it happened again

Why do these things happen to me? And this was another one that happened right in front of me, so my kid wasn't pulling a fast one on me.

Last night, I was sitting in our main room editing like a good little writer getting ready to release a new book. That's when it happened.

Let me post this picture to explain...

So here's the story... The picture of me, my parents, and brother and sisters from my wedding (blacked out for privacy like the picture of my husband and his family from our wedding, marked "in-laws") went flying in front of me. Not straight ahead or even the other direction but across the room sideways in front of our bay window kind of towards me, as marked in red with the arrow. Not even the whole frame! That picture has been hanging there over a decade, but only the frame, picture, and glass went flying. The back was left swinging on the nail. The clasps in back had been slid aside, but that back went on snugly when I put it back together, so there was no reason it should have all gone flying like it did. Besides, there's an unmovable clip on the back on the actual frame on the side towards the in-laws' picture; that clip keeps the back in place with the front frame, so you wouldn't think it would fly in the direction it did but, rather, the other direction. Also, the cardboard between the back and the picture to keep the picture tight to the glass had slid down the wall and was under the curio cabinet right beneath the back.

As you can see, I have a hidden bottle of holy water up there below the in-laws picture and also a prayer candle of our Blessed Mother almost right below my family's picture.

Here's my view when I'm sitting and working on the loveseat in the diagonal corner of that room:

I put up something innocuous on my screen to take this picture so you can get an idea of my perspective.

The picture flying off the wall happened in front of my face, although my eyes were on the computer screen so I only caught the motion from the top of my peripheral vision. 

These pictures were taken a few minutes before posting this, the day after it happened. As you can see, the glass on the picture was undamaged. It did not shatter when it landed. (I haven't moved the curio cabinet either, but I see that I need to shift it over since it's not centered. I hadn't noticed that before.)

This is as bad as the time I was sitting downstairs to watch TV and no sooner did I simply think I was too warm that the fan in front of the treadmill, about ten feet away, switched on. No one else was in that room with me then either. I had the house blessed since then and nothing else had happened until this picture flying off the wall sideways.

Either I'm going crazy, or something defended my mothers (both spiritual in the image on the candle and my real mother in the picture thrown off the wall) or just wanted my attention (and I can't discount that my kids might be doing something they shouldn't be when they're hiding out in their rooms), or that it was just the right combination of physics. However, consider that this happened at the exact time of the 55th anniversary of the death of my mother's oldest brother in Vietnam (which is 12 hours ahead, so calendar-wise, we would be recognizing it a day behind, except in this case, because it happened at the exact time and date Vietnam time of the anniversary of his death). My brother in that wedding picture was named after him and has a birthday the day before what was our uncle's birthday. So... a message to pray for him? 🤷‍♀️ Just in case, I said a rosary last night for him and our brother who passed away before I ever met my husband (the brother not in the picture, whose death anniversary is just a few days upcoming as of the date of this post). Whatever the cause of the picture flying off the back and across the room, it called my attention to pray for my deceased family members.

Whether physics were just right or it was something spiritual, prayers can only help.

I just wish these things would quit happening, although they make for some pretty good "ghost stories."

Edit: I actually said a rosary novena for the two men--my uncle and my brother--after this incident and offered up a mass for them.

Book promotional features

I'm planting these here for myself. However, these are open to everyone, so feel free to share these images and videos. I'll make more in time, but for now, this is what I have. I'll add to this as I make more media to share, but the main task is to write and edit, so making graphics and videos is squeezed in where I can.

These are available as ebooks 
and also in paperback with beautiful wrap-around covers.

This will be updated as books are added. This particular
image shows books 1-17 covers.
ps - I purposely offset these covers because they
looked too blah perfectly aligned, but I can change that to preference.

This is also available on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/855488536?share=copy.

This is also available on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/855490721?share=copy.

Coming soon

Book cover reveal... Book 17

I've been playing with cover images and made some tweaks to Book 16 after finding the right image for Book 17.

And in putting together the cover for Book 17, I had to write up a cover blurb. This one was actually pretty easy to write, but the image didn't seem right with my working title for the book, so I changed it slightly. HOMECOMING seemed more appropriate, although I'm still not sure of that. HOME was a placeholder, since Nya returns to her homeworld, but it seemed too simple. HOMECOMING is better, but I may still change it. I have time to consider that.

I had considered playing with Midjourney, but there's plenty of good art available by actual people, so I'm trying to use that rather than AI art, as long as I can find something to fit the story from stock images (and most of what I have of that is from before AI art programs became available). The image I found fits the story almost perfectly. There is a space battle in this one with a variety of ships (whatever the Shirukan remnant could get their hands on), although most of the action is inside one of the ships, which none of the ships on the image match, so that will be up to your imagination.

Without further ado, here is the cover for Book 17 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds:

Quite the homecoming, isn't it?

ps--I also wrote up a description for Book 17. I need to be doing that for Books 15 and 16. My brain doesn't work in order with this series. 🤦‍♀️

done... sort of

The main part of Book 17 is finished. I just need to figure out what I want for a stinger scene. You know I can't end these books without something to tease for the future, a sort of epilogue or transition scene for the next book or for a few books later. That's all that remains to write, but I'm going to read through this before I do that and probably even start edits on Book 15.

