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Just another update…

Hi Everyone! Not much to report this month. Still working on reviewing and editing my manuscript, trying to get it as polished as possible before handing it over to my editor. Sometime next month I’ll probably start working on the book cover. So, all in all–things are moving along slowly but surely.

In other news, things seem to be getting back to normal a bit here in Texas. Most of the people that want to be vaccinated are, and the ones that don’t–well, they’re free not to wear their masks in public–so they’re happy as clams. Now that I’m vaccinated–I’m pretty much whatever about it. Have at it people! If you wanna risk it–cool! You want to chance getting a variant of the virus–go ahead! I’ll still keep my distance and wear a mask indoors because that’s just how I am. Better safe than sorry.

But, like I said–life is getting back to normal. In the past few weeks I’ve been to eat at a restaurant, gone shopping at the mall, went to see a movie at a theater–just the normal every day things I used to do before Covid. And I’ve got to say–it’s was pretty, pretty, pretty good.

And yes! That was a Larry David reference for you guys! I’m a fan, and he’s hilarious. If you’ve never seen Curb Your Enthusiasm you’re missing out!

Anyway! That’s all I have for this month. Have a good one!

Just a rant

Hey everyone! Looks like February flew by before I could post! There’s no excuse other than it was a crazy month. I was without electricity for a week in freezing cold weather. Then the day job had me so busy that I was all over the place. Heck! I’m surprised I still remember by name.

Anyway, I hope ya’ll are keeping safe and Covid free. I’m trying to be safe–aside from a few scares–I’ve been successful so far. But boy! I can’t wait to get vaccinated. Hopefully the president is right and we’ll have more than enough vaccine by May.

To tell you the truth–things actually are looking better here in Texas, but that’s about to change. The darn governor decided to lift the dang mask mandate and to open up to a hundred percent. Because Texans have “mastered the daily habit to avoid getting Covid.” Ha! Sure we have. It’s called MANDATORY MASKS. As in: you have to wear them even if you don’t want to.

Some folks are happy. And I get it. It sucks not doing the normal things you’d like to do. Or maybe you do those normal things, but you have to keep your distance, and only party with twenty folks instead of fifty. And you have to wear a mask, and oh God! It’s such a hardship wearing a mask everywhere. It’s so hard breathing in your stanky breath all the time. Right?

Can you tell I’m frustrated? Because I am. It’s like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and then some dude just decides to do something stupid that will extend the tunnel. And make things harder. But I really shouldn’t be surprised. It’s the same guy who said green energy was the reason for our power grid failing a few weeks ago. Sure, I was freezing my ass off cause the wind turbines were frozen solid. The wind turbines he neglected to winterize (as he appoints the Texas Utility Commission who oversees ERCOT). And only accounts for less than ten percent of our energy while the rest is natural gas and fossil fuel? Yeah. Okay. Sure, dude.

Anyway, rant over.

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas ya’ll! I hope you’re doing your best to enjoy this year’s holidays despite the craziness we’ve all experienced. I’m off from the day job and am using the time to do some much needed decompressing. The day job has been relentless! Several projects were pushing hard to get completed by end of year, so that made things a little stressful as the holidays loomed. I was counting down the days to my vacation, and was so relieved when it finally came about. So far, I’ve spent my time with family and doing quite a bit of baking. Today, I baked banana bread for the second time in a matter of days. It came out very moist, but not in a good way? At least I think it wasn’t in a good way. I might’ve used bananas that were too ripe. Can you use bananas that are too ripe? Anyway, I definitely need more practice.

So, I’ve got some good news and some disappointing news. First, the good news–I’ve been promoted to a new position in my day job. It’s something I’ve worked for several years, and to finally have accomplished the goal is very, very satisfying. Which brings me to the disappointing news–book 2 will not be completed by end of year as I’d hoped. The new role will bring about more responsibility and activities that I will need to adjust to as well as get a handle on which of course will take much time and energy. But, that’s not to say that I’ve given up on getting any writing done in the foreseeable future–it’s just going to take a bit longer than I’d originally thought. Please be patient with me. I’m still committed and excited about the progress made so far, and look forward to the day I can share it with all of you.

