Get Ready to Read!
Favorite Place to Read
What’s your favorite place to read? I love reading in bed at night before I go to sleep.
Author Journey
Guess what! I’m so happy to be able to announce that The Tale of Outh’n Durr, as well as the revised edition of Ripples (Children of Y’Dahnndrya, book 1) are both available in ebook format. The printed paperbacks for both books will be available as soon as I can get the proof copies approved. The excitement of one’s books getting published in hard copy formats doesn’t diminish. I’d forgotten the awesome feeling of completing such a massive project.
One of the improvements to Ripples is in the front matter. I was able to add two maps. I’d worked so hard on these maps before the first edition was published but I couldn’t figure out how to add them to my manuscript in time to meet the deadline I’d given myself. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, then you know how disappointed I was with that and the first cover. The cover wasn’t at all what I wanted, not even close to what I knew it should be. But I’m excessively happy with it now.
Upon completing these two books and releasing them into the wild, I’m so ready to tackle the final touches on Surge. I’ll give myself a short break to work on some non-writing projects I’m elbow deep in. Then it’s back to the writing desk to see what I can do to make the second book in the Children of Y’Dahnndrya series the best it can be.
Another thing I want to get better at is recording myself. I’m almost painful to watch on video, but I’m stuffing that down to do what needs to be done. I’d like to start doing writing sprints on YouTube and also on my Discord channel. The plan is to do those on different days and at various times so that anyone can join in on one of them. I know work schedules and time zones make a huge difference to one’s available writing time.
Another piece of exciting news is an up-coming live event. Our local library offered me an opportunity to meet readers and introduce them to my work. So on December 13, 2025 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm, I’ll be at the Eunice Public Library for an author spot-light. I’m hoping to have a few signed books by then for patrons to pick up.
One sad bit of news is that I may not be able to publish hardback copies as soon as I’d hoped. I’m not sure how to create a properly sized cover using the template the printers sent me, so I’ll have to research that. Once that’s done, I’ll have to order proofs of both books until I can approve them, and then we should be good to go. As much as I’d like to offer hardback editions, I must say they are going to be more pricey. It’s much more than I would spend on a hardback book. No wonder I’ve been seeing prices rise in the bookstores! It’s unfortunate but I guess it is what it is.
Writer’s Life
This month, I took on a pretty big project. We were planning to decorate our trunk for our church’s Trunk-or-Treat event. I made a beehive out of Styrofoam, yarn, and hemp cord. I made bees out of pompoms, felt, and embroidery floss. I pulled out as much yellow fabric as I could from my scrap fabric piles and any available yardage. We planned out a honeycomb sign we were going to make with card stock and paint. We bought three bags of candy and some trinkets to pass out to the kids. I even filmed myself making all the props so I could post them to my personal YouTube page later.
Then we ended up buying a new vehicle. Going from a small SUV to a truck changed the plan up a bit. So I needed a way to hang the bees and set up some greenery. I purchased 4 mop poles to brace in the bed of our truck.
If that wasn’t enough change, the city decided to change the date of Trick-or-Treat. We’d already made plans to celebrate a family member’s birthday so all that work and planning sort of fell through. However, we are the proud owners of a yarn-wrapped beehive and a swarm of pompom bees. I’m sure I can figure out a few ways to use them. I just wish I’d known we weren’t going to need them. I do try to be as thrifty as I can, since my tastes run toward the upper end of upper-middle.
We finally got some autumn-like weather this week. The temps dropped to the mid-60s. I’m happy to be able to keep our windows open and get lots of fresh air circulating in our home. The sunshine is great, too, after the rain brought in by the front yesterday.
Well, I must leave you here for now. I’ll keep you posted on those proofs and the progress.
Until next time,
Keep turning pages…
P.S. I know today is Halloween. Y’all be safe out there!
