What I'm doing

We:

-Married off our daughter in September.
-Are doing online public school for my last kid in school, his senior year. Kid goes to Air force boot camp in the spring.
-Recently fixed a problem that's been keeping me up for a long time. Sleeping deeply every night is amazing!
-Husband got promoted, adjusting to new responsibilities
-joined church decorating committee, because someone needed to step up, and I was someone. I'm now unexpectedly social...and busier. Undoubtedly, it's good for me.

Any of these things would be enough to slow the writing, and all of them together is definitely doing it. I've decided it's just that season of life, try to enjoy it.

Today, I'm going to clean my house, pack the Pintrest worthy willow screens I made (ow, drilling through wood is heavy work. Good thing my husband helped). We're having dinner with friends tonight, going to transform hedge clippings into holiday centerpieces for 100 people. Good times.

My health is great, no trouble with rainy day sinus headaches, so I have hope for spring. Maybe smoke/allergy season will be kinder, too.

Thanks to the wedding, I've discovered an unexpected talent for decorating. Combined with like-minded women of artistic ability and thrifty creativity, our poor church is developing a personality. Our husbands may not like being drafted for the sawing and cutting, but they seem resigned... John even enjoyed parts of it. Doing projects together can be fun.

May your holidays be as cozy and fun,


Autumn Dawn

Working on next book

Working on next Convergence book. No title or release date yet. More info later

Typos, mistakes, let me know here!

No matter how many times I (or my editor) look over a manuscript, things slip through. It's super frustrating, but readers can help! It takes time away from other work to pull up a manuscript and fix stuff, but it's nice to know that I've done the best I can to weed mistakes out.

 Find a typo on a new release? Let me know! Just got this one today:


Message
Hi, I noticed some potential corrections for Autumn Dawn on Kindle. If you have already made them please ignore. After the attack in the dragon mountains Kjertil agrees to challenge Indris not Chaldric. Ria's death throes has the word bugling instead of bulging to describe her eyes. Love the seriese. Please keep up the good work. Best wishes S.

Another one:

The part that caught my attention was the glitch on Cara's birthday changing from turning 22 in the beginning, to stating she had just turned 20 on page 42.

I've enjoyed all the other three books in this 4-book elemental world and have waited anxiously for Cara's story to be written. Autumn Dawn's creation of a world of Elementals is wonderful and spikes the imagination.I've enjoyed all the other three books in this 4-book elemental world and have waited anxiously for Cara's story to be written. Autumn Dawn's creation of a world of Elementals is wonderful and spikes the imagination.The part that caught my attention was the glitch on Cara's birthday changing from turning 22 in the beginning, to stating she had just turned 20 on page 42.

However, I feel as if there were several chapters left out of this book, as it was such a quick ending and there were a couple grammar errors in the beginning of the story which might have been just the formatting of the book to sell? The part that caught my attention was the glitch on Cara's birthday changing from turning 22 in the beginning, to stating she had just turned 20 on page 42. The 22 was a little young in my mind for being involved with such an older elemental, but still worked and flowed for me, it was the turning 20 years old, that had me cringe just a little, as she was just nineteen the day before, and it seemed young for me.

Overall, a good book to read, but the other 3 were more detailed and longer. I recommend reading all four of her books.

However, I feel as if there were several chapters left out of this book, as it was such a quick ending and there were a couple grammar errors in the beginning of the story which might have been just the formatting of the book to sell? The part that caught my attention was the glitch on Cara's birthday changing from turning 22 in the beginning, to stating she had just turned 20 on page 42. The 22 was a little young in my mind for being involved with such an older elemental, but still worked and flowed for me, it was the turning 20 years old, that had me cringe just a little, as she was just nineteen the day before, and it seemed young for me.

Overall, a good book to read, but the other 3 were more detailed and longer. I recommend reading all four of her books.

I've enjoyed all the other three books in this 4-book elemental world and have waited anxiously for Cara's story to be written. Autumn Dawn's creation of a world of Elementals is wonderful and spikes the imagination.

However, I feel as if there were several chapters left out of this book, as it was such a quick ending and there were a couple grammar errors in the beginning of the story which might have been just the formatting of the book to sell? The part that caught my attention was the glitch on Cara's birthday changing from turning 22 in the beginning, to stating she had just turned 20 on page 42. The 22 was a little young in my mind for being involved with such an older elemental, but still worked and flowed for me, it was the turning 20 years old, that had me cringe just a little, as she was just nineteen the day before, and it seemed young for me.

Overall, a good book to read, but the other 3 were more detailed and longer. I recommend reading all four of her books.

I've enjoyed all the other three books in this 4-book elemental world and have waited anxiously for Cara's story to be written. Autumn Dawn's creation of a world of Elementals is wonderful and spikes the imagination.

However, I feel as if there were several chapters left out of this book, as it was such a quick ending and there were a couple grammar errors in the beginning of the story which might have been just the formatting of the book to sell? The part that caught my attention was the glitch on Cara's birthday changing from turning 22 in the beginning, to stating she had just turned 20 on page 42. The 22 was a little young in my mind for being involved with such an older elemental, but still worked and flowed for me, it was the turning 20 years old, that had me cringe just a little, as she was just nineteen the day before, and it seemed young for me.

