My Mind Is Scarmbled!

Between numerous dental appointments and trying to get A Matter of Death sorted so it makes sense, I totally forgot to post on Monday.

First of all, I'm fine. Except for the snoring. And the low-grade sleep apnea. But it's not bad enough to go for a CPAP. Honestly, I don't know if I could handle a CPAP. I can't sleep with air blowing on me.

It's only one of my many peculiarities. I have a lot.

So the sleep specialist handed me off to my dentist's partner for a mouth guard specifically for sleep apnea. It's a nifty thing that reminds me of a cross between my old retainer and my sports mouth guard. So they took impressions of teeth and created the device. Now, it's a question of fine-tuning it so I can sleep without dislocating my jaw in the process.

It's the first time I've EVER had a dentist recommend I chew gum. Sugarless, of course.

Then there's A Matter of Death. *sigh*

I got off-kilter somewhere along the way. Not panicking because I did something similar on A Modicum of Truth. I finally figured out the problem, and now I back on track. However, I put myself in a time crunch since I wanted to release it next month.

This will be a challenge, scary and exciting at the same time.

So, what are y'all doing this summer? *grin*

The IRS, Plots, and Cinnabons

Poor Darling Husband has been dealing with family freak-outs the last few days.

It started Friday. Genius Kid got a letter from the IRS stating he would not get his refund until he proved his identity. In the letter, the IRS demanded he need to come to their office and show his 2017 return.

I don't know why people spaz about the IRS. Keep your nose clean and don't take $2 billion in losses unless you have the receipts/paperwork to back it up. You'll be fine.

In GK's case, his return was flagged because 2018 was his first year to ever file, and Ohio had massive problems with fraud/stolen identities a few years ago. Both the feds and the state have been cracking down on anything remotely suspicious. In fact, DH and I had to jump through some hoops the first year after we moved back to Ohio.

After calling the IRS, GK found out he only needed to drive to the local office with his identity paperwork.

Also on Friday, I found my notes from A Modicum of Truth regarding the plot threads that needed to be resolved in A Matter of Death. Oops! So, it's meant a few days rearranging the chapters I've already written and adding some scenes. I'm more angry with myself than anything, so DH has been patting me on the back and saying that I'll get this sorted before the July release date.

Then yesterday, DH was sick. Sick enough to take a day off. And his dad called in a panic because his printer was out of ink.

Now, my father-in-law, bless his heart, is not technically inclined. DH has to download books onto FIL's Kindle for him. He'd never be able to swap out ink modules.

But DH tried to be responsible and told his dad he'd be over in a few days because he didn't want to give his dad whatever germs he was carrying. So FIL, not knowing how else to help, called several more times yesterday to check on his son even all DH needed was sleep. Which was pretty much what FIL did when DH had cancer, too.

So today, DH is feeling a bit better and went with GK to the IRS office over his lunch hour. And GK, who has been on our cases about sweets and weight, actually suggested they pick up some Cinnabons on the way home.

Because cinnamon rolls with vanilla frosting will make everyone feel a little better.

Catching Up on the Backlog

I received the print proofs of Sacrificed and A Modicum of Truth shortly before the Easter holidays. In fact, I took them with me on the road trip to Nashville and started going through them while GK drove.

Unfortunately, I didn't get them finished before everything hit the fan the following week. So guess what I'm trying to finish before NaNoWriMo starts on Thursday?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my formatter can fix the few typos I found, and I can get these two volumes ordered before our library's Local Author Book Signing on November 10th. If I can't, well, there's always next year!

* * *

Something else to keep in mind, the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Trust will be discontinuing both print and e-book edition of volumes 22 thru 27 of the Sword and Sorceress anthologies, according to their most recent newsletter.

If you want copies before they disappear, you'll want to order them well before December 28th!

Proofing the Proofs

Last week was spent getting ready for the writing workshop at our local library. This week I buckled down to go through the paperback proof copies of A Modicum of Truth and Sacrificed.

The e-books were published way back in February and March of this year. I'd ordered the paperback proof copies and took AMoT with me on our Easter trip to Nashville. I even managed to get through the first 100 pages while Genius Kid drove.

When we got back from Nashville, I turned on the afterburners to finish the first draft of Hero De Facto. It was done on April 16th. However, the next day was my first biopsy. The paperback proofs got shoved to the corner of my desk and were subsequently buried under a  mound of medical records, cancer literature, and doctors' bills.

