Mid-Year Update

Books/Stories Finished

• Queen Takes Death: Prelude for Bloodlust
• Queen Takes Blood
• One Cut Deeper (edits)
• new Zero Cut Danger (prequel)
• Nighttime Feeds (Dark Needs anthology)
• Monstrous Hunger

Books in Progress

• Monstrous Hunt
• Queen’s Crusade
• Queen Takes Sunfres3
• Queen Takes Darkness3
• Queen Takes Death: Prelude (expanded)
• Cajun Christmas
• Blizzard Bound

Words written so far this year: 117,094

July is going to be one of the hardest and most stressful months of the year (and possibly my life), bleeding into August. My house isn’t finished yet, and my lease is up the end of this month. I’m also going to be gone to Savannah for a good week mid month, which affects packing, cleaning, etc.

The Evil Day Job has been very stressful lately with weekend work twice in June. Though the most stressful is trying to find another job once the transition is done. Right now, I do not have a job after May 2024. That means getting my resume updated and interviewing, even internally. They’re not guaranteeing me a position after the transition, and I’m too young (by a year) to officially retire with the company.

Folks, the last time I interviewed or updated my resume was March of 2000. Not kidding. My resume is older than two of my adult children!

Needless to say, I’m STRESSED. I have options but it’s still stressful. As long as I have kids in college, I’d like to keep my health insurance so they’re covered too, and I want to be able to comfortably assist with tuition.

And then…

On the way to pick up Laney from the airport yesterday, Roger Darling (my van) quit in Clinton. Luckily I had just enough juice to coast into Auto Zone and bought an alternator but no one could repair it same day. Dad had to come rescue us and drive us on into KC to the airport and back, then pick up Roger on the mechanic’s dolly and take him over to Floyd’s for repair. Bonus: now Floyd can go ahead and do my brakes, which saves me finding time next week. I need Roger for the big drive in less than 2 weeks! (And going down the mountains in Tennessee last year was terrifying – though we’re taking a different route this year.)

I’m no spring chicken, July is the hardest on me with the heat/humidity, and moving gets harder every single time. I can only do so much… But the clock is ticking.

I’m still trying to get quotes from movers. Laney and her boyfriend are moving out the 12th into their own apartment. Bobbie Jo is planning to move to New Hampshire, but her future roommate has been delayed until at least August. Meaning she and I plus two crazy dogs will be staying at my dad’s until my house is finished. Maybe August? But maybe not…

So far, I’ve made almost all of my BookWear and merch for LLS, though I still have at least 2 sessions left to get everything finished. Then I can ship all that ahead to Stella (goal by this Friday). THEN I can actually pack the Cricut room. I’m going to get all packages shipped out that I have stock for, and then maybe do some giveaways of what’s left to minimize how much I have to store.

I have the promo cabinet packed and sorted (what’s going to LLS, what’s going to storage). I have most of my office supply cabinet finished (WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY JOURNALS AND NOTEBOOKS AND STICKERS AND WASHI TAPE?!?!). I still have two bookcases to sort and pack – some of it will be the girls’ that they need to take/decide. I’ve already packed all my clothes except what I’m taking to Savannah and wearing during the week. The pantry is a mess but that’ll be the hardest part of the kitchen. I’m giving most of what we currently have to Laney anyway, but it does need to be packed. I can always borrow back things when my house is done, but if she can use it, I’d rather it be used than sitting around in storage somewhere.

I’m already planning to hire cleaners. The hard part is timing, because I don’t have an official move date locked in yet and I’ll be out of town for a week. If we can’t move until the 25th, that’s cutting things CLOSE with the lease up the 26th @ 8 AM.

I am still going to keep writing a little every day, but I’m not expecting big word counts until August. I finished just shy of 10K in June. I’m still going to hope for 10K in July but that might be pushing it. I am planning to do a reading of Queen’s Crusade at the House Isador party at LLS – assuming I can get a little more done. So cross your fingers. I’ll plan to post that to Patreon as well. I just need to do a little more work on it so I’m confident that’s the direction Shara wants to go.

I got my pre-order privileges back and I don’t want to put any deadlines into jeopardy again. I have ONE set up for Monstrous Hunt, and I’m almost halfway through it already. I should be able to comfortably meet that deadline and maybe even bump it forward. I gave myself extra time with the move(s) and temporary housing situation.

The tower is falling all around me and everything is changing. But I know there are GREAT THINGS on the other side. I just have to hold on until I get there. I see MANY books being written on my back porch.