Life has been absolutely crazy lately. Once May ended, it was as if shit just hit the fan and kept flying. The house was put on a standstill after we completed the sheetrock and painting in the living room. We were burning candles at every end trying to get the house somewhat finished and ready for our trip to Oregon. I'll post pictures. On June 10th, I took Teaghann to Wichita to see the musical Hamilton for a super early birthday gift. She was so excited. Seeing her sweet face light up upon seeing all the characters and everyone on stage. Granted, it wasn't the original cast, but she was still happy. I bought her so much swag including a giant, rotating and light up snow globe she had to have. I'd figure if it's an early birthday, might as well load her up on everything. Then we went back to Oregon. We left Kansas the 15th, got there the 16th and stayed for 5 days. It was great to see everyone. I wish I could've seen more people but given the limited about of time, we tried to fit in all we could. I didn't get to stop at eat as near as many places as I had planned, but we did get some in. Mainly, Lam's Chinese, Cowboy Coffee, and Islas De La Mar. The kids were thrilled to be home. I think the time difference totally wiped them out. I've posted some photos below. ![]() In bookish news, I've decided to take a few series Wide; meaning, I'm offering the books on platforms other than strictly Amazon. So far, I've taken the Castre series wide. Next will be the westers, I just have to wait until the contract with KDP is closed for the majority of them, which will be around October. I'm super excited to see how this pans out. I know a lot of people like having options of where to purchase eBooks and the availability/access to them. Paperbacks will still be offered on Amazon. I'm slowly getting paperbacks uploaded on Barnes & Nobel, however, I'm STILL waiting for them to approve my vendor account. I've been waiting since June. But progress is progress and I can be patient. •••••••••• Books Available On: • Amazon • Apple Books • Baker & Taylor • Barnes & Noble • Bibliotheca • BorrowBox • Gardners • Google Play • Kobo • Hoopla • Odilo • OverDrive • Palace Marketplace • Scribd • Smashwords • Tolino • Vivlio ![]() Another thing that happened is, I'm in an anthology coming out this Christmas! The theme is - coming home for the holidays. Myself and 16 other authors have come together for some amazing stuff. I decided to do the formatting for this book and made pretty page headers for it too. I wanted to help keep the cost down so I'm donating my skillset to help. Also, myself and the authors decided to donate all royalties to a charity called - PAWS - to help animals in the shelters. And check out this adorable Blurb I made! I cannot wait to see what these other authors have come up with. As for my story, a sweet small town woman, Ronen came home to find more than she bargained for, and a hunk of a man with an even bigger secret. As always my story is with my wonderful editor - Tiffany Purdon - who never complains about all the things I throw at her. •••••••••• BLURB •••••••••• Sleigh away this holiday season with 17 amazing authors. This snowball packed anthology will ring all your bells this merry season. So snuggle up, buttercup! Grab your hot chocolate, a fuzzy blankie, and sidle up in front of a toasty fire. Prepare for all the drama the holidays can bring as these unique characters attempt to come home for Christmas. Fa-la-la-fall in love with this holly jolly book! ![]() Then, as Tiffany busily edits that story, of course I'm working on another! This story is set in the same world as Zuri and Evander in Dangerous Ties, only this is 60 years later. Wicked Witch follows Hadley Birch who is sweet yet fearful of who she is. She knows exactly what she is, what she possess and it terrifies her more than she cares to admit. Keres, the Supreme of The Black Ash Coven wants her soul, because a witch's soul is the source of who she is, her power, her essence. Keres wants all that Hadley is and will stop at nothing to obtain it. Hadley is alone, on the run, and can pack one hell of a punch, yet her fear and distrust of everyone around her, might cause her downfall quicker than she can teleport herself from. And Brodie, a devilish vampire, wants her blood for a specific purpose... It's a race to see who can get Hadley first. And each option results in death. ![]() And finally in all my eventful news, I have started a new job. I now work as a Deputy at the Register of Deeds for the Comanche County Courthouse. I left being a dispatcher after things got a little weird for me. I miss it, but I don't miss the ominous feeling I kept getting every time behind the radio. Some may say its jitters or anxiety, whatever have you, but it wasn't even that. I cannot explain it. It just happened to be the vibe I got. And it was more than just that too. Anyhoot, I miss all the dispatchers. They're great ladies. However, this new job allows me to be home more with my minions and off in time to watch all their sports, which is super important to me too. My kids are happier. Husband is happier and so am I. It's a relief. Anyways, that's all from me. I hope you're doing well. Have a fabulous day!
