I know I've been spamming everyone with my blog posts. I mean, I'm lucky to get one done a month, but here I am three days in and I'm on my third post. Now that Awesome Con is out of the way and Capital Con is three weeks away (oog) I have the urge to be creative. My goal is to get Abby book 2 out by the holiday season. To do that, I need to get a draft completed and to the editor as soon as possible so I can get artwork ideas to my illustrator. I have already sent her cover art ideas. I want to have more than two books on the table for Awesome Con next year. I will, for sure, have two books on the table because of the Abby series, but I want an actual novel. I'm so close to completing one and I'm halfway through another one. I need to get on the proverbial ball and get busy. I can't use Awesome Con as an excuse.

So My Goals!

1. Abby draft by the end of June.

2. Untitled urban fantasy with romantic undertones by the end of July. (60% done with first draft)

3. Untitled sci-fi-ish romance by the end of October. (30% done with first draft)

4. Shakespeare in space for NaNo. (2% done with first draft because my characters are brats.)

I think that is doable. I seriously need help titling things. I suck at titles. I really do. Juuuuuuuuules........title things for meeeeeeeee........

Serious blog post is serious. The reason I am bringing this up is because I just lost my car because of a distracted driver. Thank the universe that no one was hurt. It could have been worse. But two cars were totaled and we had to be spectators in the Battle of the Insurance Companies. It hasn't been very fun.

What is distracted driving? According to distraction.gov, the official government website for distracted driving, it is “any activity that could divert the driver's attention away from the primary task of driving. All distractions endanger the driver, passenger, and bystander safety.” This can include a variety of things from messing with the radio, to adjusting the sat nav, or, the biggest issue, messing with your phone. Oh! Ladies, do your make up at home, not on the fracking highway. It is not that difficult of a concept to grasp. Get off your phone. You are putting people in danger.

In 2013, 3,154 people were killed by distracted drivers and 424,000 were injured. Look at those numbers. Those number include small children. Is texting “LOL!!!11!!!” really worth killing a child? S seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. At 55mph, that is enough to cover the length of a football field blindfolded. That is pretty freaking dangerous. Just walking blindfolded is tricky. Trust me. I have done it playing a game. Think about everything you crash into while trying to walk around your bedroom blindfolded. Now add several cars going an average of 60mph to that equation. It is easy to think that you are above the risk. It doesn't apply to you because you have good hand/eye coordination or you are a good driver. You know what? My husband is a good driver. He was sitting still, in the left turn lane with his blinker on, when the guy behind him ran into him. He was turning into my housing development. There is a good 60-ish yards from the time your turn off the main road to the turn to my house. The speed limit is 25. You can see everything in front of you as you are driving. The person behind the guy saw my husband at the time she turned. He was stationary. But the guy was not paying attention and hit my husband.

I cannot stress enough, how important it is to pay attention to your driving. You are not above the risk. If you keep that mentality, you will become a statistic. Hang up the phone. Pay attention and drive.




Thank you distraction.gov for the info. Check out their website for more information.

I know I have been MIA for the past few weeks. I've been preparing for Awesome Con. It was awesome. Golden Fleece Press had a booth there this year in the Artist Alley. We had a great spot. We were at the end so we managed to get a lot of traffic. We sold some books and gave out our business cards. I'm hoping people will submit. The conference was huge and wonderful. I didn't go last year, but I'm told it almost tripled in size. My legs were exhausted on the first day. I spoke to so many people that I'm going to need a week to recover. I did see Mark Pellegrino. He was at his booth and I was walking around talking to the vendors about Book Lover's Bazaar, and I saw him. I stopped and he looked at me. I smiled and waved with a stupid look on my face. He laughed and waved back. I ran back to my booth. I also went to the most amazing panel ever. It was a TMNT reunion with all the original voice actors from the show. Those guys were just so....so.....I can't even describe it. I managed to get a video of them singing the TMNT theme song. I also went to an Alice in Wonderland panel with Kate. There were people from the Lewis Carrol Society there talking about Alice through the years and the impact she had on pop culture. It was really interesting.

Golden Fleece Press is signed up for next year. I'm excited. Even though I'm exhausted, I had a blast. I think next year will be better. We will have more books on the table and now that we know what to expect we can plan accordingly. We know what works and what doesn't. For example, we need a small cooler for drinks and I need my own room. I don't share very well and I'm a real grump. So I will be paying for my own room. Even if my husband doesn't come along, I'm going to have my own room. I have to have a chance to decompress and I can't do that with people in the room. Husband knows to leave me alone and do his own thing when I tell him I need to introvert. Also, it takes a while to wake up. I wake up in stages and if I don't have a chance to do that before people start talking to me, I get very angry and bitchy.

Hopefully, by next Awesome Con, I'll have more than two books on the table. I'm aiming for three. Two Abby books and one of my own. I just need to get off my butt and actually finish the WIPs I have.

So that is about it from me. I have about a three-week reprieve and it is off to Capital Con.  


I've added pictures below. Click on the first picture to start the slideshow or find the arrows.