new edit on it, and a new title (dropping the "Cambion" in the beginning). This is a very long urban fantasy/suspense I wrote in six installments back in 2013, and then the publisher folded and I got it back and I had no idea what to do with it until I got a handle on the basics of self-publishing. I hope you'll enjoy it!

I've got a book I co-wrote with Marie Sexton (back before/during my pregnancy--no wonder we shelved it for years, lol) coming out next month--science fiction with very little romance, but it's a hugely fun and hopefully very approachable story. More on that soon!

Hmm, I'm writing another novel with L.A. Witt that's going swimmingly, I finished edits on a Middle Grade retelling of The Odyssey (yeah, I did, I know--what?), and I'm working on a YA ghost story, all in addition to the other stuff up there and the blog story. I'm...so busy, and that's not counting my freelance work. I love it though, no complaining, I just hope some it pans out in a big way so I can be more focused with it in the future.

Speaking of, is there any interest among you, my faithful blog readers, in me doing a Patreon? I've never gone there, in part because I feel like I don't do very well in what is essentially a popularity contest, but I've got lots of content I could work with and I'd be willing to tailor it to my patrons. For example, someone asked me about a Changing Worlds sequel. Readers here know I've written those characters into the Pandora universe, but honestly it's hard to track down anything in that series without a lot of time on your hands. One Patreon project could be dedicating time to compiling and editing those for you to access better. I could also buy custom artwork for stories, better covers, more formats...idk, there are lots of options.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I'm open to all kinds of feedback here, you guys are the best :)

Happy Sunday!

Ding! Next Round...

So...just let me get this moment out before the really relevant stuff, dahlings.

Hindsight seems to be showing that my man and I should have just gone with public transportation instead of persnal vehicles on our return.  1 inch of snow shouldn't make driving so hard, but I swear people who are awesome in a foot of snow suck in 1 inch of it.  This morning going to work, some poor lady's Explorer swung a fishhook and crashed into my little car's front end, driving us both off the road.  She had insurance but no drivers license (how does one accomplish that anyway?) and in my compassion (weakness?) I didin't call the cops to officiate our accident.  On the plus side, all this has resulted in me missing work today!  On the minus side I have to make up all my client visits tomorrow, in what car I don't know, but I have to find one by then.  Joy.

Okay, gripe over with.  Holy crap, guys, thanks for reading Pandora!  I have some work to do before it's ready to post on Lit, but hopefully the first collected installment will be up around the end of the month.  I'm writing a sequel to Shadowed, probably the last installment in that series even though I adore Danny and Reese.  My follow-up novel to the short story Opening Worlds is written and beginning the editing process.  I linked the first chapter a while back.  The whole thing came out pretty darn good, I think.  I'm going to submit stories for a few anthologies in the coming months, because damn it, I love doing anthologies.  So much less stress, so fun to see other people's take on an idea.  Oh, and, my short story Different Spheres will be out with Dreamspinner Press sometime in the next month, I believe.  I think Jana's the only one who's read that so far, but I think you guys will like it.  There are excerpts posted somewhere on this blog:)

In other news, I'm hopefully going to have a website--a real website, all big-girl and everything--up soon.  The blog will be coming along for the ride, but gosh, the whole thought of it makes me feel so official.  Like now I need something else to strive for, like a cabana boy, and a cabana for him to be a boy at.  Or something.  Kinda tired and knocked around here.

I hope your new year has gotten off to a safe and successful start.  Stick with me, guys, 2012 is going to be an exciting, creatively productive year.  Next post: where the hell do I go from here?  Or, name that serial story.

Living Large In Lome

Living large...

Makes it sound like we're partying, yeah?

Hah!

No, we're caught up in the bureaucratic maelstrom that is our close of service  There are people to see, accounts to close, interviews to do, medicines to take and, lest we forget, paperwork to fill out.  A number of satirists over the years have written incisive mockeries of large bureaucracies, and for the first time I have a very visceral understanding of what they're getting at.  Deeply visceral; I'm on meds for amoebas, which aren't nearly as much fun as the meds for malaria, but there ya go.  We're set to leave Africa this week, as long as we can weather the storm of departure prep.

I will miss some parts of Togo.  I will greatly miss some of the people I've met here (I include my friend in gorgeous Cape Verde, even though I'm fah fah away from them parts:).  I will miss the freedom of being able to set my own schedule and choose whom I want to work with.  I will miss the inherent romanticism of being a volunteer in a country and culture so radically different from my own.  I'll miss getting awesome care packages from my mother and being thrilled with things like cheese in a can (It's CHEESE!  Who cares how it gets to you?).

I will not miss many, many other things, most of which I've complained about before and won't bore you with now.  Just know that the city I'm going to be living in in America is, in its entirety, a wireless internet zone.  I will never be without internet.  Never.  NEVER!!!  Mwahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Slightly crazy here.  Sorry.  I anticipate my productivity will go up once I've gotten over the mental explosion I'm going to have when I get home, which shouldn't be more than a week.  Thanks to everyone who read and commented, or just read and enjoyed, my blog over the last year.  I hope to become a better communicator, a more interesting presenter and a supplier of all sorts of literary deliciousness. 

So long, Togo.  It's been more challenging and amazing than I ever would have guessed.  May you prosper and thrive.

The Bush Taxi Experience (the cages are filled with live poultry)

Dance Party In Village

Hey, Nature!