
One of The New Yorker cat cartoons featured in my current calendar.
Love ‘em. 
I’m blogging at the SFC site today. Please join us!


One of The New Yorker cat cartoons featured in my current calendar.
Love ‘em. 
I’m blogging at the SFC site today. Please join us!

I seem to be in a strange space, somewhere I’ve rarely been in the past few years.
No submissions out there on the market.
Nothing pending, nothing being considered. No anticipation.
It also means no wondering. No worrying. No potential rejections.
That makes it a prime time to bow out of the game—IF I was considering it. To just tiptoe quietly away.
And I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind.
Lately it’s all felt a bit like being caught in a dark, narrow place, unable to move forward, unwilling to move backward. Just blindly running into walls.
Sorry, this is not the optimistic author’s pov I usually try for, but it’s something everybody feels at some point. It is an honest one.
So for now, I’m in “we’ll see” mode.
What’ll I do tomorrow?
Well…we’ll see.
(“The Fool” tarot painting by Archangellupus~~DeviantArt)
*****
We have crocuses.
The tips of tulips breaking through cold, barren ground.
I’m cautiously anticipating spring, even though we have a little snow in the forecast for next week.
We’ll see.
But for today, I’m blogging at SFC. Please join us.

This is Oded.
Oh yes he is.
I’m using him to represent Crewe, my junior villain in the current wip. He’ll move up in seniority in what’ll hopefully be the next book.
Normally I don’t bother with things like this. I know my people pretty well. But there are a lot of characters in this one.
So Oded is here to help me focus. 
Yup.
Okay.
Um…where was I…

In what has seemed a season lacking in good news, a big, heartfelt congratulations to lovely post-Luddite Bernita Harris on her sale to Carina Press!
I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading more about paranormal investigator Lillie St. Claire (and Johnnie…sigh…)
Whoop!!
…Is here already?! But no complaints. At least I find myself walking ON snow, rather than THROUGH it. ![]()
I’m blogging at the SFC site today.
Please join us.

I promised to do an update on my writing progress.
I’ve got one short in final editing stage, and the monster wip nearing completion.
There it is.
The problem with this update is that I’ve been doing my final edits on that short–and it is SHORT–for about three WEEKS now.
The monster wip is just that—clawing and scratching at me every step of the way. And I’ve been “nearing completion” for over two months.
I hate the submission process (obviously, yes?). I suppose most authors do. No matter how much blood, sweat, and heart you put into a manuscript…well, it’s like the old question about the falling tree, isn’t it?
Does it make a sound? If it doesn’t reverberate with some attuned set of ears out there, who knows it even exists, and how many echoes before it goes silent? And what happens to this creation that once lived and breathed in your hands if it falls, fails, becomes little more than slices of wood pulp?
I know people probably tire of hearing authors go on about the process. But it can really drain the spirit, even the love of the writing, to keep trying to do your best when it never seems to be good enough.
There’s my update.
Now, I’ve got mss to finish, just because I love the stories. And I suppose that’s the most legitimate reason after all.