I haven't posted about the critters in a while and have some new pics and a video to share.
First, Bilbo is coming up on his third 3 in the adoption adjustment. He's three months indoors now and very comfortable with the household.
I'd say he's pretty cozy being carried, but he always was, just not quite what the pic below demonstrates. There's no way he wasn't a pet when he was younger. One person's trash is our treasure. He has a furever home now and a routine. Every night he sleeps between hubby and I near our pillows. Hubby is holding him awkwardly in the pic (carried him like this up the stairs to the main level), but the big boy didn't care, although he's usually a bit unsure when you first pick him up if you don't support his feet.
He's a big baby. And I mean BIG (for a non-Main Coon)--15 pounds of pure muscle. Apple AI suggests chartreux. He's just a mixed breed of something, but he's about the right size, base coloring, eye color, and temperament, so maybe a mix. However, I couldn't find any breeders in the area and doubt they would mix such a rare breed to produce a tuxedo like Bilbo.
And here's our old man, the other "O" boy (Dargo), who used to be the biggest cat in the house but is now second biggest and remains the oldest and the only papered kitty (TICA-registered Siamese, now Thai cat). He has health issues that are closely managed, but at his age, you expect that:
I've been playing with the different settings on my new iPhone.
I took this video this past Sunday of Buddy enjoying a post-ride treat. He was goofing off like he does with the bucket, until he noticed me recording. 🙄
I hope the video shows up. Otherwise, I took still pics too:
We had a good ride before this. It was a beautiful day (nearly 50 F), an 80 degree difference from the minus thirty-something Farenheit cold just 5-6 days earlier! We rode inside, but the good weather brought out a LOT of boarders and we had to wait for room to ride. In that wait, the calming supplement took effect, so by the time I got on, he was in a good state of mind, a complete turnaround from the roaring dragon he started as when we entered the indoor arena. Something about the western pleasure show riders training their horses was freaking him out, even though he can tolerate watching mounted shooting outside in the summer. No clue what got into him. 🤷 At least the calming supplement worked. (He's nervous in the indoor arena, so I try to stack the deck in my favor, so to speak, by doing what I can to help him calm down so I'm less likely to get hurt. Quietex II works wonders for him.)
We're heading into shedding season, so I expect my trips out will soon end up with me wearing more of his winter coat than he does.
Anyway, that's what's going on in the four-legged/fur-baby side of life.
I don't know when I'll next have other updates. I go in spurts. I've had a lot going on lately and thought I'd share with readers.
After the first pass of Book 19 for review, I'm into major edits in the second pass. As a result, I have completely rearranged some scenes in the first few chapters. I kept getting to chapter 2 and thinking that would make a better opening, but there were aspects of chapter 1 that I really wanted to keep.
In starting my second pass, where the real editing begins, the answer came to me. I figured out where certain parts of chapter 1 should be moved to keep the focus on the book's specific main characters and the series characters for certain subplots to keep their points later in the story. Without giving anything away, that's the most I can reveal.
I also had to change a description of an area a bit, since this is in a castle, but I didn't want to have to rewrite too much. It had to give the impression of being a sort of vanity area for the lord of the castle as a grander palace might have yet be practical for the space. It's a small scene and passes in a page, but what I had originally was bothering me, since Miram Castle is a fortress against attack... and not just by other lords and their armies. That actually took a while to figure out after a couple of iterations of redesign and describing it.
It could happen again, but with these big changes, the worst I foresee is making sure everything still flows and that the story structure remains as it was, because overall, it's a good story. I like the subplots but don't want to make certain aspects too big that they take away from the main plot but, rather, intertwine organically.
This is the book that has a bit of GoT type underpinnings while serving the series purpose. It was fun to write and is as much fun to return to editing. I enjoy every book of the series, and the breaks between the original writing and the editing for publishing give them a freshness I especially enjoy. I also wanted to write a book on a cold, snowy world; and with this, I compromised with a winter season. How appropriate to be returning to this after one of the harshest winters in real life that I can remember. It puts the editing in a more accurate perspective for the setting. Since I live on the northern plains, I know winter!