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![]() House update: We finally got the living room floors in, the rug laid (I forgot how big it was (15'X12'), and a new couch. To say I'm so happy is an understatement. I was ready to burn the house down. It's far from being done. Bryan and I still need to put the tin on the walls as a chair rail and get some trim. But it's a HUGE improvement from not having anything. My next project, I'll probably get to it in July as the next month will be chaotic, is to get the utility room accomplished. Slowly and surely our home is coming together. June is action packed with Braedyn doing baseball and a family trip back to Oregon to see friends & family. But... phew... Oh my gosh I am thrilled to get this house stuff on the right track. It's truly relieving and a blessing. ![]() Onto bookish projects: Aiding Azlyn and Killing Karlyn are both live on Amazon in ebook & paperback. The finale, Reviving Roslyn is releasing next week, May 30th. The boxed set paperback is live in regular print as well as large print. If you want to buy large print, click on the tab - Books - then scroll down to - Large Print Paperbacks - or click here to be taken directly there. I love doing large print books for the vision impaired. Having had Lasik myself, I completely understand the struggles to read. It's either the kindle (or similar) or a small variance of books. Anyhoot, Reviving Roslyn is the last installment in the Zerelon series and she is such a sweet character. She's pretty demure and thoughtful with a speech impediment. Both my editor and proof reader loved the book, though both are partial to Killing Karlyn. REVIVING ROSLYN BLURB Getting his sister back from the men who stole her, was the easy part. Zorion slaughtered them all. Uncovering the reason why Ellanora was stolen in the first place, leaves him with more questions than answers. Finding those elusive answers forces Zorion into an unpredictable corner with choices he never wanted to make; especially in regards to those he loves. Roslyn spent most of her life alone, secluded deep in the Ukelenori Forest. Her verbal affliction alienated her from the rest of the world. Roslyn’s small way of life shatters when thieves find her. When men come for the woman the thieves stole, a handsome, towering man invites her to be a part of his homeland. However, the more she submerges herself in his world, the more she discovers maybe it was best she stayed in that forest. Come on an adventure to the land of Zerelon, where everything is more than it seems. ![]() I'm Going WIDE: I've decided to take a few books of mine wide, meaning they will be available on multiple platforms. I'm trying to get my paperbacks figured out for not only Ingramspark but also for D2D (Draft2Digital) and B&N (Barnes&Noble). Due to amazon's increase in pricing, it forced me to increase the paperback prices I currently have. In doing so, I'm currently fighting with Amazon on one paperback I have and it's frustrating. The book published fine 2 years ago and *now* it's a problem. Due to the large monopoly of this corporation, I'm looking to eventually go wide with all my books. So, I'm starting with the Castre Fantasy Romance series and then working my way up. It's going to take me some time to get my footing in taking everything wide, but it's my ultimate goal. I want to continue to give readers amazing books at fair prices. No Pen Name For Me: I've decided to not to a pen name for my books. I've worked so hard to establish myself as an author and my name/brand is who I really am. Plus, to be the ONLY Shanniak author in the world is pretty dang cool. And I'm serious too. If you type in my last name in google or amazon, I pop up. On Amazon though, you'll find me in an algorithm alongside kayaks but hey, I'll take it. Kayaks are cool too. ![]() The Next Book: The next book I am working on is called - Wicked Witch. This book is set in the same realm as Zuri & Evander were in, in the Dangerous Ties series. This book picks up 60 years later and a lot has changes. Some of the paranormal are completely extinct. Some are in hiding. But one this for certain, is Hadley Birch, a mixed breed witch