So, that’s all I have for this month. Not much to report, but hopefully that’ll change next month. We’ll just have to wait and see! I hope you all have a happy, happy New Year! Let’s put 2020 in the rearview already, huh? 2021 is going to be so much better.

August update

Hi everyone! I hope ya’ll are doing alright. Can you believe it’s already August? The year sure is flying by–or is it crawling at a snail’s pace? I suppose it depends on your perspective.

Well, not much to report this month. Had a stay-cation where I spent some time visiting with family and getting some much needed R&R from the day job. I’ll tell ya–usually working from home has its perks, but I’ve been working non–stop the whole darn day since the middle of March. I’ve ended up working harder from my kitchen table then I did when I was in the office. Isn’t that the darnedest thing? So anyway, a week away was exactly what I needed. I even went up to the coast for a day before a hurricane hit. Missed it by a few days!

So, onto a book 2 update. It’s going a little slow, but I’m still planning to wrap it up by end of year. Then it’ll be on to the editing process. To be honest–it’s looking like book 2 is going to be a bit longer than book 1. I can feel it just from the writing and the progress of where the plot is at this point. Good news is I know exactly where I want to end the story. Bad news is there are a lot of words needed before I get there.

Other than that, not much to report this month. Still staying home and being careful. I know things are still not back to normal as much as some folks say otherwise. At this point I’m avoiding all to the stories about people who don’t want to wear masks, or follow CDC guidelines, or the plans to send the kids back to school. My only hope is that everyone stays safe.

That’s all from me. Ya’ll take care.

Another COVID post…

Another month has crawled by and it seems as if things are getting worse around the country in regards to Covid. Especially in Texas which has become a hotspot–the hospitals are filling up and things are getting bad. The media is reporting that we opened too early–and perhaps we did–but I think what hurt us the most was the disregard for social distancing and wearing masks. There are so many people that just don’t care and they don’t believe in how serious the virus is. Personally, I’m just exhausted at dealing with them–their lack of respect for human life is frustrating and galling.

Even with the new Executive Order requiring face coverings–these people complain. They complain as if wearing a mask is taking away their right for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness! Yeah, chew on that. A mask is keeping these people from living out their daily lives. It’s a minor inconvenience at most. And to make matters worse–they’re looking for loopholes around following the Executive Order. They have “medical issues”. The mask is suffocating, or it makes them breathe excessive amounts of carbon monoxide.

Yeah, I can’t make this stuff up.

Personally, I’ve been shut–in for the last few weeks. My family had a Covid scare a few weeks ago, and now we’re being extra careful. Nothing drives how serious this virus is until you are staring face to face with the possibility of actual exposure. It’s a rather sobering experience performing a contact tracing exercise on your own family. It’s an exercise I would rather not do again.

So, now you must be wondering: am I fearful of the virus? Am I stopping living my life because I’m afraid of getting sick of a virus that kills less than 1 percent of infected? To answer honestly–I’m cautious of the virus. I don’t want to get infected and then get someone else sick who is high risk. If that means staying away from high risk activities then that’s what I’ll do.

I’ll wear my mask. I’ll keep up with social distancing. I’ll keep my head up and stay safe.

I hope ya’ll do, too.

My first event…

Slinging books!!

This weekend was my first event. Nerdtacular, although exhausting, was a great experience. I sold some copies of my paperback and met other vendors and artists and received first hand experience on what works when it comes to selling my book to people who’ve never heard of me before–which lets be honest, is pretty much everyone. But the best thing about people not knowing who you are or what you’re about is there are no expectations. So you can just put yourself out there with no second guessing. Overall, it was defiantly an interesting experience that I will do again next year.

One of the most enjoyable aspects was talking to all the people who had a genuine interest in my book. It made me realize how supportive people can be, especially when it comes to local, self-published authors. I definitely picked a great event as the participants were definitely my demographic for the book. People that stumbled onto my table had a genuine love for fantasy, and loved talking about fantasy stories. I’m hopeful that I gained some readers that will want to follow the series.

