Long time no see and I am excited to be back. I had a long run of illness but finally feeling better and ready to type. I finished the first run of Your Own Personal Hell, the sequel to Your Own Personal Bully. Sent it off to the editor and I am getting it back a hundred pages at a time. Just rewrote the whole prologue. I got a little long winded and it was almost ten pages! Now it’s down to a decent three and a half pages.

I am having fun with the rewriting, even when it frustrates me. Just feels good to be back in action at all! As much as I love Harrow Village, I am thinking of also writing my autobiography, How To Raise A Dysfunctional Family In Twelve Days Or Less. I might start writing it in between my work on Your Own Personal Hell and the other books in the series. I will admit I am not very comfortable writing about myself directly.

But I am always up for a good challenge and writing about my own life might be very therapeutic. Once I can find the right amount of dark humor, I’ll give it my best shot.

Figures. Just after I promised that I would get my act together and post in this blog with consistency..I got sick. Flattened by a stomach bug that made me far too acquainted with my bathroom. This was the first day back at my desk and I am glad to be back in front of the keyboard. I have decided to update this blog once a week. I can always increase my posts as I get a better grip on my fall schedule.

My son and I both were struck down by a stomach virus for a few days. We fought over the bathroom and remained curled in a fetal position on our couch for the duration of it. I was unable to write anything but my brain seemed to need the time off anyway. I read a new Dean Koontz novel, Devoted which was about dogs with extraordinary intelligence and an autistic boy who is about to be killed by several evil characters.

I watched Nope by Jordan Peele and it was crazy and wonderful. I fear giving any spoilers so I will just say, watch it, watch it, watch it. With great excitement, I watched the first episode of House of the Dragon. I might not be an author today if I hadn’t fallen in love with Game of Thrones. It was a huge inspiration for my writing. The other series I viewed was The Sandman and that was high fantasy of the highest order and truly, just see Gwendoline Christie and Charles Dance!

I am feeling better and ready to poison someone! Off to write Chapter 35 of Your Own Personal Hell! Readers, I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you take a moment to read my ramblings! Thank you!!!

Today I have managed to learn that I am really not good at marketing. I might be the worst salesperson I know. I also have discovered that I am not what you would call, internet savvy. In fact, the fact that I can copy and paste is a pure miracle. The fact that my husband works in computers and built our first one from nearly scratch makes it worse.

My children are also quite computer savvy. A friend of mine who is excellent at research and such is going to help me create some interesting Facebook reels and see how that works. If you are reading this blog, dearest reader, then understand how much I appreciate you. This blog is one of the few things I understand how to do.

The first thing I was told about marketing for myself was consistency. Welp, looks like I failed that one spectacularly. I fell behind on all my marketing while chasing threads on book two. I am going to try harder and see if I can learn how to make Facebook Reels to add more to the marketing.

No one warned me that I can’t just hold up my book and yell, “I DID A THING! RIGHT HERE! IT’S GOOD STUFF, HERE, READ THIS!” I was actually warned of this but I choose to forget that part sometimes. So more blogs, more tiktoks, add in reels on Facebook. Wish me luck, faithful reader! I apologize that I took so long to update this!

When I started writing I wasn’t sure where it was going to go. Was it just for me or did I want to hide in fanfiction forever because it was safer than trying to do it on my own? Now I look back and I enjoyed my time with fanfiction and the wonderful supportive comments I would receive. But I’m glad I finally got out of my own way and allowed myself to write professionally.

I had to believe that my stories were worth sharing with the world. Then I had to believe that my stories were worth paying for. It was a long hard process that I work on every day. But as Lizzo stated, It’s Bad Bitch O’ Clock and it’s Thick-Thirty. I grow stronger and more assured of myself and my work each day and I’m thankful for it. I am also thankful for the devoted few that are willing to take a chance on me and my work.

I started chapter 33 today in Your Own Personal Hell and I can’t believe that I am almost done with my first draft of it! Of course, then comes the rewrites and the edits, again and again. I don’t mind, it’s worth it to produce more material for readers. I had another order for a signed copy of Your Own Personal Bully and it’s sent me over the moon.

The image I have shared with you today was made by one of my fans, Rick Viles and I am grateful to receive art. I am so appreciative of my readers and fans. Without the support of others, I’d still be writing but without anyone reading, it becomes a rather lonely process when your done and there’s no one interested in your words. Thank you for reading this, for your support!

Today was all about connections. And names. I have only a few die hard fans that support my patreon page. These are folks that have followed my writing since it was stolen grammar on a fan fiction site. They believed in me enough to stay with me through the years while I got up the courage to turn my dreams into published works.

In return for their belief in me, I have offered to put all of them in my second book, Your Own Personal Hell. It makes me happy to create tales and ask them to be a part of it. After all, they were the ones that believed in me, when I couldn’t believe in myself. I am eternally grateful to them and to you, wandering reader that took the time to visit this page!!

Having started Chapter 32 of Your Own Personal Hell, I find myself dealing with death. Both in a character’s literal death and the death of other things as well. This brings personal experiences with real death to mind and those are scarier than any fake stories I can imagine. I tried to take my own memories of these different funeral homes I attended for years and bring them to awful, cloying life.

I spent some time researching funeral homes and things associated with them such as certain flowers. I only made it halfway through the chapter because eventually my own discomfort stopped me. After a hot shower, a nice supper and the final episode of Netflix’s The Sandman and I should be back at it tomorrow! I can’t wait to show everyone Harrow Village’s Funeral Home.