on the run, can't keep hiding. I hope you all have a wonderful day, stay safe & have an amazing summer! ![]() Our house is finally making progress. My husband cut out holes for the recessed lighting and I finished painting the ceiling and the others walls bright white. To break up the monotony of white, I painted the accent wall where the tv is going my favorite color. I tend to like a darker, deeper green but this is actually quite a lovely shade. The picture doesn't do it justice. If you're curious, it's called Terrarium by Valspar. Once the living room is complete, its onto the next project which is the utility room. We kinda just shoved everything everywhere when we moved in and have done our construction around it... It's been fun (sarcasm). Next week, when I have the weekend off and after soccer for the kiddos, we will be laying the underlayment for the flooring and hopefully flooring by then too. I'm so excited. I've been waiting for this for a long time. I've had flooring out in the mud room for the past year and a half. Everything in the house has been sitting and waiting for things to get rolling. It's absolutely relieving that our house is finally getting done. After the living room, utility room, then the last parts are the bathrooms. Everything after that is just finish work and cleaning. Between working on the house and working crazy hours in dispatch, it's part of the reason why I haven't written a blog in a while or sent out my bi-monthly newsletters. For those new to my website or me in general, I sent out 2 newsletters a month on the 15th and 30th. I hate bombarding people with "hey look at me" things, which is why only 2 newsletters a month and they're typically short. Anyhoot, one of our part-time dispatchers decided to go full time and I cannot begin to tell you how big of a relief that is. I can finally catch up with my kids, house chores, on sleep, and bookish related things. Once a month, one of us gets an overtime shift. So, we work 3 days a week now and every other weekend. I'm thrilled. The 4-5 days a week, rotating between days and nights constantly was getting exhausting. ![]() I have a new clean and sweet-ish (a few swear words but no f-bombs) fantasy romance series releasing back to back in May 2023. The first one releasing is Aiding Azlyn on May 16th, following a woman who takes in a little boy unknown to her who his real ties are. Once discovering who the boy belongs to, she struggles to protect him from forces beyond her capabilities. This Zerelon series was something I wrote PRIOR to Jordie and the Castre series. I just lost everything on my toshiba laptop that refused to take an update from Windows Vista to Windows 10. I had some of it saved on a flash drive but the majority of everything on that laptop was lost to me forever. I now have a lovely HP laptop and have since gotten Dropbox to never lose precious things again like all my kids pictures from when Teaghann was 4 and Braedyn was 1. Anyhoot, you can pre-order Azlyn's ebook or order the paperback. The blurb is listed below. *** B L U R B *** Someone wants his son dead. The evidence points to the lands in the north, but the greedy king ruling those lands wouldn’t be frivolous enough with his coin to begin a war. Nay, the culprit must come from inside Theron’s land, his keep. But who would want him or his child dead? The child in her care comes from the lands in the south. Her former husband desired the coin in his ransom, but after seeing how the coin wasn’t forthcoming, he cast her and the child from his lands. Azlyn vows to protect the boy at any costs, but how can she protect him from evils she doesn’t know? Come on an adventure to the land of Zerelon, where everything is more than it seems. ![]() The second book releasing in May 2023 is Killing Karlyn on May 23rd, also of the Zerelon series. I wrote Karlyn prior to Jordie and everything else. It feels so dang good to finally get her story out of me and released. I was stumped on her book for the longest time, but I think I finally did her justice. I grew as an author, which each book I learn something and hone my tone more, so seeing this come to light is super refreshing. The finale to the short novella series is called Reviving Roslyn. She is hopefully going to be released on May 30th. I'm currently writing her little story and its so sweet. Roslyn has a stuttering problem, so bad, its almost every few words she's struggling to get out. So she secludes herself in a forest where none can make fun of her or call her diseased. When thieves capture a princess and take her unbeknownst to them, to Roslyn's dwelling, Roslyn finds herself making peace with her imminent death. That is, until the princess's