Upcoming Release: The Cave

This blog post was scheduled for LAST MAY. That’s right… May of 2021. I’ve published it today because now that I’m preparing the final draft for publication in June of 2022, it’s kind of fun to think of where the book was then vs. where it is today (March 5th, 2022). Look for another blog post today! Or maybe tomorrow… but I promise it won’t be another year before I post again XD

—

Work on The Cave has been consistent, which is very exciting for me to report :) I’ve been keeping up with my own deadlines and am about halfway through the book! I was hoping to be farther along, but as it turns out, The Cave may actually be a novel-length work on its own. Don’t blame me—there are a lot of loose ends to tie up in the series finale ;) Such as…

• Warren & April: Are they forever?

• April & Valentino: Will they finally meet?

• Damian & April: Will this get complicated?

• Damian & Wolf: DOES THE DOG DIE?!

• Valentino & Maggie: Yes, we see Valentino again… and he’s going to meet Maggie.

• Abigail & Emma: Who the heck are they?

• Nathan: Wait… Nathan, Nathan? As in… kept April imprisoned in a bunker, Nathan?!

Okay, so some of those characters are brand new, so if you’re scratching your head right now, it’s because you don’t know them yet. But you’re about to. And that’s why The Cave may very well end up being full novel-length! There’s just too much to pack into a novella. My original idea for this series was to test the waters of self-publishing and set the stage for By Scion and Sea with a prequel novella/short story. But the story grew. And grew. Aaaaand grew. And as the story kept getting bigger and more involved, it became more of a novel told in multiple parts.

So now here we are. If you combine the page count for the first three novellas (The Boat, The Grave, and The Road) you’d have a 240-page (or so) novel. And the more I write into The Cave, the closer it gets to another 250+ page no-longer-novella-length work.

So where do we go from here? If we’re wrapping up In Caves & Catacombs with The Cave, what happens next? Enter By Scion and Sea. This is the next full-length novel work, and thus begins the Efrenen Sea series, which is set in the year 2500. So hold on to your hats, everyone. The next year is going to be a doozy!

Overwhelmed, Overworked... and Utterly Inspired

“The Road” Cover Art by Elle Otero

Dear readers,

I must admit that I meant very, very much to publish the third novella for the In Caves and Catacombs series a year ago exactly. I also meant very, very much to update this blog. But here we are, at the tail-end of 2020, and I am just now wrapping up what I swore I'd accomplish 12 months ago.

I'd give you a laundry list of reasons why this year was awful, but I’m so dreadfully tired of the sadness. The anxiety. I don’t wish to fixate on the relentlessness of COVID and its expanding impact on our world. On top of that, enough terrible things befall the characters in The Road that I just need to inject some (hopefully not toxic) positivity into the world right now. We have been so very, very fortunate that very few members of our family have caught COVID. It is such a deeply frightening experience, as so many of you know. So I'm going to attempt to share a bit of levity and joy by focusing on the good things that have come out of this year for me and my family:

1. Evie: Our daughter is a constant source of goodness and love. This year she turned 2, and she is the sweetest child "that ever I seen", to quote her directly. Her request of Santa this year was "To give mommy a present". Hand to God. She is an incredible human being, and I'm 40% positive she's not manipulating me for more fruit snacks.

2. Steve: My husband Steve and I have grown closer. We have shared our deepest fears, done our best to prepare for the worst contingencies we could imagine (many of which did not come to fruition, thank God), and have practiced patience and understanding with each other. I don't have anything funny to add because I'm being sincere AF. Steve is a lovely human being and I am grateful for him every day.

3. Gardening: Our garden that we panic-expanded (well, rushed our existing plans for) in February has been incredibly bountiful. I'm still shockingly bad at growing good corn, but we can grow the heck out of tropical and semi-tropical rare fruit species, so, a net win. Also, we have added chickens. Ever since we sold our country property and moved to a smaller lot in the city, we've been chicken-less. Not so anymore! There's nothing like waking up to their lovely little clucking. Also, Steve has since fixed the dog door so we no longer wake up to it, but it's nice to hear when we go outside.

4. Work: Work is insane. I work in the field of online education and technical training, and we were understaffed before the COVID crisis began. Going from approximately 5% online courses to 100% virtually overnight was crazy in March, and the repercussions of that switch are still reverberating to this day. Despite feeling overwhelmed and overworked all of the time, I still consider this to be an incredible privilege because there are so many out of work, losing their businesses, or scraping by on unemployment. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting the transition to online learning.

5. School: School is also insane. Yes, in late 2019 I began working towards my PhD with no idea what 2020 would bring. And now I've made it a full year into the three-year program (am I dreaming? does anyone finish in 3 years?) and there's no turning back now. About half of my motivation to complete my doctorate is pure, but the other half is because I'm totally going to make people I dislike call me Doctor. I challenge you to find anyone who's doing it without that in mind. They know in their deepest, darkest place in their hearts exactly what I mean.

