The Start of Something New: Exile Blog Tour and Giveaway

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In a lot of ways, 2015 was a hard year for me. There were some health scares with people close to me. I spent a large part of the year dealing with prolonged injury recovery for my horse and adjusting to live in the city after 14 years living in the country. I have also spent the last several months handling my own injury recovery thanks to my dog, Teagan (I love him, really I do) feeling it necessary to leave his bone on the top step in the middle of the night.

On the up side, I started 2015 with the lofty goal of getting another book published. I ended the year with three more books released into the wild. Dissident (Forbidden Things #1), The Girl and the Clockwork Conspiracy (Clockwork Enterprises #2), and Exile (Forbidden Things #2) have all joined my debut novel, The Girl and the Clockwork Cat, out in the world. In 2016, I'm planning the released of the next two books in both series along with the introduction of something new that I'm very excited about.

To kick off the new year, I'm taking Exile on a virtual tour coordinated by Masquerade Book Tours. The stops are listed below. Join me and get involved for the glorious fun of it and for chance to win one of two $25 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift cards.

May your 2016 be amazing (and full of books)!

Exile Tour Schedule

January 4th
Natural Bri @ Masquerade Crew (Review)
Charline's Blog and More... (Guest Post)
Hope. Dreams. Life... Love (Pick a Playlist)

January 5th
Foofy * Not Foofy (Review)
Boom Baby Reviews (Author Interview)
Teatime and Books (Spotlight)

January 6th
The Plotting Field (Review)
Girl of 1000 Wonders (Spotlight)
The Book Bag (Spotlight)

January 7th
DJ's Book Corner (Guest Post)
Celticlady's Reviews (Spotlight)
Paranormaly Yours (Author Interview)

January 8th
Moonwalker @ Masquerade Crew (Review)
Ogitchida Kwe's Book Blog (Pick a Playlist)
Indy Book Fairy (Spotlight)

Another Halloween Medley

Because everyone needs a medley now and then and Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the costumes and the creativity. This year, I’ve been too busy to invest a lot of time into it, but I wanted to share a little seasonal fun with you all, so here is my Halloween medley. Last minute pumpkins.

Dragon

Shoggoth

Dressing up the kids.

Demon kitten

Bat dog demonstrating correct ear placement for an in flight right turn.

A bit of Halloween fun from Eldritch Black including Pumpkins, skeletons and a cat in a tutu.

No Halloween is complete without a little Manson. Here is Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare before Christmas' re-cut with Marilyn Manson's version of 'This Is Halloween' for the re-release of the film in Disney Digital 3-D and 2-Disc Special Edition Soundtrack.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU6iP0WLsU8]

If you’d like a little steampunk in your Halloween, you can visit my interview over at YA Interrobang.

For a little extra boost of steampunk Halloween, here’s Abney Park performing Evil Man in their studio.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLWe_2wV7cg]

Happy Halloween!

Rising from the Ashes

A dramatic title, I know, but when your computer dies, it is really dramatic. Even if you have the important stuff (writing) backed up, losing your computer means losing your ability to work effectively. This time around, when we pulled the hard drive, it looked like it had started melting. Definitely dead. hE928D296

On the up side, if your computer dies right before bonus time when several wondrous new games are lurking on the horizon…

Borderlands Pre Sequel

DA Inquisition

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…it can be a blessing in disguise.

Criteria for a new computer for me is simple.

  1. It has to be quiet, so it doesn’t drive me bonkers when I’m writing.
  2. It has to be able to run upcoming games with ease.
  3. It has to do everything without overheating.

Now for a little amateur video.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ja7Kbg42jo]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT_f_hHlN0c]

There will be many books written and edited using this computer, which is its primary purpose, but there will also be epic gaming.

The best part is, now that I have a working computer again, I can get back to editing the next book.