burly brother shows up. This novella follows Roslyn and Zorion as she finds her voice to speak and he discovers what it's like to finally open up to someone. *** B L U R B *** Being locked in a dungeon put life in a new perspective for Karlyn. She swore her fealty to the wrong man; further proving her loyalty by taking the brand of her guild. And now, that same man sold her. Leaning against the cell wall, Karlyn realizes her mistakes and vows to put an end to the person who destroyed her life. Waylon’s task was to guard a dangerous prisoner, but when he discovers the real reason for her imprisonment, it has him questioning his fealty to his king. Waylon’s choices spiral out of control, landing him in several precarious situations. Karlyn and Waylon join forces to right the terrible wrongs by the ones they were loyal to, but when meddling Gods interfere in their plans, will they be able to overcome their differences together or will they slaughter each other first? Come on an adventure to the land of Zerelon, where everything is more than it seems. ![]() After the Zerelon series is completed, I will be starting a new slow burn paranormal romance under the pen name - Winter Shade - mainly because spelling - Shanniak - can be difficult. It's going to show Shanniak as a contributing author, so those who know me, will still find me. However, anything paranormal from this point forward will be under the pen name. Already on my website, there is a tab for the new pen name. Well, that's pretty much it for me and updates for this month. I hope you all have a wonderful day & stay safe out there. ![]() My husband and I are still hard at work on our house. This past weekend, my husband and I finished taping and mudding the living room. Now the joyous sanding begins (I like textured walls because it helps hide imperfections) because my husband loves smooth walls. So I got the kitchen how I like: old farm & logging tools, red walls and texture, so my husband gets the living/dining room. Either way, I'm glad the house is slowly coming together. July 1st will mark 2 years in Kansas, so I'm really hoping to have the house done before then. Then after the living room and dining room is complete, we can move to the upstairs and finish the office, bathroom (tape, mud, sand, paint) and the rest of the house that needs pretty much the same things. I cannot wait to be done with construction. I hate it. I hate the mess and disorganization. ![]() Opening Danger is getting a revamp. I have gotten some negative feedback (I looked at reviews on amazon & goodreads), about most people not liking that it ends on a cliffhanger (it's a series) but one reviewer in particular was really cruel. So, I decided to get back in and see what I could do to make Opening Danger better. It was redundant in places and some of the wording was interesting. So, after I went through it, I have my editor Tiffany taking another look at it. Opening Danger, like all my books, gets developmentally edited (to look over plot & cohesiveness) and then line/copy edited (to look over grammar & punctuation) and finally proofread to see if anything is missed or wrong. And even with all these measures, sometimes shit just hits the fan and fails. I've learned a lot of lessons since beginning this author journey and the most important one, is choosing the right editor. Now, I'm not blaming my former editor (not Tiffany) for my rework of Opening Danger. Nope. That's allll meeee... I didn't follow my gut instinct and it landed me here. So for those of you who want to purchase an original paperback (also signed), reach out and let me know before the end of the month when I upload the new version. ![]() Coming Spring 2023! This new Clean (some light swearing, no f bombs) Fantasy Romance novella is part of a 3 book standalone series that will be launching this year. If you want to check out the world and the map I created, on my website, click on published books, then click on Zerelon World Novel. The Gods are meddling, and the people they rule over dislike them. This series is what I wrote prior to the Castre Series and now, after finding it (after loosing it 7 years ago, my bad) I decided to take a look and create novella's. This book is with my fabulous editor Tiffany. After this series is complete, I will be working on a 2 book Contemporary Mafia Romance (no s*x) that will be set in my small Kansas town, but of course, I change the name, but some of the people might remain the same lol. ***** BLURB ***** Someone wants his son dead. The evidence points to the lands in the north, but the greedy king ruling those lands wouldn’t be frivolous enough with his coin to begin a war. Nay, the culprit must come from