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People, let me tell you 'bout my best friend

 This is Sadie. Sadie is 14, and, as you can see, an elderly lady now. Sadie has lived with us since she was about six weeks old - we got her from the local animal shelter after regularly visiting for several months in search of a dog that would match our family.

We knew she was part lab, part shepherd based on the animal control officer's testimony. We didn't know what that would mean as far as size went. I wanted to call her Peanut - based on coloring and adorable factor, which she had in spades. Because labs and shepherds can both grow large, though, I was out-voted. I brought her with me everywhere for the first couple of weeks, carrying her in a cat carrier until we got a crate to keep her in at home. We bonded, and despite other family members' trying to coax her love and favor away, she has been my shadow for 14 years.

 Sadie has led a comfortable life. She's chased squirrels, bunnies, and woodchucks to her heart's content. She's had the run of the farm and slept in luxury.

Today, my heart is aching. Sadie doesn't feel well. She hasn't felt well for a while - I've taken her to the vet a couple times, and the consensus is that she is failing, but she is old. I believe in fighting for quality of life, but not quantity without quality. Sadie isn't eating any more, not even the treats we try to give her. She tries - she takes them from me, but after a couple of nibbles, she drops them on the floor and looks at me in despair.

I know that I am not the only one to feel such anguish with the impending loss of a loved one. I know, people usually use that term to refer to other people, but there is no getting around the fact that to people who share their homes with animals, those animals are loved ones. Sadie is not the only pet that I will grieve (have grieved,) but she is the one my heart is breaking over now.

What about you - have you had a special animal take up residence in your heart/home? I'd love to hear about it!

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If you're like me, you find books, drool over the pretty covers, gather a bunch you'd love to read based on the backs and maybe a peek inside the covers, then convince yourself (or the person you went to the bookstore with convinces you, because, let's face it, nobody trusts you unsupervised in a bookstore anymore) that you should restrict yourself. You agonize over which ones you need to put back, which ones to snap a pic of with your cell so you remember that you wanted to read them. Sometimes you pick up a book you've heard people raving about, only to find a short way into the story that it's not your kind of escape.

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Approaching Shadows is live!

Approaching Shadows, the prequel novella in the Fighting in Shadows series, is now available to read! Huzzah!

You can get your copy one of two ways - you can sign up for the newsletter and download a copy to read on whichever e-reading device you enjoy reading on by clicking here: BookHip.com/KMCSFS and following the prompts,

or

you can head to Amazon and one-click to buy a copy to read on your Kindle app or device by clicking here: www.amazon.com/dp/B07VFCR82D.

Now that I've gotten David's story out, it's time to get rolling on the sequel to Shades of Deception. This book will bring us deeper into the Fighting in Shadows world. We'll learn more about Sam and Jill, we'll see what Kelly decides to do with the number on the back of the business card, and we'll meet a few more shades, a few more lights.

I'll keep in touch!

Ooh, pretty!

I'm just going to drop this pretty image here and let you all start imagining what wonderful things might happen behind this cover. Coming soon!!

Almost finished!

I'm so excited to be able to write this! It has taken much longer than I had hoped, but it became a much more interesting story in the unfolding - Approaching Shadows is almost ready to go to print, so to speak. Okay, almost set to go to e-reader. Almost ready to have the publish button pushed.

A couple of things about this book that may interest you - it's a prequel novella to Shades of Deception. That scene that I thought I was going to cut, and so leaked here (in February) because I didn't want to toss it? Nah - it's in there. It helped flesh out the characters and gave a better glimpse of who they are; I couldn't cut it out. So, if you've been reading this blog, you've already had a bit of a sneak peek into the story. If you haven't been reading, go ahead and check it out! I'll wait here until you get back.

The next thing is that, for now, Approaching Shadows will be available for free! Yes, you read correctly - free! I'll be offering the novella free as a downloadable e-book. Details will be forthcoming within the next couple of weeks.

For now, I've got a cover to approve and a few final edits to make before David, Jessica, and Nathan go live!

Half-way through, how's it going?

I thought I would take a moment to assess 2019, seeing that we have reached the half-way point.

