After putting out books every month since February 2020, I'm taking a little break for June and July this year. For those who haven't heard, DH and I will be first-time grandparents!
Adorable Spawn's due date is July 6, but babies like to come on their own time table. Not to mention Genius Kid and Significant Other live 1300 miles away, so we're keeping our options open.
That doesn't mean things won't be happening!
1) From now until the Fourth of July, Bloodlines: The First Boxed Set will be on sale for $0.99! The first three Bloodlines novels are sexy, hot hero fun when you're lounging by the pool or on the beach this summer.
[ETA] Oops! I forgot the buy links!Amazon, all countries
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Google Play
Kobo
Smashwords
2) The rest of the Bloodlines series (Books 2-9) are on sale from $2.99 to $3.21.
So I'm asking you to please contact Amazon's customer service and complain. They will listen to customers before they will listen to me, though I plan to constantly nag them from now to Labor Day.
3) The two-month break doesn't mean I won't be writing. I'm working on rewriting the Millersburg Magick Mysteries, which I hope to have out by August.
4) I'm also working on August's new release, A Hand of Father (Justice #7).
6) The late release for Soccer Moms is because I'm looking forward to the chaos of A Very Hero Wedding (888-555-HERO #8). Let's face it--weddings can be crazy enough. I know mine was. Add in crazier supervillains on top of crazy relatives, and...
Well, you get the drift.
Anyway, that's what's happening in my world. If you have any comments or questions, enter them in the comments section below, or send me a private message through the Contact Me tab.
Next week, I'll start posting snippets from A Hand of Father.
Heck, I even emailed Amazon last Tuesday to ask them to price match Blood Magick at $0.00.
Which they did on all the stores.
For three days.
On Friday, the U.S. store raised the price. The weird part is if you are not in the U.S., and you log into the US Amazon store, you'll see the price set as free. But if you're in the U.S., you've got to pay.
So I'm asking you to please contact Amazon's customer service and complain. You can send them this link to show that Blood Magick is free on Barnes & Noble:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blood-magick-suzan-harden/1102680302?ean=2940012615336
Dang. I was hoping to make a big announcement on Wednesday, but I've got a wayward duck to wrangle.
On the plus side, I've got the Bloodlines: The First Boxed Set paperback almost ready to be published. Just waiting on the cover, which will be done on Monday.
If you'd like the ebook version, it's on sale for $0.99 at all the mahor retailers.
I manually loaded a bunch of ebooks onto Apple, after driving myself crazy learning the system. I view it a necessary evil. If I end up hiring an assistant (or DH does the job, as he has suggested int the past), I need to be able to explain things to them.
I've been working on the revisions for the Millersburg Magick Mysteries in between other editing projects.
However, I've barely gotten through half my to-do list for the week. All I can do is try to get as much done before Adorable Spawn arrives this summer.
Or it could be Adorable Spawns. There's a possibility Significant Other might be having twins. She and Genius Kid called this week in a bit of a panic. As we told them, the grandparents will be there to help no matter what might happen.
On top of everything, Darling Husband found out his position was being eliminated. It has been a fear for a lot of people thanks to the ravages of COVID-19 on our economy as well as our health. The good thing is his employer doesn't want to lose him. They're exploring options, and it makes DH feel appreciated.
So if you know me personally, this is why I've been crazy or not in touch with you lately. I'll catch up next week. I promise.
I just need to play Counselor Troi this week.
The nice thing is there are some cool sci-fi writing classes included in the pledges. So if you're looking to expand you're genre repertoire, you might want to check out this kickstarter.
Yesterday was also the extended tax deadline. However, I was still wearing my face mask inside the post office. Why was I there? We can't electronically file the city tax return, and I like having the postmarked receipt. (Thank goodness, we moved outside the city limits, so I don't have to deal with it next year.)
Anyway, the woman in line in front of me glanced, then apologized for not wearing her facemask. I told her it was all right because the governor had lifted a lot of the restrictions, but I can't take chances since I have cancer.
Which unfortunately, I'm still considered an active case until I hit the five-year mark.
Two rednecks were standing in front of her, who took a little too much interest in our conversation. I could see them tense up, ready to jump on me if I gave the lady any crap.
The lady and I talked as the line slowly scooted forward. She didn't blame me for sticking to the extra precaution. Her own husband was in remission.