inside Theron’s land, his keep. But who would want him or his child dead? The child in her care comes from the lands in the south. Her former husband desired the coin in his ransom, but after seeing how the coin wasn’t forthcoming, he cast her and the child from his lands. Azlyn vows to protect the boy at any costs, but how can she protect him from evils she doesn’t know? Come on an adventure to the land of Zerelon, where everything is more than it seems. Just last week we finished hanging sheetrock on the living room walls and now we are taping and mudding. Bryan likes smooth walls, so I foresee a lot of sanding in our future. I prefer texture because it totally hides all the boo-boo's made. It's been a butt to hang the sheetrock over the lath and plaster walls. Bryan and I have really struggled with it. But it's almost over, thank goodness! The other half of the downstairs (the dining room) will be put on hold until spring. Mostly because there is a giant a/c unit under the window on the south wall that was put in the house, via cutting out a section of outside wall... yeah... It's super fun. So, because we don't rightly know what problems we may encounter with that future project, we decided to wait until the weather is warmer. We are hopeful that by Christmas, the living room walls will be completed and we can start laying flooring down. Slowly but surely, we're getting our house put in order. Still waiting on the plumber to come and finish the downstairs bathroom. The man is super busy but there's not much left to do on our bathroom. THEN, just a few days ago we had a HUGE thunderstorm with tornadoes. That was interesting considering the day was super nice out and there was no suspected anything then BAM, thunderstorm with tornadoes. My kids and I evacuated to the Methodist Church since we have no basement while my husband was on patrol (he's a part-time cop for our small county). My kiddos were freaking out and wanting to move back to Oregon for the day lol. But of the possible 3 tornadoes in our area, they all dissipated, and we were fine and home within 2 hours. Never heard of tornadoes in December for Kansas. Usually, from my understanding, its a spring event. Either way, super thrilled it's all over, don't care to repeat lol. ![]() A friend of mine persuaded me to put a book I have been working on, on the new Amazon platform called Vella. From my understanding, Vella works much in the same way as Webtoon or Manta Comics just without the pretty pictures. So, I decided to put Aiding Azlyn on Vella to see what happens. These chapters are unedited, as I just wanted to test this new platform and see how it works. I still don't understand it. And when asking for advice/help in the author community, most don't know how it works either LOL! It's all good though. Vella is a learning curve. Azlyn does have bi-weekly updates of new chapters every Sunday and Thursday. Chapter 3 just launched today. Also for this month, I wrapped up the clean & sweet fantasy novella, Aiding Azlyn. I still haven't figured out a good blurb (description) to share on Amazon or with the rest of the world yet. Blurbs are a serious pain in the butt. I'm NOT good at them but I try. But the book is done and now waiting for my editor, Tiffany. Currently, Tiffany is still diligently working on Saving Home, the Sci-Fi Alien Prince RH. That final RH is on preorder for $.99 currently. Now that Azlyn is finished, I'm off and writing the second novella to this series Killing Karlyn. These novella's were books I started prior to the Castre series. My old Toshiba laptop crashed and I lost pretty much everything but the beginnings so now, I'm just going back in and writing it all fresh and new. I gave up trying to replicate what I was able to remember and am just going with what I think would be better. I'm just surprised I could replicate the map from memory. Phew, that's lucky talent haha. ![]() I hope you have a wonderful day. Happy Holiday's, happy reading, and stay safe out there! ![]() The house is finally coming along! We got the kitchen most of the way done, just need to put on the finishing touches like door knobs and trim. I also need to get some decorative and pretty hooks to hang all my antique lanterns from. I am obsessed with old lanterns. I have one from the early 1900's. It still has a stamp where you can read the date on it. I also have 2 old miners lights. One is from the 1930's while the other is from the 1920's. The next project we are going to be tackling will be the living/dining room ceiling. We're headed to Hutchison this weekend to get sheetrock and 1/8" plywood underlayment so we can lay the rest of the flooring. I wish the cost was a little less spendy, but