It's already halfway through November, where is the time going? I thought that I would give a little mid-month update. It is NaNo month and I am writing away and working on edits for a short novella that will hopefully be out next month. I am also working on a couple horror short stories for some upcoming anthologies. This means that I am behind on my NaNo novel word count, but I am already way ahead of where I was last month. My editor told me that NaNo is not only about hitting a daily word count, it is about sitting down and writing each day. I am doing that and that makes me happy. This has been a rough year for my writing, but I am hoping that this is a turning point for me, that I get back on track with my writing. I have so many stories left to tell. This is a short update but I have lots of writing left to do! Will I hit 50K this month? Maybe. Maybe not. But I am sure trying and that is all that I can do!

I am so happy to be able to reveal the lovely cover for my upcoming Christmas/werebear novella Very Friendly Beasts! This is the long awaited sequel to Not So Silent Night, one of my most popular releases ever! Very Friendly Beasts is off with my editor and I hope to have a release date and preorder date for you very soon! Find out how Mikhail, the soon to be Alpha of the great Russian Werebears fares when he meets one foxy challenge! Coming soon to a Kindle near you! And now, may I present the cover for Very Friendly Beasts! (Note Friendly Beasts is the name of an old Christmas carol and the inspiration for the title.)

I am excited to be taking part of yet another fun art show tomorrow night! This one is an 80s themed art show. The 80s for me remind me of my childhood and I think you can see that in my art. I am pretty proud of the Rainbow Brite piece I did. Want to see the finished piece? Come to the art show tomorrow night! (or you can find it on my social media). The show will take place at OT Circus Art Gallery here in Albuquerque, from 5-9 pm tomorrow 11/10! I hope to see you there!
​For more info you can go the the FB event page here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/243539942971102/

To continue the theme I seem to have on my recent blogs about bettering myself as a person, blogger, and author, today I am going to talk about stepping out of my comfort zone and how it helps me learn and grow. I am doing that with my writing by deciding to concentrate on longer, much more in depth novels. I am also working in new genres as an author and that is very scary sometimes. I am doing that as an artist by starting to share my art more and even doing group art shows. I am always very nervous at these events and I still do feel like my art doesn't really belong up in a gallery, but I am still putting myself out there and trying. I am trying to be a better blogger and work on posts that might interest you my readers. I am still working on setting up some YouTube stuff and being on camera will really be nerve wracking but I feel it could help with my marketing. As a person, well changing careers in the day job was huge and I was so scared but now I feel that it was one of the best decisions that I have made in recent memory. All of these are outside of my comfort zone, all cause some nervousness, but without challenging myself I can't grow right? So sometimes being scared is the only way to move forward.

Last blog I talked about my quest for balance in my writing and life, which is a work in progress. At the same time I am trying to continue to grow and expand as an author and as a person. Part of that includes here on my blog. I want to put out better and more informative and/or entertaining content here. I want to do the same across my social media. I want to still do my idea of a vlog or something on a YouTube channel. I want to learn to market my books better, which in this day and age means marketing myself better.

Blogging, just like everything else is a learning process and I want to become better at it. That is where you come in. What would you like to see more of on this blog? What do you want to read? More book reviews? Would you like vlog style book reviews perhaps? More about the writing process? More about trying to balance life and writing? What is it that you want me to blog about? What will keep you coming back? Please leave your feedback in the comments below! Thank you in advance.

Well it's a new month and I have new goals as well as many of the same goals that I always have. One of those is my continued quest to find balance and stability in my life and work. I am inching closer to this ongoing goal. My day job is one place where I feel I am succeeding. I have a normal Monday-Friday schedule that is letting me structure my week and days in a way that allows for more writing and art time. I go to work, do my job, then go home. No one calls me at home, I can leave work at work and that is such a relief. This structure is starting to carry over into my writing life. I am writing every day after work, or working on writing related work like my website or marketing.  Surprisingly having consistency is what I think I was missing. I am writing more now that I have actual hours blocked out for writing. I am still not where I would like to be in my writing work/production, but I am moving in the right direction. I am treating my writing like part of my job, something that I have time to do each and every day. I am feeling more professional in my approach at last and am going to continue learn and grow in my writing career and in my life. I want to put out not only more work, but better work. I have not found the balance that I seek yet, but changes in the day job situation was a major step in getting there. Making scary and sometimes hard decisions is the best way to grow and change your life sometimes.