And the two rednecks got stunned expressions on their faces. It had obviously never occurred to them that masks weren't all about their FREEDOMS! Some of us have a damn good reason for taking precautions. Some of us are going to stick with our precautions because we want to live. For some of us, wearing a mask has not a Selket-damned thing to do with politics.
Or in my case, my face masks have nothing to do with COVID-19 anymore. I like the fact that I've made it eighteen months without getting sick. I already had autoimmune issues before the cancer. And I'm going to keep wearing them because I got a bunch that match my Wonder Woman t-shirts.
Besides, June is Pride Month, and my rainbow and other pro-LGBT masks will do a much better job of pissing off the local idiots.
Those definitions of writer range the gamut of human experience. You're a writer if you journal for yourself. You're a writer if you write one book and it never gets published. You're a writer if you only write poems. You're a writer if you only write short stories or novels.
You're a writer if you write every day. You're a writer if you're a NYT best-selling author.
I could keep going, but you get the point. So, what am I?
Gentlefolk, I AM NOT a writer.
I can hear the gasps and the "WHAT!"s from you all. But it's true.
I am a storyteller. My preferred medium is the written word.
You see, we all get to define ourselves in this world, despite what other people think or say. I'm not saying all the definitions above are false. They are true, if they are true to you. No one else's opinion matters.
Now, pardon me while I get back to my current wip.
Because I can't wait to see what happens next in the story.
With nearly half the country vaccinated, things are looking and feeling a lot better in the U.S. There's still restrictions in place, but they are gradually being lifted.
In the sane places, anyway.
Unfortunately, India isn't as lucky. They managed to get infections under control at the beginning of this pandemic, but their cracks are showing. Infection rates have exploded since the middle of March to the point of nearly 400K new infections a day.
That's right. Almost 400,000 infections a day. In a population of roughly 1.4 BILLION people. And it's getting worse.
They are running out of medical supplies. One hospital ran out of oxygen a week ago. It was a death sentence for some of their patients. Hell, even the crematoriums can't keep up. Roughly, 80% of of the country are Hindu, and cremation is their primary method for dealing with corpses. Eerie pictures of the smoke and sheer amount of fires make a graphic statement of the horror of the situation.
No, this is not over. Not by a long shot.
I mean, really. Does it? I've never observed a bear taking a dump in its natural habitat.
However, I've been hearing a lot of whining on the interwebs lately.
Kids, no one makes us do art. And yeah, that's what writing is. Art.
Seriously, who's holding a gun to your head? Or a sledgehammer? If they are, you've got more serious problems than writing.
I don't know what's causing the latest stir. True, sales are down. But people have been trapped in their homes for over a year. The number of vaccinated in the U.S. is closing in on fifty percent of the population. Spring has sprung in all her glory. The daffodils died thanks to the late April snow we got two weeks ago. But damn, the lilacs outside my office window are making up for it.
People want to get outside! I don't blame them. I want to go outside, too!
After I get my words in that is. Not because someone is making me, but because I want to know what happens next.
If you don't want to know what happens next, then stop. No one's going to give you any shit. It's probably all out in the woods anyway.
The question above is most certainly rhetorical.
I remember the afternoon the Eagle landed on the lunar surface. The collective excitement of the adults around me. The thrill of us doing something that's never been done.
Us. U.S. The United States of America.
Fifty years later, I hear despair from friends and acquaintances in the medical profession. They are abused by neighbors who've swallowed the belief that science is the source of all evil. They are cursed out by patients who still claim COVID-19 is a hoax as they struggle to breath. They struggle to save people who claim vaccines don't work. Or even more ludicrous, the vaccines contain tracking devices.
(*Ahem* If you're one of the last, you might want to take a good look at a certain handheld device I'm sure is on your person or nearby your body. Corporations and the government can already track us through our smart phones.)
As I said, the title is a rhetorical question. I know what's happened over the last fifty years. It doesn't mean I like it. 10% of the population has contracted this disease. And yet, people are refusing the vaccine.
Look, I want things back to normal, too. Even though DH and I are vaccinated, it felt very weird going out to dinner with GK and SO while we were in Texas. I wasn't scared for myself. I was scared for SO and Adorable Spawn. SO found out she was pregnant right as the vaccines were delivered to their base. At the time, her doctors advised against vaccination because they didn't have any data concerning the vaccines' affect on pregnant women.
It's exceptions like SO who the reason the rest of us needs to be immunized. The unity of her friends and family getting the vaccine to protect her and AS helps, but only so far.
I wish the other half of the country understood why this unity was so important.