Often it's while editing one book that I finally come up with those elusive scenes I want in other books. My mind can never stay on the book it's supposed to be working on.

I'll also have to design a cover image or find one that's right. Maybe I'll finally give Midjourney a try. I've been wanting to play with it since I learned about it. And there are other AI art programs now too, so I have options. We'll see what I feel like doing.

In the meantime, the first draft of Book 17 is about 45K words and a stinger scene won't add more than 1,000 words to that, so I'll likely hit the top of the range I expected. 

So close to done (so I took a break to have some fun)

I'm excited to say that Book 17 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds is currently over 43K words and just two short scenes from being finished. If all goes well, I might achieve that by tomorrow.

I had a great writing streak Friday and Saturday with over 4K words getting written on this project. With all that momentum, one's creativity can get a bit drained and need a moment to refresh.

And since the weather ended up being so beautiful, I went out to play with my boy. I haven't posted horse pics in a while, but I still have Buddy. He's been at a boarding facility closer to where I live than my parents, but it's been exactly what he needed. I get out to him regularly, although not as often as I'd like.

This past weekend, there was an event at the facility, so I waited until today. I could have gone yesterday, but I was really on a roll with the writing and with the event, I figured one more day would be worth the wait. I ended up arriving after most of those who had hauled in for the event had left. The outdoor arena was open, so I was able to do whatever I wanted. (While there, I found a horseshoe with nails still in it and took it out so no one steps on it. One of the horses at the event threw a shoe.)

And I remembered to get some pictures after we rode. Buddy is ten years old now, and fat on a good pasture. The drought of the last two years is over and clearly he gets plenty to eat. I could work him harder, but I'm not as young as I used to be.

Watch for an announcement on the completion of the first draft of Book 17 soon. Once that's done, I'll give it a read through and then start editing Book 15, which I hope to publish by the beginning of September.

almost there

I'm getting close to finishing Book 17 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. I suspect it will need a lot of editing but at least I'll soon have a first draft done. I'm aiming to finish by July 31 so I can move on to editing Book 15 to publish that around end of August/early September.

Right now, the first draft of the book tentatively titled HOME is around 37,000 words, and I expect it to wrap up by 42K words. I'm not far from that, but it's also just an estimate based on the events that I still need to write out and how much I expect it will add to the length. You'll notice it's back to the shorter length that I had originally for the books in this series. The books were growing longer and longer, so I'm glad to get back to shorter. I write what the story dictates, and this didn't want to be as long as those last several books. The length can change in rewrites, but usually not too dramatically--within a few thousand words either way.

So far, the shortest book in the series is the first, A NEW BEGINNING, and the story alone came in just under the minimum SFWA novel length (not counting my forward and all the other stuff that isn't story), which is 40,000 words.

As you can see, I am working to finish. I don't use AI or ghostwriters. Everything in my books comes from me. I write for the enjoyment of writing the story I need to tell, and sometimes life gets in the way or the creativity is disrupted. It's not about the churn but about the adventure and the challenge. I hope you enjoy the results.

Thanks for reading!

-----------------------

COMING SOON:

Writing Status

Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds Book 17 is moving along, and my goal is to finish by the end of this month, but we'll see what life throws at me.

It's been strange to go back to revisit old characters. Along with Raea and Elis (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles), I've also dived into the lives of Valdas (Dark Angel Chronicles & Revelations) and Leksel (Dark Angel Chronicles & Revelations). An update on them came about as a natural part of the events of the story.

I mentioned some time ago that I couldn't wait to get L'Ni and Leksel together. Well, it's been interesting. They're far more alike than I expected, yet different in many ways.

And I was a bit surprised by Valdas yet not. I guess I had things in the back of my mind for certain events in her life and also events in Leksel's life that would happen in the nearly eleven years (plot timeline) between Nemesis and this book. They've changed, but at the end of Nemesis, they were already much different from where they started. In that light, not much has changed except personal events in each of their lives and the choices that put them where they are to be involved with Nya's mission. It should be interesting for those who have stuck with the series. I've tried to fill in gaps for those who haven't so events and decisions make sense, just like I would for any book.

I won't give anything away, but I can say their present circumstances may not be what some expet. I have had to go back to the original Starfire Angels series (Dark Angel Chronicles) and the first expansion of it (Revelations) to check facts. In doing so, I see all the more that I need to refresh Revelations with new covers and maybe another editing pass. (I found a typo of the kind that spellcheck wouldn't catch.) So, there's another project to take on, probably prior to publishing this book when the time comes.

For now, I can also say that Book 17 is just a hairsbreadth from 30,000 words. I expect this to finish around the 40K word mark by the end of the first draft. The last few books have been creeping over 50K, so it's good to get back to my original length goal for these books.

That's all I have for now, but it's enough. I can't believe I've been writing the Starfire Angels series for fifteen years! (And it started with an idea for a YA science fiction that seemed to be an urban fantasy type story based on an old novella with changes inspired by an anime series I liked.)

