Archive for September 2015
I woke to the sound of keys jingling, the familiar click of the front door unlocking, and the soft creak of it opening. Throwing back the covers, I sprang out of bed, running out of my room and down the hall in my T-shirt and pajama pants, right into the waiting arms of my father. When I was a kid and he first got this job, I would cry when he left, knowing I wouldn’t see him for weeks. I didn’t cry anymore, but I still missed him, and every time he came home, it was like I was ten again. I hugged him tight, my breath escaping me in a sudden and unexpected sob that caught in my throat.
“Easy there, Cody Bear,” Dad said, using the nickname I’d had since I was a kid, taken from my favorite bedtime story. I couldn’t remember the last time he’d called me that and I just lost it, crying into his shoulder as he held and rocked me gently from side to side. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” Dad said. “Mom told me it had been rough, but you were okay. I wanted to come home; I tried, but they needed a driver and were paying three times the normal rate. Mom said you were okay…”
“I- I am o- okay,” I stuttered, trying to catch my breath and stop the tears that coursed down my face. I felt like an hysterical child, a big baby, but it just felt so good to have him there. I hadn’t realized how much I needed him. “It’s okay, Dad. I’m just happy that you’re here now.”
— Alpha Spirit, Chapter Twenty-Four – Ice Cream at 3 a.m.
I’ll see you next Friday, 10/2/15 for Chapter Twenty-Five – A Huntsman Spy
Alpha Spirit: Chapter Twenty-Four – Ice Cream at 3 a.m.
Now available from Amazon, Suburban Fantasy #1: The Vampire Next Door
And: Suburban Fantasy #2: A Visit From the Truth Faerie
Each only $0.99!
Author’s Note: Whew, busy weekend! Had a great first two weeks of the new school year, lots of assessment testing and getting ready for groups. Looking forward to getting into a routine.
See you in two weeks, on October 5th!
Moonlight – Ch. 70
It didn’t take me long to realize why I had never faked being sick before. It’s boring as hell. I let her shoo me off to bed as soon as we got home, and I managed to sleep for a while. She woke me for dinner, force-fed me a handful of vitamins, and sent me back to rest. Of course, after napping during the afternoon, I wasn’t at all tired. I lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for my mother to go to bed so I could get up and work on my homework. After a while, I decided to try talking to the voice.
“Are you there?” I whispered.
I am always here. I can never leave you.
“I don’t suppose you could tone down the wolf stuff so I don’t have to miss school tomorrow?”
Sorry, I have no control over that, the voice said.
I sighed. “Thanks anyway.”
— Alpha Spirit, Chapter Twenty-Three – Confessions in the Dark
I’ll see you next Friday, 9/25/15 for Chapter Twenty-Four – Ice Cream at 3 a.m.
Alpha Spirit: Chapter Twenty-Three – Confessions in the Dark
Now available from Amazon, Suburban Fantasy #1: The Vampire Next Door
And: Suburban Fantasy #2: A Visit From the Truth Faerie
I spent the weekend wondering what Marcus would say on Monday and was kind of hoping he would avoid me, just so I didn’t have to find out. He didn’t avoid me, and when we ran into each other at our lockers, he said hello, but that was it. He was polite, but not friendly. That was what I had wanted, I thought, but I found myself disappointed, missing his bright smile and cheerful chatter. I told myself it was for the best and tried to let my life return to normal. Well, as normal as possible with an opinionated, disembodied voice in my head.
He didn’t like my teachers, he thought the assignments were pointless, he said the pizza I chose for lunch would make us fat and slow. He wanted meat, he wanted to run, he wanted to take a nap, he wanted me to pee on a tree to mark our territory. It was getting harder to ignore him, too. I was becoming distracted by stupid little things, like unusual smells and squirrels, and all of a sudden, my neighbor’s dog was terrified of me. He used to come over to the fence when I took the garbage to the can, his tail wagging, but this last time, he stopped dead halfway to the fence, tucked his tail between his legs, and ran off, whining and crying. It was a bucket of cold water being dumped on my head. I was becoming something different.