I'm slowly but surely getting things taken care of and paperwork filed. But with CreateSpace's upcoming merger with KDP Print, I want to get these paperbacks finalized before the switchover, which could be any time now.

So I pulled them out of the pile and started reading through them.

And now I really want to write the next books in each series. LOL

Drifting Like the Leaves

It's been a rather bizarre week. I'm a little stuck on Book 3 of 888-555-HEROES. When that happens, it means Subconscious is working on something in the background that will click together when she's damn good and ready.

The story already took a turn I wasn't expecting, but that is usually a good thing. I like it when Subconscious surprises even me. It means (hopefully *fingers crossed*) that the story will surprise the reader as well.

In the meantime, I do what I usually do--jump back to another project. I started writing A Touch of Mother, which will be the fourth novel in the Justice series. The opening of the first scene was a little mushy for a Justice novel, so I scrapped the original 300+ words and started over. Yes, folks, you CAN do that.

But it also shows how much further along Subconscious is in the writing process than I realized. In the first version of AToM, I knew the wardens weren't letting the clergy out of their sight for a moment. This was long before I wrote the reason WHY in A Modicum of Truth.

Funny how the mind works sometimes.

Today, I'm back working on A Matter of Death. There's more than a few things that need to be ironed out before I continue on with Book 4.

The goal of course is to have a book out every month for the first eight months of 2019. Keeping my toes crossed that nothing else untoward happens for the next year!

Tumors, Tubes and Superheroes

I have breast cancer.

Four words I really never thought I'd say.

The last two months since my annual mammogram have been a whirlwind of tests and doctor visits and raw rage. I had a plan mapped out for releasing eight books this year, and I'm so fucking furious my writing/publishing plan has been blown to hell. However, this isn't the first time cancer has upended my life, though it is the first time I'm on the receiving side.

Jo, one of my writing friends, helped me put together an alternate plan. I keep writing as best I can through the surgeries and treatments, and I don't worry about the production side of things, like editing and formatting until I get through treatment. I don't have to worry about the covers because the lovely Elaina Lee of For the Muse Design already completed them last year, which I'm forever thankful for.

As I write this, it's been ten days since my first surgery, the mastectomy of my left breast. I have Stage II-B lobular invasive carcinoma. While it is the second most common breast cancer, it only affects 10-30% (depending on which literature you read) of diagnosed patients. The five-year survival rate is over 90%, which means I have a damn good prognosis.

When I rolled into the operating room last week, I thought I'd hit acceptance mode. But as I sit here in my recliner, minor irritation is transforming back to rage. My incision site has hit super-itch mode, and my arm rubs against the Jackson-Pratt drain sticking out my side a couple of inches below my very smelly pit.

Which is that way because I can't shave or use antiperspirant right now, and I really can't stand the smell myself, much less want to go out into public. And yes, I am showering.

What does this all mean? When are the books actually coming out?

I'm looking at another four weeks of healing time from the mastectomy. Then comes the radiation and/or chemo. I'm not sure which treatment or combo is likely because the tumor turned out to be larger than what the surgeon and radiologist estimated from the MRIs, the only decent pictures they could get. I haven't talked to the oncologist yet. Worse case scenario is twelve weeks of follow-up treatment, assuming I have no complications from the treatment itself.

There will be another four to six weeks of recovery from the radiation/chemo before the first reconstructive surgery. Four to six weeks of recovery from the first stage before the second reconstructive surgery.

And that takes us roughly to February of 2019 before my life returns to a relatively normal position.

I can hear y'all thinking, "Wait a minute! We have to wait nine months for a new book?"

I don't know if that will be the case. The timeline may be shorter. It may be longer. Despite the mental and emotional bullshit of the last two months, I wrote 42,000 words. I finished the first draft of Hero De Facto, and I'm roughly halfway through Hero Ad Hoc, the first two books of my superhero series. The real question is how much can I get done before chemo brain sets in because that's the real danger to my writing productivity. I can't promise any specific release dates because I can't guarantee what will happen next.

And as they wheeled me into surgery last week, my husband whispered, "You'd better live. You need to finish A Matter of Death."

See? Y'all aren't the only ones ticked with me for leaving A Modicum of Truth on a cliffhanger.

Why I've Been Quiet

The goal for 2018 is to release eight books in eight months. So far, I've been two for two.

But this week, the paperback proof for A Modicum of Truth arrived, my formatter sent me the PDF for Sacrificed, and I'm trying to finish the first draft of Hero De Facto. It's culminated in a very busy work week.