such is the way of the world now. Once the sheet rock is on, textured, and the walls and ceiling painted, we can lay the flooring. Just little steps, but progress is progress. It's been a long time doing this remodel. The master bathroom is still needing finished. Just patiently waiting on the plumber to come back. He's the only one in several counties so patience is a virtue. ![]() Last month and this month have been super busy. I've gotten a lot of writing accomplished. At the end of October, I wrapped up the sci-fi reverse harem series. There is a lot of drama in this book and less seggy scenes, like maybe 2. My editor Tiffany Purdon (Eyes On Your Story Editing) has the book and is already hard at work on it. I hope she likes it. I scheduled to release this book at the end of January 2023 as I don't think it will be ready in December. If it does happen to get done sooner, then I may release sooner too. *** BLURB *** What we all thought was long dead, has come back to haunt us. What’s dead is supposed to stay that way and whatever former decrees my mother-in-law had should be null. But not on this damn alien planet. Their laws are still unlike anything I’m used to. To top it off, my husbands received a message from someone who claimed to be their brother. When my husbands left to check into the claims threatening their planet and their monarchy, is when I realized something more sinister was afoot. They won’t make it back to me in time to stop it, so I’m forced to take matters into my own hands. The only problem is, what I am carrying makes me a large target. Our life, our planet is a desirable district to have; only the life we’d created stands in their way. I will do whatever it takes to succeed, even at the cost of my own life or limb. The dead will not haunt us forever. Saving Home is a Reverse Harem Alien Prince Romance were descriptive, consensual sex is guaranteed. *** WARNING – This book contains difficult scenes: assault, battle scenes, detailed sex, loss of a child, and foul language that some readers may find disturbing and/or triggering. Read at your own personal risk. *** Also, for those who have been wanting to read the beginning of the RH series, I have made Securing Freedom $.99 until the end of November. Snag it while ya can. ![]() Onto the next series of books! Pictured on the left is a book I have been working on. This series will be clean fantasy romance, unless I change my mind, but that's the plan as of right now. I found outlines and pieces of this series off my old computer (Toshiba that's long dead) that I transferred to my new one (and I kinda forgot about it until now). I would hate to waste the thought and detail that went into this series, so I figured turning these into novellas would be fun. This series is what I wrote prior to the Castre World. But when Toshiba got the blue screen of death and did a slow death, I was able to get what I could off, which was 4 books, and some world building. Unfortunately, I lost all the endings. So I am going through, editing, and adding more than what was originally there. This will be a 4 book novella series and then it will onto a new contemporary mafia romance series. I hope when I release these in Spring 2023, you enjoy it. ![]() Have a wonderful Turkey Day! Thank you for reading and enjoying my books. Minnie the lab/hound and Paige the beagle wish you a Howling good holiday! October has certainly flown by quickly. It feels like yesterday I turned 32 on the 4th. And now half the month has gone by. In that month, a lot of progress on the house has been made and I couldn't be more excited. I'm absolutely thrilled with how the kitchen is progressing. It feels like it's all finally coming together. If you liked that red color, it is called Rushing Red by Valspar in semi-gloss. I love it. But man, it was hard to paint. I need to re-trim out the white due to the red bleeding over. But anyhoot, progress is progress. We were without a stove for a few weeks because I'm a genius lol. I went to Lowe's and got new appliances: stove, hood vent & dishwasher, back on September 17th. Thinking that the back of the previous stove and the new stove match, I sold the old stove. Well... It never matched. Thank goodness for a propane camp stove. But last night, our wonderful electrician (who has been on vacation) came back and is finishing out the electrical this weekend. I'm so grateful to him and his lovely wife for helping us. After the kitchen, it's onto the living room to put up sheetrock on the ceiling, tape, mud, spray texture, paint, then finally flooring. Slowly, but surely this complete remodel is getting done. ![]() Also, I am doing a little something fun here soon. So, please