There was even one heartwarming moment when a woman who had bought my book asked me to write something on the dedication page. For those of you that don’t know–I dedicated Dark Sun Rising to my grandmothers, who both passed away before the book was published. Apparently, the woman had recently lost her grandmother last month, and when she opened her new book and read the dedication page, it really touched her. I was really touched as well.

So, what I really want to relate is that my weekend was successful, and definitely memorable. I had a lot of fun. So much so, that I look forward to my next event, which is scheduled for 2/15 at Twig Book Shop at the Pearl. Ya’ll should definitely come see me then if you haven’t made it to see me yet. We can talk books. My books–your books–whatever ya’ll want.

Halloween Hijinks

Boy, oh boy! It’s already late October–the year sure is flying by quickly. So, what have I been doing the past month you may ask? Why, drowning in the day job by working late hours so I can get a couple projects out the door. It’s been hectic! And unfortunately, it’s left little time for writing.

I don’t know about you, but during times like this, I need something to look forward to, and aside from the Holy Grail that is the three day weekend that’s coming in a few weeks, I’m also looking forward to is Halloween. To be honest, Halloween isn’t something that I get too into as an adult. I don’t really dress up, but I do give away candy.

But of course, when I was a kid, it was everything. We’d go trick or treating every year. In fact, there is one year that I think back on with amusement.

Story time!

So, one time I went trick or treating with my younger brother and his friend. I was like thirteen years old. So anyway, we went door to door getting candy as a group, cutting up and just having a good time. After awhile, it got late, and everyone went home. All the neighbors turned off their porch lights calling it a night. But we were young and stupid, without any supervision and decided to just keep walking around the neighborhood. We came across a house that belonged to someone that my brother and his friend didn’t like, and someone (I’m not sure who) suggested we egg the house.

But of course, we didn’t have any eggs. But my brother’s friend would not be deterred–instead he walked all the way back to his house to get some. He ended up sneaking a whole dozen out of the house, and I just looked at him like: “WHAT?” Cause I’d thought we’d just throw one or two eggs and get the heck out of there–no one said anything about a whole dozen.

My brother’s friend opens the container, and looks at us expectantly–like he expects us to grab and throw. And me and my brother freeze, cause we’d never egged a house nor had we done anything out of anger toward anyone before. So, it was like, “Are we really going to do this?”

We decide very quickly that we are.

The three of us grab an egg. I look at my brother and I say, “You first.” And he’s such a trooper, he agrees. He winds up and throws. The egg smacked loudly against the house–CRACK!

I’d known it was loud because it’s all I’d heard as my brother’s friend and I raced down the street as fast as we could.

When my brother caught up to us a few minutes later, well, let’s just say he was not pleased.

It’s a marathon…

It’s the second week since Dark Sun Rising has been released and as I originally thought–it’s going to be a marathon and not a sprint.

And personally–I’m okay with that. I know I have a long way to go. So first thing on my agenda (and what has always been number one on my list) is growing my readership. That will take some time and patience, which I have plenty of since I didn’t get into this business to make loads of cash. I mean it would be nice… but it’s not likely.

Nope, not at all.

The reason why I got into this whole thing was because I love writing. It brings me joy–it was so much fun writing Dark Sun Rising. And, it looks like there might be a few folks out who really enjoyed reading the book, too, and are looking forward to more from Mel, Victor, and Gabe.

Which brings me to number two on my list… finishing the next book of the Continuous War series. I’m forty-five thousand words in, and not even halfway through. So, I’ve got quite a bit more writing to do. Then after, I’ll need a little time to let the story rest before starting the editing process. And I think by now you know how much I like that part.

So those are my immediate plans. I mean, other than slinging the paperback copy of Dark Sun Rising everywhere I go. It can be found here and here for those of you interested. Don’t be shy, check it out.

It just might be your thing.

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