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And here it is! Created by Brooke Albrecht, who also did the cover for Another Healing. Every time I look at them, I still see subtle details that I never noticed before. I very much appreciate the artist’s patience in working with me and coming up with such lovely covers that really capture the books.

Here’s the blurb:

Working on the book trailer for Natural Instincts, which is coming in January! Watch for the cover reveal, coming up soon!

I got my short story prompts yesterday, and I’m hard at work. Two stories about James and Ambient on the way! It feel so good to be back in their heads. Something is whispering, “Sequel, sequel…” We’ll see.

I agreed, along with some other authors, to write a free short story for Dreampinner Press with the characters from Another Healing, James and Ambient. Customers of Dreamspinner get to pick a promt word for me and enter into a drawing to be the one I write the story for.

There are details HERE

I’m looking foward to it! Somebody, pick me a challenging word. Please.

My winter lights. Yes, I managed to put them up yesterday. My camera did wierd things to them in the photos. It was quite dark outside. Interesting auto-exposure setting.

It rained hard last night, and just before I went to bed, half the lighits inside the house went off. I think water must have gotten into the outside outlet where these are plugged in. It tripped the circuit breaker downstairs. I freak out whenever weird electical things go on, but fortunately, my calm husband took care of the situation. All the lights work now. And I will be careful to unplug them if it rains hard again.

Clearly, I need to stick to writing. Much safer.

Or is it? Sometimes, it feels like the most dangerous thing I do.

A whole week off. Thank goodness. I need one so badly. I’m even glad it’s raining today. Nothing between me and a good day’s writing. Jai is up to 38,000 words and I intend to add a good many to that total very soon.

The only other thing on my list is to put out my Christmas lights on two trees near the house. I call them my “winter lights.” I love how they bring light to the early darkness. I always put out all blue ones. I love blue.

For all you city dwellers, here’s a glimpse of the brook beside my house this afternoon. Ice is just appearing. Clear and cold today. Both water and air. A good evening for writing!

Camp is still beautiful even in November! Went over today, making sure everything is set for winter. I think we’re in good shape. We’ll know in the spring if the water pipes burst.

I want to go over often after winter sets in to take photos of the ice and snow. I don’t think I’ve ever been there when it’s actually been snowing. Winter picnic, anyone?

I saw a hawk fly over, but I couldn’t get a close enough look to tell what kind. Otherwise, all was quiet. The water level is as low right now as I’ve ever seen it. Air temperature was just below freezing and I wasn’t remotely tempted to jump in. Sigh.

Okay, I’ve been able to focus on writing again during the last week, which is wonderful. A quick update: Natural Instincts, a novella, will be coming out in January! It is all edited and revised and off to production. I have signed up to do a Dreamspinner Blog release party and a Twitter Takeover to celebrate the event. There will be much more about that coming soon, including the cover release. And I am working on a book trailer.

I am also back at work on my next novel, Jai. I wrote the first half of it at camp this summer, and I’d plan to finish it this fall, but family events got in the way. This week I read through my draft and am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work, which is what I’m going to do tonight as soon as I finish this post. I’m looking forward to having Thanksgiving week off and getting a lot done then. Jai is a character who has had hold of me for a long time and it feels really good to get his story told.

And in the little notebook I carry around with me wherever I go, I’m working on Josh and the Baby Dragon. Guess what that’s about?

My father died a week ago today.

It’s hard to write those words. It’s hard to write anything right now.

Without one of the two people who created me alive any longer, I feel like a deep balance within me is lost.

He lived 94 wonderful years with three really awful weeks at the end. I go back over and over it to see if I could have made things different, but at each juncture, I don’t see how I could have chosen differently while he was unable to chose for himself any longer.

He was a famous environmentalist and artist and there were hundred of people at his Celebration of Life Ceremony yesterday and they all hugged me and I tried to speak and I cried and a member of the Navy gave me a flag and I don’t know how I can go back to school tomorrow as though nothing happened.

I am an only child and my mother is still living, but lost in the fog of Alzheimer’s and almost beyond reach.

As I sprinkled his ashes, the water turned to gray smoke and flowed away.

I’m not sure where I am flowing from here.

I was so thrilled to find out today that Another Healing is a finalist in the 2014 Rainbow Awards!
Congratulations to the other finalists and thank you Elisa for making this happen.

See it HERE

Things like this mean so much to me.