come join my Facebook Group - Shanniak Shenanigans - on October 31st for some spooky fun and a chance to win a signed paperback boxed set of Dangerous Ties. Halloween marks the release of the first novel in this series: Opening Danger. And what better way to celebrate than with a giveaway! (My kiddos wanted me to dress up this year for Halloween, so I will be passing out candy as a Viking. My son wants to be R2D2 and my daughter wants to be Leprechaun haha.) ![]() For those who enjoy military scifi, I got into another anthology hosted by Bayonet Books. This short story is about Bryon Claus who is dedicated to his work and prides himself on his morals... That is, until he can no longer take it anymore. ***BLURB*** I try to convince myself that I’ve given up punishing the naughty children who never learn. But I’m too old and too stubborn to let the lack of morals and ethics slide. This is a war. One I shall be victorious in, if I don’t lose myself to the euphoric nature of the massacre I’m about to wreak. This anthology is set to release next month. Perfectly in time to ignore relatives with the coming holiday if that if that is your wish lol. ![]() Mark your calendars for November 22-29 because the first book in the RH series will be discounted for a limited time to $.99! I wanted to be able to give you some reading material before the congregation of the holidays. It can be a bit much. This Thanksgiving will be our 2nd here in Kansas and basically our second on our own without family to share it with. I'm looking forward to eating a whole bunch then cuddling on the couch with my family. And hopefully I can get some amazing books in too. I have a huge TBR pile by author Catherine Banks. The second standalone novel to this series is coming along. Saving Home will be going out for an edit in the middle of November. This second book is more dramatic, action packed, and is sad in parts. But I promise, there will be a happily ever after. I hope to wrap this book up soon because I know my editor, Tiffany is waiting impatiently. Well, that is all the updates I have so far. Once my kitchen is completely done, I will post pictures. Hopefully by Christmas I can put up an actual tree and hand decorations. ![]() This August has had a lot happening. Whenever I've had a day off, I've been working on my house. My amazing dad has been a god-send and helping do a lot of things I didn't know how to do but now know how to do. So, the house is finally coming along. We are starting in the kitchen first since the cabinets and countertops are in the dining room and have been for the past 10 months. I got the kitchen walls and ceiling painted in a bright white. New flooring has been laid today. It's a pretty wood laminate. On Thursday, the 1st of September, I have men coming to hang cabinets and install the floor ones as well. This has all been a long time coming. I'm so excited to finally have a fully functioning kitchen. I'll post pictures in next month's blog. ![]() My first Reverse Harem is releasing on September 1st! Several years ago, I wrote a short story for a - Bayonet Books Anthology - about storming Area51 when it was a thing that was supposed to happen in September of 2019. I didn't expect to get into the anthology at all. And when I did, it made a few people not too thrilled. I was told I would ruin the sci-fi genre because I'm a woman romance writer and should just stick to that. I was like "huh, that's cute," and here I am. This full-length novel follows Army Specialist Adele Folsom after the fall of Area51 and her being brought on an alien spacecraft. I'm hard at work on book 2 - Saving Home - as I feel that there is a little bit more to tell with Adele. If you happen to pick up this Alien Prince RH, I do hope you enjoy it. After this series, I have covers for a Contemporary Mafia Romances that I am going to set in my small town (names will be changed). I got covers for it, forgot I had covers, found the covers, and now feel bad that I've forgotten about it for so long. This series may be more on the novella side. I really don't know. Either way, there will be two books. I don't know how other authors do it, by writing all kinds of books at the same time. I cannot do that kind of sorcery. I have to work on one series until it's done otherwise my mind explodes. So off I go to wrap up the Alien Prince RH. I'm 24K words into it as the plot thickens. What plot, I couldn't tell ya. I wing every scene by the seat of my pants. So your guess is as good as mine lol. I hope you have a great day. Stay safe and healthy. ![]() This month has certainly flown by. I'm loving my new job as a emergency 911 dispatcher. I've been there for just over 3 months now. The kiddos