Thanks for reading!

summer home project

Every year it seems we take on some project around our home or yard. Last year, it was the grape trellis and garden fence.

This year, we replaced our deck. It's nineteen years old, as old as our house, which we've lived in since it was built. Our first house. We're still living in it, which is why we've taken to making upgrades in recent years.

Staining the deck is a constant hassle. We had talked over the years of wanting to replace it. This year, when my husband looked at the deck and said he should probably stain it again, I suggested that we look into replacing it with Trex. We figured out the materials we would need and priced it out on Lowes.com, the only store in our area that carries the brand. We've had to go back for some other additions, but drops in the bucket compared to the initial investment.

It wouldn't be cheap for our 10x10 ft. deck and stairs, but my husband was determined to do it himself and did the research. He took time off this past week to get it done. Aside from some rain delays, he finished most of it--the deck portion. He'll work on the stairs when he burns off more vacation time in a few weeks.

On the first day, he had help pulling up all the deck planks, balusters, and rails. The frame was still good after all this time, so we left that in place. It was all treated wood.

Before:

deer fence was the keep the cats on the deck

After:

Hubby did all the plank work with grooved boards and brackets. After the prep work of applying a special tape to the tops of all the old joists (for water protection) and getting the 4x4 posts in place, he had a good day and installed the planks all in one day. We had record rainfall yesterday, but we had a family reunion anyway, so we had a day off the project. The weather today was good to finish this. I helped today, and we put up all the post sleeves and rails around the deck area. The stairs aren't ready yet, or there would be rails going down also.

The planks are the Trex toasted sand color, and we used white for fascia to match the trim of our house and the railing. It looks great! And it's always good to work on a project together. Hubby did most of the work, but there are some things where it's better to let him work alone. And then there are things that are too tricky to take on alone, so I try to step in and help when I can, like installing the rails.

The cats don't get to go out loose on this since we have no way of keeping them from getting out, but we're working on getting a catio for them.

I didn't get much writing done today, but it was a good day to finish this part of this project.

Tomorrow, back to writing! (Forgotten worlds Book 17 reached 23,000 words, so past the halfway point.)

2023 garden status

It's been a few weeks since we planted the garden and we had to reseed some of the corn, but everything is coming up beautifully. Of course, the rhubarb, dill, and strawberries are perennials and were already waking up by the end of April. I had a couple of strawberries disappear as soon as they started to ripen, so I put a cage around them last weekend to keep the birds away.

Grapes

The biggest surprise is that we already have grapes! That big bush of a grape plant was just a tiny twig when we planted it last year with only a few leaves that were halved when one of our cats chewed them off while the plant was inside, but it sure took once planted in its permanent home. This spring it roared out of dormancy with a vengeance and more than doubled in size. Plus, you can see the cluster of grapes growing on it. They've doubled in size in the last week alone. I wasn't expecting grapes for another year or two.

The back grape plant in the pic was a new one this year, It was already bigger than the first one when we ordered it to replace one that had died.

The main garden

Cucumbers love to climb, so we always plant those near the corn. This year, we also put in some panels to encourage the two plants to climb something else instead of becoming a ground bush hiding all the fruit. It does that in the corn too, but more often than not, they will wrap upwards on the cornstalks naturally. It doesn't harm the corn. Those stalks are strong.

Last year, hubby and I built the trellis for the grapes together, then he spent much of the summer building the 2-ft garden fence. You may not see it in the pics, but there is chicken wire on the inside of the white lattice. The white lattice is for looks. The chicken wire is what we used all the years prior to keep the ground critters out.

The tall fence in the middle is a temporary fence that we always put up for the peas to climb. That does require some attention. I regularly help the peas by taking their vines that curl in seeking something to latch onto and gently wrapping them around the fence wire. I'll do that as they need it, and they will climb to the top of that four-foot fence.

This year, we cut back on the amount of corn, since no one is really eating it (and I can't anymore) but we still like having some to give away to family. We also needed the room since we have the perennials on one end and my husband has a LOT of peppers (three types of hot peppers and three different colors of bell peppers). I also have one tomato plant in this and the two rows of peas.

We also have our raspberry patch near the house, and if the birds don't get them, I'll be eating them by the handfuls soon! The branches are thick with raspberries almost ready to turn.

And we'll have our pumpkins again. Those are planted outside the garden about twenty feet away and getting bigger by the day. We learned early that if we planted pumpkins in the main garden, we only had a pumpkin patch, so we started planting those well away from the main garden. Pumpkin vines grow like weeds, once they really get going, sometimes a foot or more overnight! Cucumbers and squash can be the same way, but they are all in the same general family of fruits. Cukes are just a bit easier to control because they can climb without being too much of a burden when full of fruits. These pumpkins are HUGE and sweet, good for puree or jack-o-lanterns.

One other trick we learned is to keep the ground moist until things sprout a few inches, then cut back the frequency of watering to encourage roots to grow deeper.

Gardening is rewarding but a lot of work. We don't use pesticides on our garden, although we do use herbicide around the fence to control the weeds there. Rather, we do the work of weeding.

We'll see how it looks in another month.