Overall, a good book to read, but the other 3 were more detailed and longer. I recommend reading all four of her books.

Black Hound coming out in print shortly

Thank you for supporting the release of my ebook, Black Hound! The print version should be available next week (Amazon is reviewing it now).

I celebrated release day by grocery shopping, cleaning house and capturing a swarm of bees in a horse coral to repopulate our be hive.

The bees were starting to swarm when we got there, so I gave the branch a sharp shake and the clump dropped into the cardboard box we brought. Hopefully there's a queen in there; we'll know in a few days. If not, we might be able to buy a queen from a local bee keeper.

It was pretty funny. We were driving down the road on the short trip to our hives and the bees were escaping the cardboard box in the trunk. Of course we were wearing bee suits, because no one wants to deal with bees while driving.

We got out of the car and my husband had a long walk across an uneven field carrying a box of escaping bees to the empty hive. The grass was tall, and predictably we were picking ticks off our bee suits when we were done.

We also had to use a shop vac to get all the leftover bees out of the car, because they didn't want to leave.

We were super excited to get the swarm, agreeing it was one of the best dates ever. Bees are in limited supply and only available in spring, costing about $100 per swarm, and that's not including hives and equipment. We also have three more empty hives, so if you live close to Spokane and have a loose swarm, we'd love to fill our hives.

Bees are necessary for fruit and many other crops and pesticides kill them by the millions. I love eating, so I'm happy to keep the population going when I can. Besides, honey from freshly crushed comb is ecstasy; we're addicted, and our friends say it's better than commercially spun honey. My husband grumbles when we have to buy commercial honey, says it's just not as tasty.

I can't prove it, but I think it's because they get to use the fresh, clean wax their body naturally produces to make storage cells, instead of gunky old wax left over from spun honey. Whatever the reason, yum!

That said, processing honey is a lot of work, and not everyone has the guts to work with bees. Commercial keepers work hard to keep their hives alive and food on our table. In honor of them, I think I'll celebrate with the big bag of cherries I just bought. Mmm, cherries...

Breaker's Ruin is now available in print!

Breaker's Ruin is now available in print!

Not to be confused with Black Hound, which is out in ebook 6/15/2018. Print will follow soon after that.

 

I thought I had figured out how to set a book up in print, no problem, but I give myself a whole day to do it anyway. Yesterday I needed it, because amazon's cover creator glitched. I spend a large chunk of time doing the cover with a template on GIMP. Yay, I learned something new...ready to go back to the easy way...

So what's next? Doing some plotting today, so we'll see about that. Right now I'm working in the Convergence world and it will likely involve dragons...

Preorder links for Black Hound!

Preorder links for Black Hound on Amazon, Kobo, ibooks and SmashWords!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DDC6CLR
 https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/black-hound
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-hound-autumn-dawn/1128818615?ean=2940155272342
 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/834204

Black Hound edits done

Black Hound edits done, pre-order link should appear soon, will post link when it goes live. Release date June 15.

Tomorrow I work on the paperback version.

I have edits! Plus, a Black Hound snippet: It's morning

Coming June 15

I'm going to spend the next week on edits, but that's very boring for you, so here's an exciting snippet to whet your appitite.

From the next Convergence book, Black Hound. Available June 15 wherever ebooks are sold.

“Wait! If that thing’s a foot thick, how are you getting cell reception?”

She blinked. When the answer came to her, she grinned. “I’m magic, cuz.”

His swearing was good-natured this time. The man forgot she wasn’t a helpless kid anymore. “Whatever. Get back to work.”

“If you’d quit bugging me, I would,” she retorted in good humor, and hung up. With Ike soothed, she was able to focus and make rapid changes. First up was a garage door that looked seamless from the outside and a camouflaged man door. She sent Iron Eagle off to Ike with the key so he’d feel better.

She ran a line of thick bulletproof glass all the way around the spiral to let some light in, tinting it on the outside so it appeared like the rest of the gray steel shell to an observer. She studied it for a moment, reconsidered and added a rainbow of colors, making the light dance. After that she had to color the inside wall of the spiral white to better reflect the ribbons of light, add a few strategic mirrors...

Much better!

After lunch and a text to her twitchy cousin, she set up camp. An indoor outhouse was a necessary evil until she could work on plumbing, but it was easy to form a small stainless steel kitchen, storage shelves and a platform for her sleeping bag and thin foam mattress. She set up a map on a steel table and studied it, then made a curving stair to the peak of the roof where she formed a camouflaged observation window.

She groaned as she climbed, totally wiped out. Setting up house was exhausting, and she’d done it two days in a row.

The light was fading. The sunset turned piles of junk into mysterious hills of darkness. She noted the rising mist and was glad she’d installed special air filters in the Spire. She glanced ruefully down the stairs and thought about an elevator…later. When she wasn’t seeing double. She’d pushed her limits again.

