On Life in General

This has been a challenging summer. In June I turned 45, during a pandemic, where celebrating with extended family wasn't possible. My immediate family and I went to the beach and had a great day staying away from everyone. One kid officially became a High School Senior, while another kid officially became a college graduate with a Bachelor's degree. And finally, Hurricane Season officially began.

In July I lost one of my furbabies (pictured above). Cheetoh adopted us in 2015. She just showed up one day as a scrawny stray meowing in the hopes we'd feed her. I fed her and loved her and fed her some more. If you follow me on Instagram you're probably very familiar with her antics. I loved her so very much, but she developed Diabetes without us realizing it until it was too late to reverse the effects.

 Along the way I also returned to working in the office instead of at home. Unfortunately, I have no real choice in the matter even though I disagree with it since I can completely do my job from home (except checking the mail on Mondays). However, it keeps me active when working from home definitely didn't. I also republished an erotic short story originally released by Ellora's Cave called Educating Macey. It's always been one of my favorites because no matter how many times I read it, that opening scene always makes me laugh. I have it available indefinitely for free.

 At the beginning of August I went ahead and commissioned the artwork for the third book in my Gargoyle Masters series. The book is only about halfway done, but having the cover makes it more real to me and inspires me to write more. Writing has been a grueling process lately. I need all the inspiration I can get. 

This past week was spent preparing for Hurricane Laura. It was a sobering experience that I've been through too many times, and it never gets easier. Luckily, Houston was spared a direct hit and we've only seen a bit of rain so far. I hate to even count my blessings knowing our neighbors in Louisiana were put through the wringer. I just hope once the clean-up begins it goes quickly and there is minimal loss of life. 

September will be upon us very soon and with it comes a three day weekend right off the bat. I've also joined an accountability group that begins in September. My goal is to get back to daily writing. If all goes well, Born of the Forbidden will be out before Christmas. 

I hope all of you are doing well in these crazy, uncertain, and harrowing times. Please vote, wear a mask, and treat others as you would wish to be treated. Remember that Black Lives Matter now more than ever as we see so much hate being spewed across the country. And support all marginalized voices in the arts.

My son and husband were kind enough to hang my hummingbird feeder outside my (dirty) office window.