To top off my busy schedule, Genius Kid officially started Spring Break after his Physics class this afternoon. He and I are road-tripping to his godmother's place next week.

It'll be an interesting excursion simply because we're at that weird state between a parent and child where things aren't always sunshine and roses. In other words, he hates me, and I want to kill him. If we can survive this trip, maybe there's hope for us switching to an adult-adult relationship.

In the meantime, having another driver means I can spend some of my trip working on first two books of the 888-555-HERO without Darling Husband asking what's for dinner...

The Marathon Goes On...

I'm in Month Two of my eight book releases in eight months marathon.

The e-book of A Modicum of Truth is out. I'm in the process of reviewing the e-book version of Sacrificed. Last night, I uploaded the files for the paperback copy of A Modicum of Truth. I just need to review the proof copy when it arrives. And I'm trying to finish the first draft of Hero De Facto.

On that last one, I had to search for the original outline and comparing it to what chapters have been completed. I experimented a little on this one. When I got stuck in the middle, I started writing backwards.

Not literally. I wrote the last chapter, which is something I've done before so I know where the hell I need to go in the story. But then, I wrote the next-to-last chapter. Then the second to last chapter. Yadda, yadda, yadda, lobster bisque.

The plan is to release Sacrificed on March 14 and Hero De Facto on April 13. I'm hoping the stars stay aligned and the health remains good this year. And I hope I give my readers a whole lot of fun along the way.

A Modicum of Truth Is Out!

Yep, the longest book I've ever written is now available. Just, please, PLEASE don't ask me when A Matter of Death will be out. I may have to lash you with a wet noodle if you do.

Snow Day!

A huge storm passed through Chicago and Detroit last night. We were supposed to be on the southern edge. The weather reports said we would get 0-1 inches while Toledo, which is an hour north of us, expected 7-9 inches.

Needless to say, we got a little more than an inch. Genius Kid and I said, "Screw it," and went back to bed. Okay, we both stayed in bed. When Genius Kid's alarm went off, he checked the school closures report and rolled over.

On the other hand, I slept through the whole thing. My stamina sucks these days. I've been getting up every morning to do writing sprints with a fellow author. But he wasn't going to be able to do it this morning, so I didn't bother to set my alarm.

This afternoon though, I've got to get back to work. Over the last four days, I've been writing 1,500 words on Hero Ad Hoc in the morning and reviewing the e-book proof of A Modicum of Truth.

[Lesson Learned: Don't write a 100K epic fantasy in the middle of a major release cycle. I'm not touching A Matter of Death until my schedule is clear.]

Luckily, the guys are still planning on their night out with Papa. I'll have extra time since I won't have to make dinner, and I'll have a silent apartment for roughly two hours.

I'm also not baking today as is my usually wont on a snow day. I made mint chocolate chip cookies on Monday. (Only a two-hour delay though.) I don't think my waistline can handle more no matter what those cans of pumpkin in the cupboard are whispering.

So for those of you in the snow belt, how do you handle snow days with the kids?

State of the Writing Address

My awesome plan to put out a bunch of books in 2018 has already hit a snag. For some reason, A Modicum of Truth has turned into a 100K+ opus. It is the longest book I've ever written, and it doesn't look like the third book in the Justice series will be any shorter.

For once in my life, I actually feel sorry for George R.R. Martin.

On the plus side, I did send the files to my formatter yesterday at exactly 5:00 p.m. EST. The second novel in the Justice series may not be out in January as planned, but it will be released shortly.

Today, I'll get back to the edits on Sacrificed, but last night, I worked a little bit on Hero De Facto. I needed something a little lighter to cleanse the writing palate before burying myself back in the Bloodlines universe. Between the intensity of the Justice series and the black moment of Bloodlines' overall story arch, I definitely needed a mental break.

The next step I'm considering as publisher is whether or not to use pre-orders. Amazon's rules are pretty sticky. A lot stickier than the other retailers. And I'm still not very good a estimating my time in this career, as shown by the delays in getting A Modicum of Truth out.

Let's see how I do on editing Sacrificed over the next couple of weeks. However, I am shooting for releasing it thirty days after A Modicum of Truth.

Silence Has Fallen

I'm trying very, VERY hard to have A Modicum of Truth out before the end of the month. I don't want to be radio silent. I really, REALLY don't. But this book has turned into a monstrosity of nearly a 100K words.

So if you don't hear from me (other than the movie reviews and music posts already schedule) for the next few days, that's why.