Family-wise, things are as busy as ever. We have been using most weekends and many evenings during the week to clean out my husband's family home to get it ready to sell. For me, this has been a labor of love, a way to try to honor and respect the life his parents had together. We could have gotten a dumpster and had the job done in a few weeks at most, and, in fact, some people thought that was the way to go. We felt, though, that because we didn't want the items (who needs yet another set of dishes, anyone?), it didn't make them trash. To be good stewards of the earth, reducing the amount of stuff going into landfills, and also to benefit other people who would be able to use the items, we opted to separate everything; keep, donate, trash. Truck-loads of items have gone toward each of those categories, and we unearthed some treasures, like my mother-in-law's wedding gown that had been hiding in a plastic grocery bag at the bottom of a closet. Hopefully, we have done a good job of the house clearing, but it has taken its toll on our energies, our time, and our emotions. We are nearing the end of this portion - the house was put on the market, we received several offers, and we are moving forward with one. Other than the house, we've donated hours to the gremlins, devoted Sundays after church to visiting my mother-in-law and her sister, had several lovely holidays/gatherings with family, and done lots of regular family type of stuff. Oh yes, and we took a much needed vacation for a week, too!
Work-wise, things are okay. I work per-diem for several companies, but it seems that when one is slow, they are all slow - and when one is busy, they all pick up. We've learned to go with the flow, more or less. The flexibility of per-diem allows me to say no if I need to take my mother-in-law to an appointment or be there for other family, and the pay is nice. The downside, not knowing whether I will have work or not, or where, takes more getting used to but we're getting there.
Writing-wise, I'm trying very hard to carve out more time. The first two categories often take precedence because of the sticky little issue of urgency vs. importance. According to President Eisenhower, important items are things that contribute to your long-term goals or mission, while urgent items are things that have to be dealt with immediately. The issue is that important items frequently get trumped by urgent items - in my case, writing gets knocked aside because a gremlin is home sick and her mom needs to sleep so she can work overnight, or my husband comes up with an errand that needs doing. Or, let me be honest, I peek at Facebook for a couple of minutes and suddenly half of the afternoon I had blocked off to use for writing is gone and I haven't started dinner! I'm challenging myself to use writing sprints in the Pomodoro method (work for 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break) and timers to stay on track.

How about you - how is your 2019 shaping up? Are you where you hoped you would be? What can you do that will help you stay on track for the next six months?

Looking ahead, we picked our daughter up from the airport this month for some much anticipated face-to-face time during the summer, and we are planning a few weekend getaways to slow down and smell the pine trees. I'm covering several vacations over the next few months, so those work days are already scheduled. Also, on days I'm not working, I plan to drive to a little office space I'm keeping under wraps to better manage the boundaries around my writing time. I've got a writing conference scheduled in November (20Booksto50K) that I'm really looking forward to...and a book to get out! With that in mind, I'm off to write!

Superpowers

Still working on the prequel to Shades of Deception; apparently, my mode is more tortoise than hare. This is okay - because the tortoise won, right!? And I know it's going to be a good read when it is done because I'm having such a good time writing it.
Meanwhile, I thought I would reveal a little real-life story. I was walking with one of my gremlins to get my car from the shop. I had told her it was going to be a long walk, but she still wanted to come. I was carrying her booster seat so that she could ride safely home once we picked up the car, and holding her hand with my other hand.
"Look at that house. Do you think those people are home?" I asked, mostly as a way to distract her from what was already sounding like a walk full of whine.
"Yes, they are home. I know."
"Are they? How do you know? Do you have superpowers, and you can see through the walls?"
She giggled. "I do! I have superpower eyes! I can see through things!"
She then proceeded to have superpowers that allowed her to move things with her brain, and make birds blow up like balloons, and explode things when she looked at them. It was a very effective technique at distraction, as I didn't have to hear any whining for the whole walk.
"Do you have a superpower?" She asked, as her appetite for pretending to make things explode petered.
"I do! I have a very magical superpower!"
"What is it?" Her eyes lit with anticipation.
"I create worlds! I can transport people to places they've never been, and let them do things they've never done before!"
"What? How?" She demanded, clearly using a child's concrete thinking instead of my more metaphorical meaning.

To me, the ability to write stories that transport the reader into the story is a superpower. Thinking of authors whose words have helped me stave off boredom, or loneliness, or brought comfort when I was hurting - the ability to create those stories, and the worlds that those stories inhabit is an ability that not everyone has.

I believe there are other superpowers that exist in this mundane world, disguised or downplayed to hide their magical ability to make the world a better place. Like, knowing how to encourage someone with just the right comment at the right time, or making someone feel welcomed or valued. It's easy, for some of us, to forget to verbalize when we are appreciative or to not notice when someone is feeling uncomfortable. Some people seem to always be able to help fix things - or when they cannot be fixed, to at least help things not seem so horrible. These people don't wear capes or emblems on their chests that alert others to their superpowers, but they are there, nonetheless.

