New Release - Death in Double Mocha

The last novel in the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse series dropped yesterday. Death in Double Mocha is currently only available through Amazon. You can read it via Kindle Unlimited or buy the ebook or paperback.

After it's 90-day term on KU, it will be available at other retailers along with the rest of the Soccer Moms series.

BLURB
Dani Elante’s alter ego Death felt the wrongness of the dead rising, even though the world rejoiced in the return of their lost loved ones. But she shoved her reservations aside when her deceased husband comes back to her and her son.

Can Dani find the courage to put the dead to rest and stop the Apocalypse? Or will Satan convince her to let Heath live, and as a result, destroy the universe?

Amazon, all countries

It's Going to Be a Busy Weekend!

Three boxes filled with Death in Double Mocha arrived this afternoon. Yep, they arrived a week early to my shock and surprise.

That means between cleaning the house before GK arrives for leave late Monday/early Tuesday and spotting for the booth during the Flag City Phantoms game Saturday night, I need to pack up 70 Kickstarter reward boxes.

I'm so not complaining! The movies I wanted to see in March and April are rolling into streaming so I'll be watching those while packing, taping, and slapping mailing labels on those boxes.

Yay! I can't wait!

Just a Note to Say...

I'm still alive, but things are busy at Casa Harden. Hopefully, the edits will be done for Death in Double Mocha later today/early Tuesday morning.

Then I need to jump back on Queer Eye for the Super Guy since Jeremy's in the middle of a murder investigation of an up-and-coming designer he took a shine to. (More of a possible protege. Jaye's firmly committed to his husband.)

Hope to have some more news by the end of this week!

Update on Releases

I tried to finish both Death in Double Mocha and Queer Eye for the Super Guy last month. Getting sick at the beginning of March set me back nearly 50K words for the year to date. In my attempts to catch up, my back started giving me fits.

Now before anyone starts on my case about exercise, I do get up frequently for breaks, and I take Princess Bella for may short walks during the day.

No, my problem is stress. And when I'm stressed, it settles in my hips and lower back. The teeny, tiny tendons and ligaments torque, the muscles spasm, and anything short of deep pressure point techniques doesn't relieve the pain. And there's no point of getting a pressure point massage if I don't deal with the source of the stress.

Therefore, I called Amazon on Monday and politely begged them to let me push back the release of Queer Eye for the Super Guy for a month, and Cecilia, the representative I spoke with graciously allowed me to do so.

Those of you who preordered Queer Eye should have received a notice from Amazon by now about the delay. The last thing I want to do is put out a half-assed product.

As of this writing, I have roughly three and a half chapters left to write on Death in Double Mocha. It will of course be sent to the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse Kickstarter campaign first, but it will be available to the general public in June.

Queer Eye for the Super Guy is a little over a third of the way finished, but the idea's have been in my head for so long that the writing is going fairly quickly. It will be released on May 12th.

 

Things Are Going to Be Quiet on the Blog This Week

I'm trying to finish both Death in Double Mocha and Queer Eye for the Super Guy this week. That will be followed by a lot of editing. I'm excited for both books to be released soon!

Once the paperbacks for Death in Double Mocha arrive, I can start shipping the last of my Kickstarter reward packages.

In the meantime, I'm in the initial stages of putting together a sooper sekrit project for 2025. Okay, I'll give you a hint--it'll be the Justice series 10th anniversary.

More cool stuff is coming your way!

I'm Still Alive--Sort Of

On the plus side, the stuff in my chest and throat is starting to break up. On the minus side, I managed to injure a chest muscle during a massive coughing fit yesterday. This virus is taking no prisoners.

In the meantime, I'm sipping tea and slowly progressing on small tasks that need to be done. I'm not as productive on words as I planned for this week. But I am inching forward, and thankfully, I'm on the downhill slide as far as writing Death in Double Mocha. The Soccer Moms have figured out how to stop the Apocalypse, but there's enemies who relish the idea of the end of everything.

Such a feminist propaganda storyline! LOL

Progress!

Since I announced this through a Kickstarter update, it's safe to say it here. The first audiobook has been completed and delivered to me by the narrator for the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse campaign. I need to finish reviewing it.

I've made some good strides in writing Death in Double Mocha since the beginning of the year. I've settled into a comfortable drafting rhythm for the first time in over a year.

This is part of the reason I'm not publishing much in the first six months of 2023. I want to get caught up on everything that slid out of control in 2022. And I don't need the stress of a full calendar while getting caught up on last year's releases.

Managing stress when you have one or more chronic conditions is the key to being truly productive. On one hand, I hate having to micromanage my sleep, my food, and my exercise as well as my stress levels. On the other hand, I want to continue giving you the stories you enjoy.