In the Interim

The last week has been a little crazy with adjusting to the idea of having a book out, trying to keep track of social media and writing up guest blog posts and interviews. Outside of that, I've been trying to edit the next book,

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get Teagan established with a vet in our new town,

No. Not the vet!

get my horses in to a vet for their dental appointment,

Say what??

prepare for a book release party,

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and manage all the other little details of life (like going to urgent care for a cat bite). I hope to have something more fun up on my blog soon, but in the interim, if you're curious about my book, The Girl and the Clockwork Cat, you can follow some of the reviews and guest posts on my blog tour here managed by the fabulous YA Bound Book Tours.

Happy adventuring!

Not a Clockwork Dog

The release of my debut novel, The Girl and the Clockwork Cat, rushed in on the heels of a whirlwind move from a house we’d lived in for fourteen years. Fourteen years is exactly long enough to forget how dreadful moving is and to accumulate a ton of stuff. funny-pictures-kitten-helps-you-move

With the move and all the prep work for the book release, I barely had a free minute for anything else. This made it the perfect time to adopt a dog. (There may be something wrong with me).

Meet eight-month-old Teagan.

Teagan

In a mere couple of weeks, he’s become an integral part of the family. Even the cats are reluctantly accepting him into their domain (possibly in the hopes of dispatching him when we aren’t looking).

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Teagan puts out a lot of effort to fit in. He’s learned not to be too forward with the cats and picked up the idea of Frisbee like a champ (though he’s still having a little trouble with the idea of giving the Frisbee back).

Frisbee

He’s gone on several adventures around the new neighborhood with us and even showed off his excellent manners at brunch on the patio of a local restaurant.

Waiting for the drop.

Last night, we decided to have a nice dinner in to celebrate the book release. Overwhelmed with the excitement in the house, Teagan helped himself to a lovely cut of uncooked steak off the counter…

He did make amends by helping cook in a rather unexpected torrential downpour, possibly in hopes of getting another go at the steak.

Grillin' in the rain.

He may not be a cat and he may not always get things right, but he’s a fantastic addition to the family.

Welcome home Teags. I'm hoping you'll have many more chances to snatch a celebratory steak off the counter.

 

Dramatic Paws

I’ve been away from my blog for a while. Several things have contributed to that, including illness, injury, writing and editing books (seems to take up a lot of time), and cats. Today I’m not going to talk about the writing or editing or even about my upcoming debut The Girl and the Clockwork Cat coming spring 2014 from Entangled Teen. (Yes, I am shameless, but it does have a cat in it, in the title even, so it’s loosely related.) I’m here to talk about cats. More specifically, about introducing a new cat into our home and the ongoing challenges we’ve faced with this particular cross-section of felines. I’m hoping this actually turns out to be helpful for others facing similar drama, but we’re dealing with cats. Anything could happen.

new cat

For this first post, I will introduce the cast of cats and the problems we have to overcome.

Agent Request: Surviving Another EditThomas (the grumpy old man):

Thomas is 15. He’s been with us since day one and is convinced of his own awesomeness to the point that he knows, for certain, every person in the world is just holding their breath in anticipation of the day they will get to meet him and stroke his silken fur. He is very social and very demanding of his adoring fans. He enjoys long naps and watching TV with his people. He is prone to occasional regression to kittenhood in the form of wild sprints around the house and friendly Thunderdome (outdoor cat enclosure) matches with Neko.

Thomas is the dominant male in the household and deals with feline interlopers by preemptively yowling and striking at them whenever they come close to establish the hierarchy quickly.

Interloper Management Tactic = Successful

Shai (the special needs princess):IMG_2527

Shai is Thomas’ blood sister. At a very young age, she got under one of our horses and was stepped on. She has significant neurological issues and, as she gets older, arthritic issues due to injuries sustained in that incident. She has survived many other dramatic injuries throughout her life. I’m not sure if she’s lucky because she survived them or unlucky because they happened in the first place. She enjoys long naps and … well, long naps. Sometimes on heater vents. Not in front. On.