This is also the book that I said has a horse like one I knew in real life growing up. Quint was mean! (And he was gelded--I can't imagine if he had been a stud!) I used that in this book, along with the name and his description.
Because of real life interruptions and reviewing these major changes, I will have to push back ALL THE KING'S MEN to a mid-March release timeframe. It's not much later than I had expected, and I appreciate your patience. I have a lot to manage in my life and writing doesn't always take center stage.
Msgr. Rossetti is one of several exorcists online sharing their experiences. Another exorcist has stated that if you're not being attacked in some form, that's not necessarily a good thing. You're probably doing exactly what demons want, so they leave you alone to continue to dig yourself deeper into sin and the pleasures of the world instead of growing holier with self-denial and sacrifice. Demons also don't waste their time on those who fall for the lies that they don't exist. Why bother exposing themselves to non-believers and risk those people becoming believers?
Below is a video from Armor of God on YouTube, a channel I enjoy with a lot of information from a variety of exorcists, like this one on a similar topic to the above:
From what I've learned in listening to exorcists, demons most attack people who are a threat--those seeking holiness or to save souls--but it's worse on those who have given themselves to demons. Possession is actually a rare occurrence, but harassments of some form or another is very common.
A word on retaliation:
Be careful of retaliation when you pray for someone who willingly, or maybe even unknown to them, is serving demons. I've experienced this. Every time I offer the strongest prayer (holy mass) for a friend who believes she's serving Christ in writing romance stories with married couple sex scenes, I am attacked in the night in a very consistent (can mark my calendar!) and distinct way that tells me the demons are pissed at my prayers for her. It's been unpleasant, but I have learned to say extra protection prayers to Our Blessed Mother and St. Michael. When I do, the attack is almost nothing. (To those who object to this intercessory help, I refer you to Matthew 12:22-28, Psalm 141:2, and Revelations 5:8, 7:10, and 12:7-9.)
What I've experienced after offering the mass for her confirms to me that any story (written, visual, etc.) that inspires lust in readers, no matter the state of the characters, is serving the demons of lust ("but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:28). Even if the fictional couple are married, the reader is likely to fantasize sexual feelings and most likely for the characters rather than their spouse, which is adultery. A writer/filmmaker provides the demons a feast of souls through damning the souls of their audience, and they hate when anyone tries to save the writer/filmmaker, because it takes away not just one person but the potentially hundreds of thousands or even millions of members of their audience. (I suggest studying Mark 9:42-48 and taking heed of it.)
edit 2/2/25: A new video describes exactly what my feeling is of these attacks--amusement that what I'm doing really irks the demons:
Exorcists warn of spiritual retaliation when praying for someone serving demons, whether they know it or not; and boy, have I learned that lesson! It's why I bring this up--my wish is for others to realize the damnation to their soul and others.
Why sex scenes serve demons:
This is why I have said that I will never write sex scenes (or glorify violence or other vice or sinful matters, although they are a part of life and may be mentioned but will be portrayed as the evil they are). I have never liked reading or seeing sex scenes, because even in visual media, they are present and it really doesn't add anything, no matter how much a writer says it does. Graphic sex NEVER adds to the story. Let the flaming begin--responses by writers attached to lust/porn will prove my point of serving demons. The demons of lust will be enraged and inspire the writers who serve them into hatred instead of introspection and reason. They are providing sales to those writers to encourage them to continue to damn souls. “For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul?” -Matthew 16:26.
It's only in further listening to exorcists that I have learned why sex scenes are wrong. Most of the souls in hell never believed hell existed and the majority (overlapping) are there for sins of the flesh, according to mystics shown hell and average people who have had near death experiences of hell.
