We cut our travel plans short and came back a day early to get home before the winter storm started. Woke up to a blanket of snow, plenty of wind, and subzero temps. Stay warm, make sure your pets are inside, and have a Merry Christmas!

So, Subject A36 has been nominated for Best Indie Science Fiction book on ReadFREE.ly. Don’t know how that happened, but I’m thrilled. Now I need favors from all of you – please vote for me! There are several different categories, but the direct link to the sci-fi category is HERE. Thanks so much!

If you haven’t registered to win eighteen speculative fiction books, time is running out. Five winners will be chosen randomly on November 30th. Click HERE to enter!

I’m taking the week off to spend with family. The stars aligned, and we’ll have both sons with us for Thanksgiving this year. Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday – see you next week!

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday and I’m not embarrassed. We usually put it up the weekend before Thanksgiving because we travel over the holiday, but this year we did it even earlier. Judging by our neighborhood, we’re not the only ones. 2020 has been _____ (choose your own adjective), so if Christmas lights bring joy to folks, I’m all for it. I always said I’d leave my tree up year round if I could get away with it.

I took advantage of the free Y’All Write master classes and author panels over the weekend. Watching Victoria Schwab teach a master class on The Story Corpse – her technique of building a story – was definitely a highlight. I’m such a fan of her work and came out of her class with a list of new ideas. Listening to other well-known authors with plenty of books under their belt talk about how they still deal with writing challenges and self-doubt sure made me feel better. Guess we all have days when we can’t string enough words together to form even one sentence – and if we do, it sounds like crap.

The speculative fiction giveaway is still going on, so if you haven’t entered yet, click HERE to enter and learn more about the featured books. Five random winners will be chosen November 30th!

So, fun fact. I’d procrastinated for months about learning the new WP editor, which is my own fault. We’d been traveling for the weekend and got home late on a Sunday night in early October, and I needed to prepare the Bad Moon Rising post for the next day. My classic editor was gone. Disappeared. Poof. Son of a %*#$@! I tried everything I could think of to get it back, locate it, beg for it – you get the picture. So that was my baptism into using Gutenberg. I’ve gotten the hang of it now, but hubby said even the neighbors heard my rants.

I mentioned last week I wasn’t doing NaNo, but was participating in a four week virtual writing retreat hosted by authors C.J. Redwine and Mary Weber. It’s been fantastic! Every Tuesday evening we have a virtual workshop and so far we’ve covered ideas, seven plotting methods, building an atmospheric world, authentic dialogue, and character webs. During the week there are writing sprints, prompts, Q&A, etc. I’ve “met” several other writers, one who actually lives in my town. My writing has been more disciplined, and I’m beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel for the first draft. Yay!

For all you YA fans and writers out there, November 13th and 14th is the Y’All Write book festival. It features some amazing authors, and I’ve already registered for nine panels – so that’s my Friday and Saturday. Check out the website HERE.

Just a reminder about the giveaway I’m participating in. Eighteen speculative fiction books spanning loads of subgenres! Five random winners will be chosen November 30th. To enter and learn more about the featured books, click HERE. Good luck!

The Subject A36 ebook will be discounted to $0.99 for one day only on Friday, October 16th – mark your calendars!  I spent hours yesterday submitting the info to various websites to promote it in newsletters, on their website, etc.  My brain was mush by the time I finished.  I probably could have listed it on more sites, but I just didn’t have it in me.  There has to be an easier way to do this.  Any suggestions?  Have any sites worked better for you than others?

If you’re scheduled for Bad Moon Rising and haven’t returned your information, the deadline was yesterday.  I’ve received all except five, but I’ll send out reminder emails today for those authors.

I have another trailer today!  I adored the first season of The Mandalorian, and the trailer for season 2 dropped last week.  This is the way.  Take a look!

I feel like I don’t have much to report, but that doesn’t mean nothing is going on.  All the Bad Moon Rising spots are filled, and more than half of the authors have returned their info.  You guys are in for such a treat this year!  I’ve also been working on the sequel to Subject A36.  Last week I mentioned that I write out of order, so I’ve been cutting, pasting, and rearranging files to look more like chapters.  I know there’s got to be an easier way to do this, but it’s just the way my brain works.  Must be a short in there somewhere.

Back in college, I started reading the Dune series by Frank Herbert and got to the fourth or fifth book.  The 1984 movie was a disappointment, but the trailer for the new movie really has me excited.  And the cast has some heavy hitters who seem perfect for the roles – take a look.

 

Shoutout to Priscilla and Staci (I think?) who recommended Lucifer.  I started watching it last week and I’m loving it.  Tom Ellis is hilarious along with his hints of darkness – I’m sorry I waited this long to give it a try.  Thanks for the rec, guys!

Although four months late, this was a beautiful Derby weekend in KY and temps were pretty mild compared to what they’ve been.  Hubby and I spent Derby day at a small gathering of friends and family.  Lots of food, several varieties of bourbon, and many bets on horses that didn’t pay off.  We’re not big gamblers, but hubby and sons (not me because I’m horrible at it) usually place a few bets througout the day for fun.  Before the last race, we all draw numbers corresponding to the horses, and I came in third with Mr. Big News winning me the glass and mini bottle in the pic – woo hoo!  It was a fun-filled day, and one I’m glad we were able to celebrate even four months late.

My oldest son was here for the weekend, as well as some of his friends who aren’t local anymore, for an even more important event – fantasy football draft.  They’ve been doing this together for years, even though one of them is now living in Australia.  I have no idea what time it was in his part of the world when they began yesterday, but my son had plenty of lists and charts he’d made in preparation.  I was just glad to have both sons here for lunch yesterday – it’s a rare occasion these days.

If you ever watched The Karate Kid, you’ve probably seen ads for Cobra Kai on Netflix.  It’s incredibly difficult for me to find something hubby will watch, but I decided to spring this one on him – and he’s hooked.  Yes, it’s cheesy and pretty laughable at times, but it’s also full of Karate Kid Easter eggs you’ll pick up on if you’re a fan of the movie.  Underlying themes of how to be a better dad/person/friend are often covered up by immature high school rivalries and alpha male crap, but if you look deeply – sometimes very deeply (you may need a shovel) – you’ll discover them.  The episodes are less than thirty minutes each, and there are two seasons.  If you’re a child of the 80s, you might enjoy it.

Question to the writers out there – do you write out of sequence?  My brain tends to put a story together in a non-linear fashion and several years ago, I thought that was wrong.  Books couldn’t possibly be written that way.  After reading an interview with a successful author who mentioned that was the technique she used, I suddenly felt validated.  A whole new world opened up for me, and I thought maybe I could actually write a book.  I’m working on my fourth novel and just figured out last week which file was my first chapter.  I’ve got somewhere around 30K words for the sequel to Subject A36 spread across sixteen different files.  What’s your process?

After seeing several friends mention it and at the urging of my youngest son, I finally started watching The Umbrella Academy on Netflix (thanks, Tessa!).  I’m absolutely hooked.  Love the characters (I knew in the first ten minutes Klaus was my favorite) and their whole dysfunctional family dynamic, the time travel storyline, the powers they have – I’m already halfway through season one, and season two dropped recently, so I’m excited I have plenty of episodes ahead of me.

Only one spot remains for Bad Moon Rising – tell your horror, thriller, and supernatural author friends to contact me!