The #bookqw keyword is “Wait.” Today’s excerpt is from Writing the Entertaining Story, which will debut in September of 2019. I can’t wait to share this with all of you!

Sunday to Monday I spent a near-sleepless night. I was wrestling with a decision: well-meaning friends were insisting that I needed to get a publisher for Writing the Entertaining Story rather than publish it myself. Yet I felt more and more… constrained. It’s not like I don’t already run a publishing house. WTES could have been out by now, and all of my research said that only large presses or Indies will publish such a thing. I decided to dedicate Monday to making a decision. A few heartfelt and difficult discussions with industry pros later, I realized that I might as well get Writing the Entertaining Story out there as an independently published book. So I withdrew it from a few places that were looking at it, and started the process.

I have cover art and a cover designer already, and it’s been through beta readers. You cannot edit your own work so I needed an editor, and I contacted someone I trusted to do that. I scheduled an interior book designer. I contacted A&A’s publicist and will be getting out ARCs tomorrow.

The goal is to get it out by September 1, in time to check a print copy and then order copies for Albacon and Capclave. Onward!

Here is my offering for Book Quote Wednesday, a little late due to technical difficulties. The keyword is “Dry” as in my dry humor, and it’s a quote from Confessions of a Female Safety Engineer.

And here is where to get it! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077VP5M94

Today’s #bookqw keyword is “Perfect.”

Here are some photos from back when I was living what I wrote about in Confessions of a Female Safety Engineer:

Today’s keyword is “Dream.” This poem is from my chapbook, Plant a Garden Around Your Life.

New Tricks

Dogs are born
The most codependent creatures
On the face of this Earth.

If you beat them
They will come crawling to you
Their tail tucked between their legs,
But crawling to you.

Mistreat them long enough
And one day
They can snap on you
And get vicious.
For their self esteem
Is totally dependent
On a pat on the head
No matter how badly they’re treated.

They are either too nice or too nasty.
And that rare dog
That goes to obedience school
Must fight these tendencies
For it is its nature
To grovel or to growl.

People are not born codependent
But they can be trained into it
If you start at an early age.
The young are most teachable.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks
But you can teach an adult child
To obey their own dreams,
To listen to their own feelings,
And not those of another
Who might mistreat them.

A dog is codependent by nature.
Human beings, by nature,
Are independent
And can learn new tricks.

There’s more to read here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I4FNQTE/

I’m doing my #bookqw post a day late due to Facebook being broken yesterday. The Book Quote Wednesday keyword was “Find.” Here is a quote from Confessions of a Female Safety Engineer.

And here’s where to get the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077VP5M94/ Have a great Fourth of July, y’all!