Of course, if she didn’t push them, how would she know where they were?

A knock sounded at o'dark-thirty, waking Rue from a dead sleep. She fumbled for her phone and squinted at the screen. Yep, it was early.

The knock came again. She flicked on a battery powered camping lamp and got up, retrieved her gun, and looked through the disguised safety glass window. Moonlight revealed four men, but without a yard light, that’s all she could make out. Clearly that was an oversight, but she hadn’t thought she’d need one, not this soon. What would possess someone to visit the Yard at night? Unless they were dangerous themselves…

She wasn't about to let them in.

“What?” she called.

“We come in peace. We’d like to buy some metal.”

She scoffed. Metal? At this hour? “Come back in the morning and we’ll talk.”

“Your word on it?”

That was odd. Words had power in this age, and the more powerful the person, the stronger the consequences. Still, there was no harm in talking. “Come back tomorrow and I will talk with you about metal,” she said carefully. “You have my word.”

They returned at four AM.

She stumbled to the door, stupid with sleep. “What are you doing?” she snarled, tempted to smash them like bugs.

“It's morning,” the persistent visitor said mildly.

ARGH! She dragged a hand over her face to scrub away the sleep and checked the window; still dark out. It was hard to think before coffee.

Bramble Burn is available in print!

My editor is dealing with injuries, so the fastest way to hurry the book along is to pray intensely for her health and healing. Otherwise, be patient. No one ever died from a delayed book release.

Meanwhile, excitement! Bramble Burn is now available in print! Working on Breaker's Ruin print shortly.

 Buy it on Amazon.com!

Black Hound cover reveal

 

Black Hound

available June 15

(Lord willing and the creek don't rise)

Convergence Series Book 3

It had been thirty years since the Convergence, when the dimensions aligned and combined Earth and the world of Gwyllon, known in human mythology as “Underhill”. Elven castles and ancient ruins sprouted in vacant lots, on major highways, sometimes merging with existing buildings, twisting into completely new structures. Roads and rail systems reformed, and after the rioting, starvation and death, agriculture finally sorted itself and food began to flow. A new government formed of elves and men had arisen, a society of human tech and elven magic. Cell phones and frost giants, race cars and elven steeds, dungeons and dragons…

And everywhere, monsters.

Black Hound

Metal mage Rue Smith is no one’s tool. When dark elves try to invade her junkyard and trick her out of precious black metal, she fights dirty. With killer robots and a floating Watchtower made from classic cars, she dominates the monster plagued Yard and terminates the bad guys.

Despite deafening construction on the dwarf fortress next door and unwanted attraction to her evil security chief, she kicks monster butt and holds her own with the city’s elite, until a near fatal accident nearly ruins it all. One of the most powerful metal mages on the planet, she’s used to going it alone, but she’s going to need friends to tame the Yard’s wild magic before time runs out.

Heat level: sweet. Contains no graphic love scenes.

Expect reasonable amounts of gore as monster heads explode and plenty of action.

Black Hound is finished!

Black Hound is with my editor. I'm working on a cover. I'll finish edits ASAP and publish it, probably by the end of April.

Excuse me while I duck out and get on to the next project.

Checking in

Quick summery: Yes I'm working on books. I'm also planning a wedding, going to be home schooling my youngest through senior year, and my dog died. Many things happening.

My health is great, spring allergies are much better than ever before thanks to consuming organ meats (in pill form, because yuck). My creative juices, which had dried up for a while due to too much evening primrose lotion, are reviving. Be respectful of hormones, and yes, what you put on your skin does get in your body.

Today is about hyperlinks on a project, tomorrow I squeeze in notes on a book and run around town, and this weekend...? At least I have a social life.

Setting up books for print at CrtSp

Ugh. Finally got Earth & Fire, books 1 & 2 of the Fire, Stone & Water series, set up for print...again...at CreateSpace. I remember now why I hated doing that. It's never right the first time, requiring time consuming tweaks. Also, their Cover Creator is lame. All the pre-made covers suck, so it's either pay for a cover or make your own, which takes more time...

Of course I would have needed to do that if I didn't revise the book, and I chose to make that happen. Hopefully, the next one will be easier.

In other news, I made soap last night. Playing with dangerous chemicals and transforming gooey waste product into cleaner was deeply satisfying.

My dog had a stroke, catching up

My dog had a stroke a couple of weeks ago. He's doing better, but he's almost 13, so I'm babying him.

Today I caught up on housekeeping: fixing my website, resetting broken links. I finished re-editing the Fire, Stone and Water series and am updating the print book, which has predictably taken up several days, because nothing can ever be simple as uploading a file and walking away.

I also noticed that half my books were not checked for distribution to B&N. Good grief, how long has that been going on, a couple of months? Fixed it.

At least I'm never bored.

Winter sun finally peeked over the top of my new neighbor's gigantic two story house. We're still house hunting, but pickings are slim. Hopefully it will pick up toward spring.