In Defense of My City

 Last night I was sitting in the warm darkness of The Birchmere, a lovely music venue in Alexandria, at a tiny side table with a better view of the sound board than the stage. I always sit there, not wanting to take up a larger table that a group might need, forgetting every time that the light on the sound board will end up directly in my eyes (I don't even know if it's a sound board- it sounds like the right term though). Up on the stage was an earnest young barista/songwriter who spoke of songwriting in Paris. Just the day before I had been made to watch Midnight in Paris, a ninety-minute love letter to the inspiration that apparently bubbles up from the ground there. The place does have an impressive list of successes, and for one moment I wondered if it would work for me as well, even though I have never once had an urge to go to France and try out my two years of junior high French. The feeling only lasted for a moment though, because as I thought of iconic scenery in Paris, I thought of similar locations in Washington. I've been down narrow cobbled streets in Old Towne Alexandria (not recommended if you like your heels), I've seen boats cruise down the Potomac River, I've sat in the peace and quiet of Arlington Cemetery and walked across the bridge under giant military statues, I've seen artists paint on Roosevelt Island, driven past the dark and Gothic structure of Georgetown University, looked up at the National Cathedral and seen only stone and sky. There's Rodin sculptures in the gardens and DaVinci and VanGogh in the museums. There are bursts of flowers and shade under trees. Plus there's baseball in Nats Park. Nothing can beat that. People like to characterize DC as slimy pool of politicians with no culture. I don't have enough money to even know about those circles and I don't really care. What I remember is walking through a three block market of Tibetan culture the last time I went down to see a performance at the Shakespeare Theatre, reading my father's name on the Vietnam Memorial, knowing it belonged to someone else, admiring the First Ladies dresses on display, and hearing  three languages spoken in any two block distance. I think inspiration comes from leaving what's familiar and reorienting your head. Luckily for me, I don't have to go all the way to Paris.  

More Motivation than Procrastination

I hope those of you who have read Bound by Blood have enjoyed it. I've heard from a few people on the things I did and the things I didn't do in it. I've answered back as best I could. We're only halfway through, and I hope the whole story makes sense as we go. I'd sure love to hear more voices, so please leave a review on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or send me an email..

To celebrate being halfway done, I ordered charms made from my book covers over on Etsy from Sophie's Beads. I love them so much. Miniatures are my weakness. Here's a picture of the bracelet I made to commemorate the entire series.

I had an extra set of cover charms made to use as a giveaway once the final book is ready to be published. If you look close you'll be able to see the covers of the last two books and possibly some clues on what is coming next.

One year later

Exactly one year after Raised by Wolves was published, Bound by Blood is now in processing at Amazon's site. The Kindle version should be up later today or tomorrow, the paperback in a week or so and the Nook version in a few months. It is a huge sigh of relief to finally have it out and done. If you've been waiting patiently, thank you so much. This time last year it was almost done and I was sure everything could be prettied and polished in no time, but then came life and issues and a change of heart about the plot, but here we are now.

I hope you like it and the next book, Caught in a Trap, is already in progress.

First Chapter- Bound by Blood

 Here I was thinking that I was keeping fairly up to date on this, but then I see my last post was in the beginning of November. Time flies. This time I mean it when I say Bound by Blood will be out this month, and to hold me to my word I am starting out by posting the first chapter here for all of you.

Chapter One

Hope you enjoy it.

Impatience

   That's how I feel about the delay of Bound by Blood. Back in the winter when I released Raised by Wolves I thought it would be no problem to have the sequel out by summer- it was almost finished, all that needed to be done was to polish it up and send it out to the proofreaders. That was before the ending fought me. It was nice but it wasn't working. Another idea kept poking at ribs, asking to be given a shot and at the end of summer I gave in and tried it out instead and it fit so much better and led into the final book more like I had envisioned, so it had to be written in and polished and now we are finally at the sending off to readers stage so I'm hoping within the month that the new and improved Bound by Blood will out for sale. 

   In the next few days, I'm going to be set on a more regular schedule for blog updates and the first one will be Chapter One posted for all of you to read. I hope it will be worth the wait. 

   Thank you.

Bound by Blood- release date

Due to family events, I have had to delay the publication of the sequel to Raised by Wolves. The new expected release date is September 26. I apologize for the delay but sometimes things happen. I think it will be an exciting continuation of the story and I hope you all will enjoy it.

Well, That's Embarrassing

And now I'm worried I misspelled "embarrassing" in the title!

I have two new reviews up- one each on Amazon and Amazon UK. Thank you! But as I read them I saw both mentioned typos and now I'm racking my brain wondering where they could be. I have read over that story so many times in the last few years and had plenty of test readers and for there still to be errors- I hate that. I tried to put the best effort out there, so if anyone can point them out, I'd be glad to fix them.

I'll also address the other concern a reviewer had. It was mentioned that Chandra was okay with children outside of marriage, and I can't think of where that could be. I don't want to write spoilers, so if it's about the scene at the lake (clear enough?), those two were married. If it's about Chandra herself, well, she's trying to figure out who she is and has to consider all possibilities. Does that help?

I do not turn down feedback. I might read it clutching a plush buffalo in fearful anticipation because no one wants to read bad news, but I love to hear reaction and appreciate it all.

Thanks again!