Promote virtues instead:
My Starfire Angels characters value life, charity, kindness, purity, honesty, generosity, temperance, modesty, diligence, patience, and humility. In Forgotten Worlds, the characters have their individual virtues while being deficient in others that develop through the series. L'Ni and Nya have complimentary virtues that rub off on each other, which is where I see the greatest character growth. Nik and Ann and even Shen and Zaer each compliment each other and keep their partner in check. I hadn't even realized that was happening until now. My objective is to promote those good qualities in fantastic, entertaining stories through the reactions of the characters demonstrating those virtues in the most difficult situations. It's actually what stories used to be and what made heroes great in the old traditions. And through the series, each learns the value of the other virtues to the point of self-sacrifice for others and redemption of sins (see Book 18).
Many people have experiences that they may or may not recognize as spiritual in origins, wherever they fall in the state of their soul, which is why the video is helpful for recognizing some of the forms of diabolical harassment. The saints had much more pronounced experiences, however.
What happens when you aren't affected by ordinary temptations:
Those who are closer to Christ (true saints) have more direct battles with demons in their earthly lives, because ordinary temptations don't affect them. St. Padre Pio is said to have directly battled Satan and ended up with bruises from it. He was also gifted with reading souls, seeing and conversing with angels, bilocation, and bearing the stigmata, and his relics bring healing. There's a reason the man was canonized (confirmed in heaven). He could handle that level of spiritual warfare, which only increased his holiness.
St. Gemma Galgani also had her battles with Satan. She could also see and converse with her guardian angel and also received the stigmata. (Pay particular attention in the article to the quotes of what she says Satan did to try to stop her prayers. You'll probably recognize the same thoughts forcing themselves into your head or the same difficulties blocking your efforts. Spiritual warfare is a constant battle, and demons don't need sleep, so they pester and pester like spoiled toddlers until you break or call in spiritual reinforcements. If they can't get you with ordinary temptation, they'll attack through others or directly themselves. According to exorcists, God keeps them on a leash, so they can't kill you directly but can by influencing others.)
Msgr. Rossetti touches on less extreme diabolic harassments in the above video than what the saints went through. Fr. Iannuzzi (who trained under Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the "Pope's exorcist") says much the same in segments of the below video:
Protect yourself from demonic harassment:
The best protection is complete faith in God, and loving Him as fully as humanly possible, which means 1) forgiveness, including praying for one's "enemies" (not necessarily liking them but showing love by praying for what's best for them and will get them into heaven), 2) staying in a state of grace (confession and avoiding sin), and 3) frequent (no more than once a day but as many days as possible) worthy (in a state of grace) reception of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus, which is only available in the Catholic church. This is why it is the only church harshly attacked--the demons know it is the only church against which the "gates of hell shall not prevail". It is the church founded by Jesus giving the keys to the kingdom to Peter, the rock upon which Christ established his church on earth, which came before the Bible was compiled (which was done by the fathers of the Catholic church).
Conclusion:
The top video came up on my feed a couple of weeks ago, helping me with something I wanted to write about but wasn't sure how to say. It took me this long to figure out exactly what I wanted to say, which is why it has taken this long to post. God always provides.
I found an image that with the cover blurb should spark some curiosity. I thought I might try to find some armor that could match the Issan, but then I also wanted to leave that to the imagination and it would likely require going to AI for something even close, so I went with this stock image, which is close enough to events in the book. The blurbs are harder to decide upon than the images most of the time, but even that wasn't too hard.
I think this works well, but that doesn't mean something won't get tweaked before it's published:
Today, I'll be working on the updated interior of the print omnibus, Collection 1 (Books 1-5) and get that uploaded. I hate formatting print books, which is why I'm only doing these in omnibus editions. I might tweak this cover a smidge while I'm at it too.
The first draft ended up going longer than expected. I battled some of my chronic health issues too, but that passes and I keep on writing. This book pushes the war forward with the Issan in a big way.
It came in at 52K words, 12% more than I had expected, but it had to be done. I couldn't rush the ending.
Just as I won't rush the ending of the series. I have the next two outlined, along with the last one. It's that second to last that has me baffled about how I'll handle events, but I won't worry about it. It'll come when the time is right.