6. Writing: What? How did I find the time? I still don’t know how, but I've actually finished The Road, were you even paying attention??? Artistic inspiration is one of the few things we can rely on when the world feels upside down. I have furiously scribbled during my breaks and stayed up too many late nights, but I’ve finally finished the third novella. While it is not the drafted novel that I’ve been kicking around for years, The Road is a major accomplishment for me nonetheless because it required a total rewrite. I was ready to hit publish one year ago when two very dear friends told me to wait. Let it sit. As much as it pained me then, that process of rewriting made the story far better and more developed than it would have been otherwise. Furthermore, it has also given me the opportunity to seriously workshop it with my writer friend, Marysia (I will link to her work as soon as I can, because she's amazing). The workshopping process has been delightful and such an incredible learning experience, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

There are so many more things to be grateful for this year. Breadmakers, for instance. Jellybags. And growing closer to our family, friends, and neighbors, even at a distance. Seeing our communities band together to get through the COVID pandemic has its own kind of beauty, and it shines a light that cuts through the darkness of death that has shadowed our world for the better part of a year. 2020 has indeed been awful. If you lost someone, I am so, so sorry. I hope that you will find peace, and hope that you will find a way to honor that loss.

If you can find it within you, let’s come together to celebrate what we can. Merry Christmas, dear readers, and Happy Holidays!

Drawn to Darkness

I’d like to think I have a sunny, bright, happy personality. I love happy things! And I recognize the same brightness reflected in my one year old daughter’s eyes every time she gives me one of her thousand-watt smiles. But there’s some part of me, and I think all of us to some extent, that is drawn to the darkness. There’s something captivating about pain; the brooding, sensual, raw edge of it calls to our softest, sweetest, most vulnerable parts. Having lived through some remarkably bad decisions, I’m still drawn to it, but not in the way that I used to be.

Now, I just write it into my characters. The more flawed and human and damaged they are, the more they compel me. The struggles they endure begin to dictate the direction of the story. I’m finally getting my writing legs back, and it feels good to muddle about the shadows again.

Really, all of this is to say that “The City” is back on track for a July release! I’d give a description of the story, but it’s evolving so quickly in the rewriting process that I won’t try to pin April (our heroine) down (even if she might like that sort of thing). Suffice to say this is still a story of love lost in the apocalypse, a story of journey, of redemption, and self-discovery. It’s a lot to stick into a novella.

More updates to come!

Free Halloween Short Story: The Man in White

Yay! It’s Halloween! Almost, anyway. Your treat this year is the winner of last year’s Scheherazade literary magazine’s Halloween short story contest, The Man in White. Go download it today while it’s still free!!

“I’ve never been as close to death as the night I met the man in white. It began when I ventured onto that exit, where the side roads cut through the green foothills; a welcome break from the endless grey highway.”

I'm a bad blogger (and other motherhood things)

Truly. I am a bad blogger. But I am here! And somehow, still writing (if slowly). The last eight months have been utterly life-altering. I’m a new mom and we’ve moved! These are both good things, but I’m left feeling a little …unsteady, perhaps, when it comes to picking up where I left off.

I’m finding that it’s hard to write when your whole world view has changed. Ironically, one of the characters I’ve been having the most trouble working on is a mother. You’d think having my first child would get the writing to flow from my fingertips. But instead it’s ripped me out of place and the first three chapters I’ve written are all wrong. And maybe it’s because I was imagining what motherhood would be like for so long that this character strikes me as inauthentic. And if I can’t relate to her because she isn’t real enough, then neither will anyone else.

Ah, yes. This. This is why I blog. Writing inspires… more writing!

As the dust settles around our new “normal” life, I solemnly swear I will find time to develop my characters. Look for more updates on Book 3 of In Caves & Catacombs: The City, coming soon! And if you need some light Halloween reading, check out The Man in White, a spooky short story now available for pre-order on Amazon.

Wizards in Winter is available now!

I'm excited to announce that Wizards in Winter is now available to download on Amazon Kindle! Curl up this winter with a Christmas-themed fairy tale that will awaken your sense of adventure as much as it will warm your heart.

In this story, Enoch the Red Wizard sets off into an enchanted wood on Christmas Eve, just as the worst blizzard in memory descends. Join him as he embarks on a series of quests for the denizens of the wood, in the hopes that he can create a truly magical gift for one special boy in the nearby village of Derrydol.

“Those in his youth had been happy days, and it stirred Enoch’s ancient heart to see Toby running for a long-fallen branch of oak alive with a thousand resting butterflies. At that great moment on Midsummer when Toby sent them scattering in all directions under the sun, he also awakened and scattered the sleepy butterflies of Enoch’s own memories.”

— Wizards in Winter

Book Release: The Grave is out!

Book 2 of "In Caves & Catacombs" is finally out! To preorder, click the book cover image to the right.

*     *     *

The viral outbreak has reached the northern California town of Oceanside, where Damian, an Iraq veteran and his dog, Wolf, have been living on the streets for years. With the majority of the town either evacuated or infected, Damian, Wolf, and his long-time friend Frog must rely on more than their usual skills to survive.

An indirect sequel to “The Boat”, “The Grave” takes readers through the apocalypse with new eyes, bringing them one step closer to where it all began.

PRE-ORDER NOW