Because I enjoy writing them as much as you love reading them.

No Rest for the Wicked

I hit the ground running on January 1st. A hair over 22K written in the first twelve days of the year. This weekend will be spent editing three novels to get them upload on the various retail sites.

My Chinese restaurant tea arrived today. That will be put to good use over the next couple of weeks while I finish Death in Double Mocha. The next big task will be ordering the paperbacks and sending out the last of the Kickstarter physical rewards.

I probably could have done more, but Genius Kid and the Grandpuppy are here for only another eight days. I want to spend time with them while I can.

There's time off in my schedule for 2023. Darling Husband and I hope to fulfill our road trip to the western U.S. The one we'd planned for 2020 that got bombed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I'll kick back with my tea and chocolate Long Johns and read a couple of stories writer friends sent me to look over. I can't think of a better job in the world!

Books and Pies and Presents! Oh, My!

 

Things have been a little crazy around Chez Harden. DH and his sisters have been attempting to clean out their parents' house for the last several months. That task slowed way down when Sister #2 broke her wrist at the end of August.

So they busted their butts last weekend and plan to do so again this coming weekend. And I'll be hosting our Christmas dinner Saturday night. I'm catering the dinner, and maybe I'll make a pie or two if I have the time on Friday. Which honestly is looking doubtful at the moment.

In the meantime, DH wanted to replace the Christmas tree that drowned in last year's unintentional indoor swimming pool. The new one looks vaguely purple-ish in the photo, but it's a white tree with lights that can be blue (current mode) or white, blinking or not. It looks quite nice without any ornaments. I was surprised he picked something so non-traditional, but then, I want to get a black tree for the library once it's set up. A black tree with white lights to display my collection of of Star Trek ship ornaments.

Unfortunately, with everything else going on, I'm racing around trying to finish my holiday shopping since I have three days left. There was a time I'd have everything done by Thanksgiving, including shipping the out-of-state presents.

Since Invasion!'s release got screwed up, I'm taking the opportunity to review it for typos one last time. Death in Double Mocha is making progress finally. And then this morning, I received a private invitation to submit a short story for a holiday anthology for next year, which the publisher needs by the end of this week.

I have to admit things are never dull in my life.

Thirty Percent Through NaNoWriMo

I'm getting the words in, but not on the project I'd planned to at the beginning of 2022.

Death in Double Mocha is way behind thanks to the multiple deaths in the family this year, not mention the two additional stories that will be audiobooks. Invasion! is supposed to come out December 1st, and I can't afford to lose my pre-order privileges on Amazon. And I'd wanted to do A Hint of Thief for NaNo. I have written a few chapters on it in order to wrap up the events at the end of A Measure of Knowledge and Invasion!

As a friend mentioned, it's like I'm writing three NaNo projects at once.

Looking at timing, I need to take a step back and finish Invasion! first since Elaina is scheduled to do the paperback cover next week.

Then, I need to finish up everything for the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse Kickstarter before the end of the year.

Finally, I can jump back into A Hint of Thief because of the excitement factor of Anthea and Luc being caught in plots, spies, and triple-crosses while trying to keep Quan alive long enough to be crowned.

Yep, my brain is high on stories!

Gaining Some Ground

After forcing myself to finish Chapter 6 and making a little headway into Chapter 7, I put aside Death in Double Mocha for this week and jumped into Invasion!

Why?

Because it still feels  peculiar mixing my feelings about my mother with Dani's feelings about hers. Normally, I can immerse myself in my POV character's emotions and beliefs. Yep, even Selene from the Bloodlines series. But right now, it's just too damn weird and disjointed.

So I worked on Invasion! this week. It wasn't a breath of fresh air. It was like hanging out with old friends.

To the point, I wrote more in the last five days than I have in the previous twenty-seven days.

I may not finish Death in Double Mocha before the end of this month, but I feel better about making headway on it over the next few weeks.

Slowly Getting Back to Normal

I spent Saturday doing a variety of errands. Like picking up most of my October ornaments from the local Hallmark. The SNW Enterprise is on back order, but it should arrive before Christmas. Since Darling Husband went with me, I bought breakfast and coffee at Starbucks for us.

Princess Bella, DH, and I munched on the breakfast sandwiches while watching a couple of episodes of Macgyver (1985). We'd originally planned to install the medicine cabinets in the master bathroom, but we haven't had a Saturday off in a month. So, we went to the Spirit Halloween store instead.

I purchased a door mat and a journal. DH finally got the fog machine he's wanted. We didn't find any inflatables to join the Skeleton Dragon, but there's always next year.

