We are nearing the end of July. I can't believe how fast this month has gone! I realized yesterday that I didn't list my goals for July. Kind of a moot point now, but oh well.

1. Abby 2 finished, in layout, and sent to illustrator. Check! Check! And Check!

2. Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana completed and sent to the editor for editing. I honestly don't remember when my turn in date for this is. I want to say August or something. But I want to get it finished as soon as possible so I don't have to worry about it and I can focus on other things......like the other 8 Abby books or something.

3. Finish research for DiaA short story. Creepy as hell. I worry about the state of my mind and my sanity sometimes. But it is a great idea and I want to submit this one as well. Maybe for Deep Waters again.

On a different note, I had a bittersweet moment this weekend. This was the last time I will get to see my baby sister for a while. She is off the Michigan for college and she leaves in two weeks. I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that my baby sister is an adult. In my mind, she is still two years old sitting in a cart at Target, singing “Lucky” by Brittany Spears. Sigh....how time flies. It kills me.

Anyhow, that is it for me.  

Oh man! I can't believe it is July already! Two more months and we will be getting ready for fall. I can't wait.

My mind is currently on the Random Train and I can't seem to string two thoughts together very well. It doesn't help that I am trying to type with long fake nails. I need to get rid of these things. They are making life difficult. So I'm just going to list topics and talk about them.


The Conference That Wasn't: So we were supposed to go to Capital Con in mid-June. I had been fussing about the unprofessional nature of this con for a couple of weeks considering their website was (a) hard to follow (b) poorly designed and (c) never updated. I was kind of excited because Sherrilyn Kenyon was going to be there and I love the Dark Hunter series (up to a point) and I would be so cool to maybe meet her and have her sign my copy of Zarek's book. The title is escaping me at the moment and I don't feel like looking it up. We had no information regarding the conference other than it was at a hotel. No exhibitor prospectus, no pack in info, nothing. The boss had been poking them for a bit and still nothing. Two weeks before the conference, and still no news, we discovered that there was going to be a ball. Cool! A ball would be awesome. I went to the show store and spent money on a good pair of heels and a clutch. We were still wondering what we were supposed to do. We get an e-mail the Monday before the conference that they conference was canceled. They said “due to problems with the hotel”. We checked their website and it seems like the conference is gone forever. I mean it is like the completely imploded. Okay fine. Thankfully, we didn't have to buy stock specifically for this conference. Books are expensive. Unfortunately, our room was non-refundable. Greeeaaaaat.....We decided to make a weekend of it and just get a ton of work done. And we did. We managed to get our entire schedule up and going to 2019 I want to say. I completed the final draft of Abby, put it in layout for artwork, sent my artwork ideas to my illustrator, and had the best business meeting ever. So it was good.

Abby 2: So as I said above, I'm working on Abby 2. The draft is done and final. It was sent to the editors, who were in the room with me, and it was given thumbs up. I believe I have cover art as well. I am just waiting on the okay from the editor. It looks amazing. I'm so excited. I sent a list of all the art I need for this one to Yinza, my illustrator. I still need to go into Scribus and play around with the layout to make sure everything fits. This one is a bit wordier than the last one. Eventually, the books are going to have more words than pictures. Shadow Cat also gets introduced in this book and he will be making appearances here and there. This book wasn't as stressful to write as the last one was. It didn't take me 17 drafts and there wasn't as much anxiety. I mean there was anxiety but not as bad. I wasn't too happy with it. I didn't know how to end it, but other than a couple of grammar errors, because Office hates me, it was well received. Whew! Hopefully, that gets easier. So look for Abby the Labby: Puppy Days, available for pre-order at some point late fall and the book at Christmas.


Abby the Labby Series: Good news on that front. Golden Fleece Press wants 9 more books from me. I just got my contract for up to book 10. I'm so excited! And also terrified because now I'm contractually obligated to write these books. Lol. I have the books titled and most of them are plotted. GFP wants to put them out twice a year so I will be busy. I think I want to get the majority of them written so all I have to do is send them on Yinza. At some point, I want to start planning the Shadow Cat series. Ooooh, that may actually be the title of the series. Anyhow, yay! Contract!


Abby Herself: Speaking of Abby, I have news and a PSA. Abby has not been feeling well here recently. She developed a cough and been having some problems walking. She also was really bloated and gained weight. She never wanted to walk or play. So we took her to the vet. Well, the husband took her to the vet, I was out of town. We were really worried that she had heartworm or something worse. After a ton of blood work and an x-ray, we discovered that she had Lyme Disease. We missed one dose, ONE DOSE of Frontline in the winter and she managed to get bitten by a tick that carried Lyme. I was upset, but it wasn't heartworm and was very treatable. It just kills me because we are usually so careful. We have always been careful. I mean she is okay. But still, it is a failing on my part. She also had mild bronchitis and the start of arthritis in her back legs. Other than that she is okay and will be okay. It is a 30 day run of meds and she is fine. She also has gained weight. The chunky piggie was helping herself to the cat food when the husband left for work and put on an extra 20lbs. So we feed the cats on the landing and put up a baby gate. She doesn't jump and the gap is wide enough for the cats to get through. I think they like it better since they don't have to fight the dog for food.


Romancing the Rainbow: I don't know if any of you know, but Golden Fleece Press has an imprint called By Passion Shorn (seriously don't ask). It is our romance/erotic romance line. We launched a while ago, but we have not received any submissions. During the Conference That Wasn't, we came up with the idea of Romancing the Rainbow. Seven ridiculous tales of love. Free online. I will be featured. I have orange. I will post the link here. 


Marriage Equality: I cannot tell you how happy I am about this. I woke up to the news the other day and it was the best news ever. My feed was full of rainbows.....and hate. I can understand the rainbows. I mean, I posted my fair share of them, but what I couldn't understand was the hate. I don't understand why a group of people were so gung-ho for denying the rights of another group of people. Nothing has changed other than the fact that everyone can now get married. The world didn't end. Hetero-marriages didn't get destroyed. People aren't trying to marry their animals, at least not in the US. Nothing changed. Why the hate? You can't claim religious freedom since marriage is no religion has a monopoly on marriages. Why the hate? I don't get it. And all of the political temper tantrums were rather hilarious. Anyhow, love wins. Love will always win.

That is about it from me. I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th.