Courtesy of Nanowrimo, an organization that celebrates National Novel Writing Month in November, I have a wristband that declares, "Noveling is my superpower." I admit that a cape would be cool, but I make do with that. What about you? Do you believe in superpowers? Do you have any?

early scene

I have been writing the prequel to Shades of Deception and having a fun time doing so, but I've run into a little issue. I'm planning for the prequel to be a novelette, somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 words long. The great news is, it's going to be available for free! I truly believe that, if you enjoyed Shades of Deception, you're going to love this preview! The problem I've encountered is that I'm having so much fun writing the story, I'm getting carried away - it's getting too long!
Rather than cutting all of those extra words, though, I decided to give a sneak peek into the story. Initially, this scene was going to begin the story, but I've had to move ahead a few years and start further along. Still, though, I thought the scene was fun, and my readers might enjoy seeing it - so, without further adieu, meet David and Jessica!

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Jessica blew out a breath in frustration, puffing her bangs out of her line of sight. Her hands were balled into fists at her waist, elbows pointing stiffly out to the sides.
David wasn’t sure what had gone wrong. “But, I thought, I mean,” he stumbled over his words, feeling his face grow hot with embarrassment. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a small group of girls giggling as they watched, covering their mouths with their hands to try to silence their laughter. He turned back to Jessica, his mind scrambling furiously to come up with something – anything – to say that would erase the words that had just come out of his mouth.
Jessica was glaring over his shoulder. David was surprised to see her beady gaze focused on the giggling girls instead of him. He felt like he’d suddenly fallen down a rabbit hole with Alice. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean,” he tried again.
Jessica pushed past him, cutting him off mid-sentence. David turned, watching as she strode intently over to the girls.
“You’re a bunch of maggots! You think that was funny? You are worse than a flock of chickens, pecking at the weaker bird. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!”
They didn’t look ashamed, David thought, watching as they ran to the other side of the parking lot. He stuck his hands into his pockets and took a few steps toward the front of the school. He hated recess. He hated the girls in his grade – in his whole school, actually, but especially in his class. Mostly, he hated feeling like an idiot. Somehow, lately, these girls always made him feel that way.
“David, wait,” Jessica pulled at his sleeve. “David, I’m sorry. They’re just being jerks.”
David shrugged, still walking. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have listened to them, I know better.”
Jessica pulled his sleeve harder, insistent. “David!”
He stopped and turned his head to look at her. He was surprised to see tears in her eyes.
“David – I do like you! You’re the nicest person I know, and I know a lot of people! You’re smart, and you’re funny, and you laugh at my dad jokes even when they’re really bad. I just don’t like you, like you. But I don’t like anyone like that – it’s not just you. Please, don’t be mad,” she cajoled.
The tears hadn’t fallen yet. If he could make her laugh, maybe she wouldn’t cry. David smiled weakly at her. “I am a nice person – some of those dad jokes are really bad!”
Jessica’s smile broke through, lighting up her face, though she used one sleeve to wipe at her eyes. “Hey, want to hear a joke about construction? I'm still working on it.”
David groaned, smiling.  

Check it out!

If you haven't already ordered your copy, you can read the first couple of chapters of Shades of Deception here: Shades of Deception

Welcome to 2019!

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that, like me, your 2018 had both highs and lows to work through. My highs included publishing Shades of Deception, the first of the Fighting in Shadows series. The lows included the death of my father-in-law; his funeral was on the same day my book became available on Amazon. Bittersweet.
I know, without a shred of doubt, that 2019 will also hold both highs and lows. It can be tempting to allow those lows to slay us, to allow the frustrations from work or stresses from living and doing life with other people to push us into negative head-space instead of taking a deep breath (or a couple of them) and kicking for the surface. But this year, my resolution - a resolution I invite you to join me in - is to decide ahead of time that 2019 is going to be a wonderful year.
I saw a post on Facebook that said, "Be happy on purpose. Don't wait to see what kind of day you'll have. When you wake up, decide what kind of day you'll have." The statement reminded me of a sweet woman who used to come to our home for a small group Bible study. Someone had wished her a good time at an event she was planning to attend, and she remarked, "Oh, I always have a good time - I bring my good time with me!"
In light of both of these similar thoughts, combined with the knowledge that I may not know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow, I wish you all an amazing 2019 - it's going to be a wonderful ride!