When we got home, DH watched On Patrol on REELZ (what used to be Live PD on A&E) while I stuffed envelopes with stickers, bookmarks, and magnets for the last rounds of rewards to go out from the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse Kickstarter. We topped off the evening by ordering pizza.

Yesterday, I wrote while DH watched football. It wasn't a whole lot. I'm still rotating among several manuscripts because I can't last more than a paragraph on Death in Double Mocha. Best I can do is try to finish it by the end of the month.

But this year's crap means I'll be more prepared the next time I do a Kickstarter. There's lessons in every life event.

Taking a Step Back

Those of you who pre-ordered Death in Double Mocha through Amazon should have received a note from Amazon that the pre-order has been cancelled.

Amazon allows indie authors to only postpone a pre-order once a year. I'd already had to postpone one of my spring books when my father-in-law fell and broke his hip. I never dreamed both he and my mother would pass within a few months of each other. Between being sick and traveling back to my hometown for the funeral, I lost over two weeks of productive time, and I knew I wasn't finishing Death in Double Mocha in time for its pre-order's release date.

I spoke with an Amazon rep yesterday and explained my situation. She allowed an exception considering my situation, but I had to cancel the Death in Double Mocha pre-order and re-enter it in order to keep the other pre-orders alive. (Yes, it's weird, but the rep could have easily told me to go screw myself, so I'm counting my lucky stars she didn't.)

However, I'm not going to re-enter the pre-order until I finish the first draft of the book. I admit I've opened the file a few times since I got the text from my brother. Sometimes, the words come in little fits and spurts. Sometimes, I stare at the screen, and the black marks make no sense.

When this happens, I usually jump to another project to loosen the stranglehold my critical brain has on Subconscious. That's what I'll do today.

Because the last scene I wrote before I got that text was the one where Dani's mom comes back from the dead.

Yeah, I may have some issues. LOL

Murphy Is the One True God!

I'm trying to finish writing Death in Double Mocha, but my mother died yesterday morning. The timing stresses me out, but hers is not the first death this year. And maybe the Soccer Mom series is cursed. Darling Husband's father passed right before Pestilence in Pumpkin Spice dropped.

I'm beginning to think I need to move to a state where recreational marijuana is legal.

Three Down, One More to Go!

I finished the third book in the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse quadrilogy, War in White Chocolate, early yesterday evening.

Alas, there is no rest of the wicked. I need to finish the last proof of the paperback for Famine in French Vanilla today and jump into writing Death in Double Mocha.

Ironically, there's been three deaths in the family over the last eight months, and frankly, I'm not only peopled-out and funeraled-out, I'm approaching burn-out with my writing. It's not a good feeling, and a friend I trust said it was rather obvious in the last 888-555-HERO book.

That's not a good sign.

I plan to finish the Kickstarter books, and write Invasion! and the other two books on pre-order. Then, I will take a huge break for a couple of months. I really need to refill my creative well.

Part of the plan is to start working on OOAK Barbies again. I haven't had time to sew, much less face paint or re-root hair since Genius Kid was a toddler. And yes, I'll post pictures over the coming months.

There's also the MCU movies and series I haven't had a chance to watch over the last two years. I have over a thousand unread books, including research tomes for future writing projects. (She says as the gods on the cover of Budge's The Book of the Dead stare at her.)

I will still be writing, though not at the furious pace I have been since I recovered from cancer surgery. I've been working at such a ridiculous speed because I feared dying before I could write down all the stories in my head. Then I buried myself in writing to keep from stressing out over the pandemic.

None of this crazy behavior is healthy for anyone. And I need to relearn how to live.

We all do after the damn pandemic.

Hug your loved ones and furbabies. Take care of yourselves. And as the Doctor says, be kind to others.

The Beginning of Summer

As much as I'd like to purchase a chaise and lounge on the deck with a good book, there's far too much for me to accomplish.

Of course, top of the list is fixing A Measure of Knowledge. Then comes finishing Hero Ad Litem, Famine in French Vanilla, War in White Chocolate, and Death in Double Mocha. After which, I have a couple of stories to write in the Soccer Moms universe that are stretch goals for last March's Kickstarter camppaign.

I'm exploring some new ways to do audiobooks at a cost I can afford.

And lastly I'm toying with some ideas for an anniversary edition of A Question of Balance. Maybe even a guidebook similar to the Pern guidebooks in my extensive library. Heck, I'm even looking into designing a Tarot deck. These would be a lot of work, but I think they would be a lot of fun!

If anyone has any thoughts on the above, leave a comment or shoot me a message.