Now back to writing for it is NaNoWriMo and I am hoping to actually write 50,000 words this month! That's more than I have written in the last 4-5 month combined, but I am optimistic that I now have the schedule that I need to write like mad once more.

It's my favorite day of the year, Halloween!! It is not only my favorite holiday, but it is also my anniversary! My spouse and I both managed to get the day off and will be spending it together, but I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! Go forth and have fun, but stay safe!!

October is almost over! Boy time is flying by this year! It's almost November and that means that it is almost time for National Write a Novel Month. I will be trying to participate this year, even though it has been a slow year for me writing wise I am hoping that I can keep up with the daily word count. This year I even have a NaNo friend here in town who will be participating as well. I am hoping he and I can meet up sometimes and have write ins. Maybe I might even participate in local meetups. Maybe some support and socializing with fellow writers might help me get my writing grove back.

Now as a rule I am a pantser type of writer, just going with the flow with very little outline or plotting involved. Since I have been struggling to get words down lately and 50,000 words seems like a lot for me at the moment I have been trying to get a rough outline and plot down for my novel this coming month. Maybe it will help. Maybe I will even become a plotter someday. Maybe.

I am excited to be working on a time travel/steampunk mashup this coming month. Rivals Out of Time. I have been wanting to write this story for quite some time and I am finally going to start it! I have even had a cover for this story for over a year. Other stories, life, writing slumps, all kept getting in the way but now this story's time has come.

I am so happy that my latest release, The Discovery of a Lifetime, is now out in the world! I worked hard to get his story out this month despite some health setbacks. This Atlantis based romance is only .99 cents and a fun look at a land that many have sought throughout history!
​Amazon
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Karina is the laughing stock of the archaeology world. Despite the naysayers she knows in her heart that she’s right, Atlantis is real and she will find it. With a mysterious backer and state of the art technology, she finds her heart’s desire and then some. Atlantis is not so lost after all, and their prince seems to only have eyes for her.

Faced with finding her dream, Karina must decide if she will give up the world above, all that she has ever known, for the chance at happiness in Atlantis and with the prince Theophilus. A night of passion seems to make the choice easy, but can she really stay in this land of legend? If Theophilus has anything to say about it she can. 

Excerpt:
Nothing but static greeted her this time, but since her sub was working just fine, she continued her exploration with an eye on the clock. As she entered the cavern she had seen, she startled at a blueish light which seemed to be emitting from somewhere deeper in the cavern. Her own lights on the sub flashed upon some murals that took her breath away. “It’s the story of Atlantis,” she whispered, hoping that they were still receiving her transmission up above.
Then the sub went dead, lights and all. She only had the red light of her emergency system to help her. She also checked, and only her emergency oxygen seemed to be working, which meant she had about fifteen minutes of air. “Fuck!” she said, trying desperately to get someone on the radio. “Can anyone hear me? Something is wrong. Hello?”
Not even static greeted her this time. Unable to control the vessel, a current of some sort kept pulling her farther and farther into the darkness. Karina anxiously watched the minutes on her oxygen tank, knowing that even if her system kicked back on, she likely wouldn’t have enough air to make it back to the surface. The very day of her greatest triumph might very well be her last day alive. Talk about irony.
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As I talked about last week, I am participating in a few different challenges this month and I thought I would share some of my favorite posts so far from Drawlloween and October Photo A Day. Up first some Drawlloween sketches followed by some photos from my photo challenge.