First I must apologize for the extended period of silence. As a reader I get frustrated when my favorite authors just disappear, not that I am presuming to be anyone’s favorite author! I don’t know exactly what started my not-so-slow, but incredibly steady distancing from social media. I think I just got burnt out. It’s the only thing I can really think to excuse myself. At any rate, I plan on rejoining humanity on social media, but it will be gradual, and I will probably not be posting like I was before, since it lead to an all or nothing type reaction on my side. I would rather be consistent and present, so I will start slow and see what balance works for me.

Though I haven’t been posting as many updates, or posting really anything on social media, I have actually been working pretty hard. So here are the things that have happened in my social media absence; some good, some not so great.

Transgression:

For those of you still waiting for hardcovers, I am so sorry for the wait. I am working on fixing a lot of the errors in the paperback for interior formatting, and my cover designer is working on creating the dust jackets. I hope to have these out to you really soon!

I have decided to switch printers and have pulled the paperbacks out of print. This decision was made because I decided that print on demand would suit my needs better than printing in bulk and then paying monthly for warehousing and distribution while waiting months for bookstores to pay their bills.  I will be switching to Ingram to cut out the middle man, since ingram is usually the wholesaler most bookstores stock from. Print on demand will give me less to stress and worry about. So, I am convinced this will help me to focus on writing, and stop stressing logistics.

That being said, in the meantime, I have stock, and Transgression is still available through my website.

I am also still in talks about recording Transgression as an audio book. So stay tuned for updates on that front.

Penance

Penance is really coming along. You may have read elsewhere that when I finished Transgression I had already written an entire rough draft of Penance and started the third book when I decided to go back and publish Transgression. That was true. However, I had done so much rewriting in Transgression that the rough draft for Penance was essentially unusable. I have salvaged a few scenes here or there, but in the end it ended up being easier to just start from scratch and add in scenes that happened to still work as I wrote. As soon as I am done with this post, I will be spending the rest of the day writing. Some days I have actually beaten personal word count records, and written over 8,000 words by lunch time. Other days I have sat, staring at my screen, the mounting frustration threatening my inner peace down to the deepest depths of my soul (which, I assure you, is an exaggeration).

I am nearly done with the rough draft and am really looking forward to the rewrites and editing phase. In short, I am really hoping to release the book this fall. It’s coming up fast, so I really do need to get back to work, now that I have officially announced it. But before I go, for those of you wondering:

Health

I am an open book, and have tried to be as transparent as possible regarding my health struggles, as they have affected the time I have been able to work on my books, and in short are the main reason it has taken me so long to write Penance. So as of the last update, I believe we left off with I was diagnosed with Celiac disease, and my Hematologist seemed hopeful that a gluten free diet would eventually give my body a chance to heal, and begin absorbing nutrients again. However after two years of eating gluten free, I was still needing three rounds of iron infusions every six months. During one treatment I actually went into anaphylactic shock and was admitted to the ER.

Recently I was finally referred to a Gastroenterologist up in Virginia, who also referred me to a Cardiologist, and a Nutritionist. So needless to say, there has been a lot of travel, a lot of procedures, and a lot of followup appointments, which has been very time consuming, extremely expensive, and maybe a little stressful.

At this moment, I still don’t know why my body isn’t absorbing nutrients the way it should, and the Gastroenterologist says that he doesn’t think my Celiac disease is the problem, it’s just a problem. I have a zoom appointment to discuss the findings of my last procedure on the 28th, where hopefully he will have gained some more insight. In the meantime, the cardiologist says I am dehydrated and that is the cause of some of my dizzy spells and lightheadedness and to eat more salt and drink more gatorade. While at the same time, my nutritionist says to eat less salt, and eat more vitamin C with my iron and to stay away from calcium in those meals, and to eat more fruits and veggies but not bananas or apples…. My brain is overwhelmed with contradicting advice, and a never ending list of to dos.

All of that being said, I am extremely grateful to have some answers, to have a curious doctor who is interested in moving forward, looking deeper, and finding answers.

For now, all I can do is keep taking one step, one day at a time, and enjoy the journey. That includes trying to push through the stress and anxiety to focus on my passion projects and continue writing my books.

Hope to see you guys soon! I will probably start my reentry to society with IG and Twitter. Facebook stresses me out right now lol. I will add snapchat back eventually, but not yet. And sorry, not sorry, I will never get on tik tok. haha. But they say to never say never… so I might eat that later. 😉