start school here in two weeks and they are excited. It's crazy to think that soon I will have a 5th and 4th grader! Where the hell did the time go?! Also, my husband and I celebrated our 11 year Anniversary on the 24th. We're getting old, haha. We're still loving this Kansas life. Even more awesome is that we are getting our electrical figured out, so hopefully I will have a fully functioning kitchen by my birthday (October 4). Fingers crossed. After the home repairs, we will be building a shop and my current shed will go to my chickens. I have plans to be THAT chicken lady lol. ![]() In between the family and life, I've managed to get my Alien Prince RH (Reverse Harem) finished and to the editor: Tiffany Purdon. She finished editing it yesterday and LOVED it. It's not super sci-fi where all the acronyms make it hard to follow along. The characters are all diverse and fleshed out. You may hate a few, but I'm sure by the end, you will love them all. I will be releasing the paperback early once I get it back from the formatter. This is a long book, well over 90K words. Then later, I will release an omnibus of all the sci-fi stories. Currently, I'm working on book 2 of the series titled: Saving Home. After the Alien Prince Reverse Harem, I will start a Contemporary Romance set in this small town I currently live in. I've already kind got it going, but put it on the back burner to finish out the sci-fi series. I even found older works I had started prior to the Castre Series. I've been dabbling on one of those to eventually upload to Vella. I apologize the update is rather short. With the new job, we are alternating every month from working days to nights. My night shift month is this August, so off to handle things before the end of the month. Take care and have an amazing day. Next month, I will post a snippet of the upcoming RH Release. This month feels like it had absolutely flown by. And the weather here has been erratic. I will say, it not raining all the time like Oregon did, is definitely a nice change, but rain is welcome. I'm still in love with Kansas though. I saw my first bull snake last night and those suckers are aggressive!
This month has been packed full of camps for my kiddos. Teaghann had art camp at the beginning of the month. Then both kids did swim camp. No longer are they really good at drowning haha. They are level two swimmers. Braedyn passed his swim test so he can go off the diving board now. Braedyn had his final baseball game yesterday and lost. It was a good game from what I heard (I was at work). Now, for the rest of the summer, I am just going to let them live their days at the pool. As far as books go, the final regency romance - Love Ever Lasting - is set to release on July 14. The paperback and hardback are available for purchase. Michelle is working on another book in the series. I backed out to work on my back log of books, ideas and utilize covers I completely forgotten about. The Sci-Fi RH novel - Securing Freedom - is up for preorder and is now with my editor: Tiffany Purdon. This book contains a lot of sex, one group scene, and is just shy of being what is called an epic novel (over 100K words). Adele isn't as aggressive as my other females main characters tend to be. She is mellow, calm and level headed. The characters are all very different than my typical style. I hope ya'll like it. This is probably gonna be it for me in the sci-fi department for a while because I do have a set of contemporary covers I need to write books for. I will probably come back and do a spin-off of this sci-fi once I get my contemporary done. Since my sci-fi is off with my fabulous editor, I am working on a new contemporary mafia romance series - Serendipity Café. I have no idea really what I am doing or where I am going with it. I had an outline for it, lost it, so now, I'm just flying by the seat of my pants. All I really know is Tiffany will be editing it, it's taking place in my current small town of Coldwater and it's gonna have cows in it. Bonus, is I already have covers for it (purchased from Keyminor Publishing) and I use the same company for the majority of my formatting too. They also made my amazing logo at the beginning of my website. Well, that's my life in a nutshell. Between working, family, writing, it's been a lot. Hoping that I get more time home with my kiddos this next month. I am working days, so it would be 8am-8pm. It's not too bad, though I do love my days off to spend with them. The next time I get time off, I plan to take them to Woodward for some Chinese food. Last time we had Chinese was a year ago in Oregon. Take care and have a wonderful day. |
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