GO, TEAM SILENCE!

I'm Late for a Very Important Date!

Today's post is late because I've been struggling to get the final edits done for A Modicum of Truth. A scene I thought I'd written wasn't in there. I went through notes and spread sheets, and I finally realized I'd thought about the scene while doing laundry, and when I went back to my computer, I picked the story with the following scene. *facepalm*

Then the rhythm of the climax was really off, and I didn't note something super important that had happened in the climax in the final chapter. My endings usually are a lot tighter, but then I realized it's technically the middle of the trilogy.

Add in my usual tendency to accidentally leave out articles and prepositions, I'd added nearly 10K words to the novel by the time I finished.

Just in time for the new episode of Samantha Bee tonight, thank Goddess!

In the meantime, chaos is running through Indie World. Data Guy put out the latest iteration of his Author Earnings report. And he greatly underestimated the level of anger Indie World has concerning trad pub.

Sort of like the men who don't get the #MeToo movement.

Even though a lot of indie writer will talk money, they are revealing their own numbers, not someone else's. Data Guy made the mistake of naming names and counting Benjamins. Publicly.

How gauche!

Then he made the second mistake of revealing that he's selling info he's scraped from Amazon to the bigger publishing companies. Basically, if you make $10 million or more, he'll sell you a copy of his data.

*facepalm*

A lot of indies gave Data Guy their personal information in order to calibrate his 'bots back at the beginning. And now they're feeling a little betrayed. Especially after they were named on Author Earnings.

There are already calls for a class action suit.

I can't comment on the legalities, or lack thereof, on who did what. But I will say there's nothing more fearsome on Earth than a bunch of romance writers with their panties in a wad.

Dazed and Editing

I've been editing this week. Mostly A Modicum of Truth, but last night, I needed to get out of the apartment for a bit. And when I'm out at a coffee shop, my mind is geared on new writing.

I'm attempting to stick to my writing plan. My original plan of releasing the three superhero books on the same day in late April (right before the release of the next Avengers movie) wasn't going to help kickstart the sales algorithms on Amazon. Too much has changed on their website in the last three years. I took a hard look at what's completed, where I was on the uncompleted projects, and how to maximize my releases.

The next project to finish is the first draft of is Hero De Facto. Except I haven't really looked at the story as a whole in nearly three years.

Sure, I went back and read the first couple of chapters and the last one in order to get back into Harri and Aisha's heads last November to get a jump start on Hero Ad Hoc over NaNoWriMo. But Hero De Facto still needed to be finished itself. So last night while eating some excellent turkey chili, I started reading and editing to get back into the flow of the novel.

I'd forgotten how close this book was to being completed. I forgot how funny and delightful it was. I only got a hair over 600 new words in (pretty low for three hours of concentrated work), but dammit, I had fun.

And it makes me want to get the edits done on A Modicum of Truth and Sacrificed so I can go back to the Hero series and have some more fun.

That's what I love about this job. It's so damn fun!

How Do You Decide How Long a Series Should Be?

DH asked me that question the other night in bed. I'd finished the first draft of A Modicum of Truth Wednesday evening, and I mentioned I got the inspiration for the starting scene of what will be Book 4 in the Justice series.

I know a lot of indie writers are very concerned about the optimal length of a series. This is my opinion, and mine alone: As long as I'm having fun writing a series, I'll keep going.

But there's another thing that's personal to me as well: I go in knowing how the series will end.

Seriously, I have to know where my characters end up before I start writing. I may not know how they get from Point A to Point Z, but I start a project knowing exactly where Point A and Point Z are for the primary character.

I'd give specific examples from my work, but I don't want to spoil things for people who haven't read my one completed series, nor do I want to spoil things for the books that aren't out yet.

So let's use a best-selling author: J.K. Rowling.

Her character, Harry Potter, has a traditional hero's journey. He beats the bad guy who's been out to kill him since he was born. Ms. Rowling does this through the typical years of adolescence in a U.K.-style boarding school, from age 11 through age 17, i.e. seven books.

Each book had a standalone story while each volume carried the primary story forward. Even better, the ending is a call back to the beginning. Rowling had a final scene that many thought unnecessary, but was in fact quite essential. The book ends with Harry's son Severus on his way to Hogwarts for the first time. It's  shows everything in their world is okay and Severus won't face the same terror and danger Harry had.

The extended storyline is the model I prefer, but it is a personal preference because I need an ending, both as a reader and a writer. And because of the ending, you would have a fairly good idea how many books will be in the series.