Shai prefers to solitude though she often naps and shares grooming with her brother. When faced with an interloper, she ignores them. If they persist to the point that she feels cornered, she will throw herself on the floor and scream bloody murder. The offending interloper is usually left staring at her with a look of mystified horror.

Interloper Management Tactic = Successful (oddly enough)

IMG_1391Koneko (the gentle giant):

Neko is about 20 pounds of giant feline paranoia. About 5 years old, he joined the family as a kitten and has always been highly anxious. He will cuddle on occasion, but rarely if more than one person is in the room. He has a disturbing fascination with having his butt spanked and enjoys such lovely past times as going out in the rain in the Thunderdome at night then coming in drenched to wake me up so I can towel him off and cuddle.

Neko’s tendency to slink about apprehensively makes him a delightful target for a more aggressive young interloper. He prefers to avoid the new cat unless attacked, at which point he will fight like a crazed demon.

Interloper Management Tactic = Highly Ineffective

IMG_2528BC (the interloper):

BC showed up on our property shortly after the 4th of July and made it abundantly clear he wasn’t going anywhere. We ignored him. We shooed him off. He broke us down with his stubborn affection and we took him in. After having him tested, neutered, and vaccinated, we attempted to re-home him only to discover that he had a severe fear of dogs. Having already grown rather attached by the time this effort failed, we decided to make him part of our family. He enjoys aggressive cuddling, full-force head-butts, knocking glasses over (the fuller the better, especially if it happens to be beer and there is a lap nearby to dump it on), and playing with his favorite toy, Neko.

Some sensible people would suggest simply finding BC a new home or giving him up to a shelter. This is wise. We are not wise. We love our cats and BC has wormed his wicked way into our hearts. So, this is the tale of our efforts to integrate him into our home. This tale involves blood and pain and broken things and lots of expenses and life changes. I can’t promise a happy ending, but that’s what I’m hoping for. Stick around and see. :)

Next time: Bloody battles and broken bones. Is there any hope for this quartet of cats?

How Not To Be a Successful Author: Water

Yes. Water. It seems innocent enough. We drink it. We shower in it. We bathe in it.

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Ah, but that is where the problems start. Soaking. You can waste a lot of good time soaking in a bath and it can lead to things like soaking in a hot tub or even swimming for pleasure.

otters

When things really get bad is when you start discovering the other adventures water can provide.

Snorkeling (which can lead to believing you're a fish and leaping about in the water).

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River floating (which can lead to socializing and goofing off).

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Kayaking (which can lead to lengthy adventures at sea).

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Those are just a few of the ways water can steal away hours and even days of productive writing time. My advice to you? Avoid it. Even showering could be considered a gateway activity. Sure, you might drive away friends and family with the stench if you don’t shower, but that will give you even more time to yourself for writing. Win all around.

Happy writing!

Long Silence

Barrensmall The blog has been very quiet lately. Despite my best efforts, I can’t get my cat to write posts for me.

Too busy to blog.

If I haven’t been blogging, what have I been doing?

Writing and editing books. Yeah, I know. Who does that?

writer

I have one book that should be ready to send to my agent soon and another that will be ready hopefully by November (before the madness of NaNoWriMo because I will be doing that again). I have a third book that I may burn in frustration, but I haven’t quite given up on it yet, and a novella that I plan to start sending out in August.

But that alone isn’t enough to keep a blog in the black like this.

As I mentioned in my previous post Life Changes and Getting Comfortable with Spiders, I’m also getting my house ready to sell. This involves packing,

boxes

painting,

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and many other frustrating, stressful and time-consuming tasks.

As if that weren’t enough, we had our last big 4th of July party at this house. Along with the half-day party, 45-minute fireworks show, and live singer at intermission, we added a fire troupe performance by Dragon Steps to intermission this year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAUy5wwauIE&w=560&h=315]

Add to that the simple tasks of life—apparently sleep is a necessary thing—something had to give. So what haven’t I been doing?