Book 21 will be quite the launch into the homestretch of the series. It's not a simple adventure, but as I mentioned in previous posts, required a lot of meticulous consideration of how L'Ni thinks. I'll never feel adequate to that, but I think I did a fairly good job of detailing his intellect in a way that I hadn't before. In other books, I showed the results of his judgment, but keeping him on the quiet side for the most part allowed me to assign a lot of credit to him that I didn't have to go into deeply. This was quite the change.
The coolest part about writing a story like this is that when I have trouble writing, it forces me to slow down and review, review, review. It's that pondering which brings out the depth that needs to be there. It all works out for the best.
Anyway, Book 21 is now drafted. I'll need to figure out a cover for it, and I think I just had an idea. I need to see if I can find a stock image suitable. In the meantime, it's time to edit Book 19. I love the system I've developed for writing this series. I can't wait to go back and edit to publish by the time I finish writing two books ahead. And I'll work on getting the hardcopy of the omnibus of books 1-5 updated and back in print. (I'm currently reading through book 6 and finding some errors that make me wonder if some of my editing changes didn't get saved at the time. 😞)
I'm not quite done with Book 21. It's currently at 48K words, already longer than I anticipated. PLUS, the Hashimoto's flared up right on cue to delay me finishing this project, and when that happens to the degree it did, I just can't write. I can copyedit, but my brain isn't sharp enough to remember details and the lack of sleep only compounds it. That took the whole week to recover with very little writing getting done, and what was done needed immediate rewriting. Fortunately, I think I know what caused this flare and won't do that again!
So, not where I wanted to be by this weekend. I wanted to be finished. That didn't happen.
On the other hand, I did finish entering edits on Book 5 and uploaded the minor changes. I can get that kind of work done when the combo of thyroid issues and a wonky immune system collide into a perfect storm. I can also get a lot done at the day job. Next, I need to get to work on updating the print omnibus of books 1-5 and get that back online for sale.
And I finally had the perfect day to ride my horse today. I haven't felt this much like myself in a long time. I hadn't ridden him in about 6 months, although I've been out to give him treats and do groundwork, and it was like I hadn't been off. He's twelve years old now and I've had him for more than nine of those years, so we're pretty familiar with each other. But the same autoimmune issues that interrupt my writing also interrupt my riding. Today, everything came together--weather (around 40 F and 0 wind, which was gorgeous), other riders (he's better when a paturemate is also in the arena), and me feeling good. I needed that! I'll be sore for the next few days, but it was worth it.
And for lack of sleep, that's partly on the cats. Bilbo has been deciding that he likes to sleep at the top of my head and partly on my head, which is terrible for my neck. Plus I usually have a cat at my feet. And I can end up with one or more completing the box on either side of me. The worst is when they come walking on me in the wee hours of the morning and then I can't go back to sleep. It doesn't happen every night, but with four cats, there's usually one waking me at some point, hopefully not until close to when I need to get up for the day. My husband sleeps through all of it.
Also, now when I want to write, there are times that I have two cats. I can deal with my old boy next to me, but Bilbo never wants to stay next to me. He always wants a lap, and he's still learning to respect the laptop. So, I'll call the hubby to take him. Bilbo was supposed to be his cat. I have mine.
Oldest kitty loves Our Lady of Guadalupe blanket, or at least the fuzzy side, even more than my pink winter bathrobe.
This past month, two of our cats had high vet expenses from going off their food and then us discovering they needed their teeth cleaned. One of them had an abscessed tooth that was extracted. They now have matching "bracelets" of shaved hair (seen in pic) where the IVs were while they were sedated for the procedures. (Bilbo's shaved hair is nearly grown out from his IV during his neutering two months ago.) The oldest two are completely back to their old selves, so things are good again.
Now, back to writing... or time for oldest's felimazole, then writing. It's been quite the week and I'm finally feeling more like myself and able to focus again.
Life is busy, but life would be dull if it wasn't.