That doesn't mean there's a magic number. Rowling planned seven books in her Harry Potter series. I planned nine books in the Bloodlines series.

That doesn't mean you can't add or subtract if things are working/not working. I added a few shorter working to the Bloodlines series because I was having too much fun with the characters.

On the other hand, you could have a series whose main character doesn't really change over the course of the books. Each book is therefore essentially a standalone story. Readers can jump in any time.

The late Sue Grafton's Alphabet mystery series is a good example. Private investigator Kinsey Milhouse changes very little through the course of twenty-five books. Some readers like that consistency. And there's nothing to stop a writer from going for ten, twenty-five, or even an hundred books, a la Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

A major problem to watch out for--some writers keep going because the money is so good they (and/or their publisher) are afraid to stop. As much as I loved Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries (aka the Sookie Stackhouse series), I hate to say this, but it was pretty obvious Ms. Harris lost interest in the series around Book Nine, which was released in 2010.

However, in 2010, the HBO TV series based on her novels, True Blood, was at its height of popularity. Both HBO and her publisher wanted to maximize profits, and they offered her a pretty penny to keep going.

But Ms. Harris lost track of the overarching plot (who Sookie would choose as her life partner), and she didn't plant enough clues of who Sookie's ultimate paramour would be. Readers were sorely disappointed about how the series ended.

Even though HBO had deviated from the main plot of the books, their ending wasn't received any better.

To me, this is one of the best reasons to have a particular ending in mind if you're writing an overlying plot.

But ultimately, the decision of how to handle your series is up to you the writer. Just remember the Golden Rule and treat your readers how you would want to be treated in that position.

Writer Twitches

I'm closing to the finish of A Modicum of Truth, and the twitches have started.

I'm not sure how to explain the twitches. I haven't met another writer who admits to having them. It's this weird feeling in my brain, like an itch I cannot scratch. It happens when I'm having a ton of fun as the story starts its slide to home base.

I don't want the fun to end.

I need to find out what happens next.

The story took two detours away from my outline I wasn't expecting, and I let Subconscious take the driver's seat. She usually has some good instincts. And letting her have her way means I don't have to spend as much time layering the story. She pulled two subplots from A Matter of Death forward, and pushed one back. So either she did her job right, or readers are going to hate me.

Subconscious doesn't get the bullshit from readers, nor does she give a flying rat's ass what their opinion is.

(The readers don't realize I have three primary personalities and a host of sub-personalities. If they did, they'd be giving me the contact info for every shrink they know.)

And for the first time ever, I'm ending the book on a cliffhanger for one set of my heroes.

So I'm a little nervous about that. I think I've done it in a good way, more a The Empire Strikes Back type of ending than the second season finale of Preacher. (Seriously, dudes! Tulip?!)

But nerves over reader reaction and the twitches are two different things. Or maybe they are the same because the twitches are my reaction as first reader.

'Cause guess what? The me that writes this blog isn't the same me that writes the books. I'm the janitor, and I'm cleaning out the extra words the writer doesn't need for her art.

But you know what? It sure beats shoveling pig shit.

You know what else? I'm often as surprised as the other readers of the things that come out Subconscious. And if I can't predict what's going to happen, maybe it'll surprise and delight the readers as well.

I think.

I hope.

Aw, fuck it. Maybe I should go back to shoveling pig shit.

(Hello, everyone! This is Subconscious speaking. Trust me, you're going to love this book! Suzan fell asleep at her keyboard, so a lot of you will see this message on the blog before she finds it and erases it when she wakes up tomorrow. But A Modicum of Truth is fabulous and exciting and brilliant! I promise!

And really, Suzan's alleged twitches and itchy brain have more to do with her caffeine consumption. She should cut back. Toodles!)

Still Scribbling...

I'm currently struggling to get A Modicum of Truth done before Halloween. If you'd like another taste while I'm in my corner typing away, check it out at my reader website.

Bitching About the Past

Things seem to run in trends in the writer thoughts on the interwebs. The latest amusement (for me anyway) are writers that started seriously writing for a living around 2010-2011 bemoaning the quality of their old works compared to their newer releases.

Mind you, I'm not talking about the long-term folks who were trad published prior to 2010 and were either dropped by their publisher and/or realized the freedom indie publishing would give them.

No, I'm talking about the folks who didn't take the idea of making a living writing seriously until e-books and/or indie publishing exploded. Most had never been published, or at most, had one or two trad published books.