You guessed it. Blogging.

Life Changes and Getting Comfortable with Spiders

Yeah. I know. Sounds like such a serious title. To be honest, my life has had way too much serious lately, so I’m hoping to keep this light. For that, you need kittehs. h8EE3DD3A

I’ve been stacking on the life changes lately. Sprinting out of my realm of safety and security as if it were on fire. Some of the things I've been dealing with are:

  • A death in the family (not getting deep into this as it would go against the keeping it light plan).
  • This thing I’m waiting on (don’t want to jinx it by talking about it too much).
  • This thing my husband is waiting on (yeah, don’t want to jinx that either).
  • Some other stuff (no, I don’t think that’s too vague).
  • Preparing our house to put on the market so that we can move into the city. This one I’ll talk about.

There’s little good about getting a house ready to sell. Inevitably, the moment you decide to sell, you start noticing all the things that are wrong with the house and property that fell off the radar into the selective blindness we all get when we just don't have enough time. The lawn needs some TLC, the carpet is actually heinously ugly, the walls aren’t much better, the barn needs cleaning up, and you have way too much junk lying around.

clutter

To start things rolling, you hire someone for the yard work, which seems like a good plan. Then they get sick and someone in their family dies and you can’t really be mad about it, right? You’ve been sick a few times lately and you’ve had a recent death in the family. You should totally understand. Still, you’re secretly somewhat mad about it because the work isn’t getting done and, after all that time spent searching your soul and reconciling with selling your house, you want to get it done NOW.

And then...

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Yes. You decide to paint the interior. No big. You start painting the walls in one room, and this is when you realize not only how much you hated the wall color, but that the ceiling is an awful shade of pale pinkish-gray and the dark wood trim looks like hell. Now you have to paint the ceilings and the trim too. What started as a one or two weekend project is now a several month long arduous task. Not to mention, you still have to find time for work and play (yes, play is necessary to keep you from turning into a bug-eyed spastic lunatic). If you haven’t caught on yet, this is one of those things where the more you do, the more you feel like you need to do.

But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here because we like to talk about spiders.

hF9D06D22 No?

Well, I like to talk about them.

I live in the Pacific Northwest. This is an amazing place. It’s beautiful, a wee bit damp, and full of critters, critters that are largely non-venomous/poisonous. I feel rather safe wrangling a random snake or moving spiders out of the house. That isn’t to say that there aren’t spiders I prefer not to tangle with, but the likelihood of encountering something that can do serious damage or even threaten your life is slim.

This always seemed a good thing to me until last week. I was in southern Oregon visiting family and I had a few small spider encounters.

The Jumper:

h4A2BE49BYou know how I feel about these guys if you’ve been following my blog for long. If not, you can find out more in my post Talking with Spiders: The House Rules. As I’ve said before, jumping spiders are cute as hell and the one I found crawling along my pant leg was double-cute with sugar on top. He was tiny and would have been a perfect model for a jumping spider plush toy.

jumper

I caught him on my hand, he was so small I couldn’t even feel it as he crawled along my fingers, and relocated him to a windowsill. When my husband poked a finger at him, he crouched back and held his front bits up in a valiant display of ferocity that made me giggle. Love those fuzzy little blokes.

The next spider wasn’t a jumper. He was one of those black widow shaped ones that I express a less tolerant attitude toward in my earlier post about spiders. Still, I’m always trying to give everyone a fair chance so, recalling the jumping spider I’d moved the prior day, I caught this little critter up on my sleeve and moved it outside. It was then, as I dropped it off on the porch, that I realized it really did look an awful lot like a black widow. In fact, given that I was in southern Oregon, the odds seemed good that it could have been one.

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I guess that’s what happens when you get too used to feeling safe all the time.

So there you have it. Life lessons from a spider wrangler and a few reasons not to sell your house.

Happy adventuring!