— Alpha Spirit, Chapter Twenty-Two – The Werewolf Flu
I’ll see you next Friday, 8/28/15 for Chapter Twenty-Three – Confessions in the Dark
Alpha Spirit: Chapter Twenty-Two – The Werewolf Flu
Now available from Amazon, Suburban Fantasy #1: The Vampire Next Door
And: Suburban Fantasy #2: A Visit From the Truth Faerie
Author’s Note: I’m headed back to school tomorrow; wish me luck!
Got a little bit longer chapter this week. Yay!
See you in two weeks, on September 21st!
Moonlight – Ch. 69
Well, summer is over and the new school year is right around the corner. I didn’t get nearly as much accomplished during the break as I wanted to, but I feel well rested and ready to get back to work. I still don’t know what my schedule for this year will be, but as we are introducing full-day kindergarten, I imagine I’ll be spending a lot of time with the kinders. I hope I have them in the morning, before they get tired and grumpy, lol.
Last week, all school employees had to undergo ALICE training, which teaches us what we can do to protect our kids and survive an active shooter in the school. How horrible is that? I’m a teacher, not a police officer, not a marine. We shouldn’t have to make life or death decisions in the event that some deranged person comes trying to kill our children! I’m glad we had the training, though, because the world can be a terrible place, and it’s better to know what to do, even if it never happens.
On the writing front, I got almost nothing done over the summer. I was (almost) able to keep up posting chapters of Moonlight, although the chapters kept getting shorter. Why, you may ask? I blame my new laptop, lol. I thought I’d be so productive, able to write anywhere, but it turns out, I’m too much a creature of habit. I can’t get used to the laptop keyboard. It just feels different from my desktop keyboard. And trying to write anywhere except my bedroom is too distracting, and sitting on my bed with the laptop in my lap is too uncomfortable. And the biggest distraction is that the laptop runs games better than my desktop, so I’ve wasted most of the summer playing Flight Rising, Farmville and Minecraft. Sigh.
So now I’m back to writing on the old, faithful desktop, and in the past three days, I’ve written more than I was writing each month during the summer. I have the next chapter of Moonlight all ready to post on Monday, and it’s more than twice as long as the last few chapters have been. I even got some work done on the next book in the Magebound series, which I plan to release early next year. And I got the next book in the Suburban Fantasy series published.
I decided not to enroll A Visit From the Truth Faerie in the Kindle Select program, and have removed the four stories that I did have in it. It used to be, every story read through the Kindle Unlimited program gave the author the same royalty, about $1.30, no matter how long or short the story was. Since I had my short stories and novellas priced at $0.99, and was receiving $0.35 for each purchase, this sounded like a great deal.
Then Amazon changed their policy and payouts. Now, they pay according to pages read, so longer books earn more and shorter books earn less. It’s a great policy and far more fair than the previous one, but it defeated my entire purpose of adding my short stories. I may consider putting one of my epic novels into Select, but for now, I’m out and I have re-priced my shorts back to $0.99. They were never supposed to earn me a living, just get people interested in my other books. This also means that I no longer have to be exclusive to Amazon and will be placing them back into Smashwords sometime soon.
Anyway, that’s about all that I wanted to say. I’m happy, healthy, and eager to get back to work. Stay tuned for more upcoming releases and thanks for being the greatest fans in the universe. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful readers!
“I can’t turn into a wolf in school!” I said. Could this get any worse?
“Well, duh,” Marcus said, sitting back down and running a hand back through his dark hair. “You’re going to have to cut class. We both are.”
“I can’t skip– Why both of us?”
“I’m not going to let you shift all by yourself,” Marcus said. “It can very frightening and disorienting. I don’t want you getting hurt or hurting someone else.”
“I don’t want to skip class. I’ve got a quiz in science and an essay due in English–”
“Just tell them that a werewolf ate your homework.”
“You’re not funny,” I said.
“Not even a little bit?”
— Alpha Spirit, Chapter Twenty-One – Fear of Falling
I’ll see you next Friday, 8/28/15 for Chapter Twenty-One – Fear of Falling
Alpha Spirit: Chapter Twenty-One – Fear of Falling
Suburban Fantasy #1: The Vampire Next Door is now available from Amazon: The Vampire Next Door
Available Soon: Suburban Fantasy #2: A Visit From the Truth Faerie
Not Your Average Faerie Tales 