Anyway, they see the change in quality of their own work over the last six or seven years. Rather than rejoice they've grown as artist, they whine and gnash their teeth about the suckitude of their first novels. They waste time rewriting those book, or they whine about how they don't have time to rewrite those books. And sometimes, they take what I think is the worst option of all: they remove those early books from the market, essentially making them out-of-print.

*facepalm* (I swear anyone who is a writer has a dominant "whine" gene.)

I've already talked about this issue. More than once. Generally focusing on George Lucas here and here.

To paraphrase the late, great SF&F writer Jay Lake, once you the artist releases your work into the wilds of the public, you don't really own the story anymore. I'm not talking about copyright. I'm saying you can't control the thoughts of the people who read, see, listen to your work. You can't control their opinions of your work.

If you change your work, you are no better than George Lucas. You insult your fans by saying, "I didn't put out my best effort and you're dumbass fools for liking it."

Or even worse, you could lose potential fans by taking your older books off the market. You don't know which work of yours will resonant with the public. Hell, the song John "Cougar" Mellencamp wrote that he hates the most? "Jack and Diane". Yet, it's been his most popular work for the last thirty-five years.

If you think I'm immune from the embarrassment of older works, I'm not. While cleaning out my file cabinet a year ago, I stumbled across the first story I submitted to a magazine back in 1993. Yeah, it sucked, but I saw the glimmer of the writer I would become.

And yesterday, while working on A Modicum of Truth, I pulled up the original version of A Question of Balance from 2013. At the end that year's NaNoWriMo, I was two-thirds into the novel when I realized (okay, Subconscious smacked me upside the head) I was trying to cram three different plots into one book.

I made notes at the time so when I picked up the novel on 2015, I sliced off the extraneous bits. But I saved them for later. One of the bits I sliced off was the original version of the scene where Anthea tried to track Luc after he and Warden Gibb disappeared.

Oh. My. Goddess. The original version sucked so bad! LOL

But what a huge difference two years had made in my skills!

Another two years later, and I'm hoping A Modicum of Truth will be an even better book than A Question of Balance. If it isn't, I seriously need to rethink my life and goals because I should always be improving and growing as a person and as an artist.

After all, isn't that the true nature of the human condition?

Channeling Speedy Gonzales!

For those of us a certain age in the United State, Looney Tunes was a Saturday morning staple. Especially certain heroes such as Speedy Gonzales. Not only could he outrun his foes, he outsmarted them, too. When I was a kid, I wanted to run as fast as Speedy. Now that I'm a middle-aged writer, I wish I could type as fast as him.

Actually, I'm pretty much in the middle as far as writing speed goes. That's somewhere between a novel every ten years and three novels a month (yes, I do know someone that fast).

However, I need to go a little faster than usual since I made the mistake of promising that A Modicum of Truth would be out by my birthday, aka Halloween.

Oops!

As of last night, I have a little over 20K written on the second volume of the Justice series. I'll need to write 60K by the end of the month (or pretty damn close) to meet my original deadline. Is it doable? Yes. Have I done it before? No.

But I'm determined to get it done because I refuse to disappoint any more readers, including myself. So time to nibble a little cheese, and ARRIBA! ARRIBA!

Status Report - June 2017

I haven't done a status update in a while, so here's what's happened since I posted my April list of things to do:

1) No, I haven't started the edits on Ravaged yet.

2) The first draft of Sacrificed was completed on May 25.

3) I started back on Resurrected on May 26, and realized there were a couple of major issues that would turn into expositional crap if I dealt with them in this novel. So I plotted two short novels that will take place between Sacrificed and Resurrected, and started writing them. I post word count updates at my reader-oriented website www.suzanharden.com if you're curious.

4) The non-related short stories are done, but when they will be released is open to question with the new short novels for Bloodlines.

5) Proofing the Bloodlines paperbacks is taking an inordinate amount of time, far more than I anticipated. But I have to get them done because I will be at an author's signing event at our local library next month. More on the signing will be posted closer to the day of, which is July 20. In the meantime, they've essentially been moved to the top priority spot.

6) Needless to say, updating the Seasons of Magick series has been pushed back once again. It may be swapped with #7

7) I gotten more e-mails/PMs about A Modicum of Truth, so based on demand, it will need to take priority post-Bloodlines. It's good that a work is wanted, but it's a little nerve-wracking as well. I'm blaming the demand on the new Wonder Woman movie.

So that's what's happening in my world. Hope everyone has a great summer!