Holy hell. It’s the end of January.

Since my last blog post, I finished writing the last Monster Haven book, went through a developmental edit, a line edit, a copy edit, and a proofread.

I wrote several new short stories, edited all eighteen shorts and four poems with editor Sara, and finally got Transmonstrified published. (My husband did the formatting. I can’t take credit for that.) In a few weeks, the print version will be out, too.

I put together blog posts, favorite lines, and fun facts for my publisher to use during the release week for Phoenix in My Fortune. And I attended a book signing in Topeka.

I also survived Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, and at least one new emergency stay at the hospital for my dad.

For those of you who have asked, Dad’s pretty much the same. Some good days. Some not so good days. Not a lot of changes, really. I was right about this being the new normal.

So. With the holidays over, the last Monster Haven book out the door and awaiting its release date, and the long-promised short story collection published, my stress level has dropped considerably. My plate is not so full that I don’t have time to breathe.

My number-one priority now is tackling Unfinished Muse, the first in the Mt. Olympus Employment Agency series. I should be finished with the first draft mid-March, and I hope to have it available for you by May. The second book, Unamused Muse, won’t be far behind. And if things go as planned, right on its heels will be the third and final Muse story, Uninspired Muse.

I have no more blog posts to write for other people at the moment, so I’ll be back here, taking care of my own blog again. Consider this post to be a reboot. After this, I’ll try to post every Monday. And I’ll try not to make it all updates and news. With things settling down, I’m hoping to have some new road trips to report on soon. I’m also hoping to use our ridiculously huge LEGO collection to give you sneak peeks of scenes I’m writing. It’ll be epic. And probably stupid.

But the bottom line is, I’ve missed talking to you folks. I had to hole myself up and get a ton of stuff done. It left me no brainpower (or time) for being goofy on my own blog. And socializing was minimal, on and off the Internet. That time is over now.

I’ll be back on Monday, just in time for Groundhog Day. If I see my shadow, it’ll be six more weeks until I get this book written. If I don’t, it’ll be a month and a half.

See you real soon!