Halloween
Oct 19, 2025 5:01 pm
Are coming!
It is no secret that I love Halloween. I love the cooler weather, the flavors that pop up, the idea of being someone else for a night, and having a reason to celebrate. My co-author Doug Burbey does Halloween in a BIG way, so I'm headed up to Maryland to party with him and his family and friends. I'm excited, if stressed at how far behind I am, because trust me, while I might get some editing done, the writing will be few and far between. But I'm super excited.
My yard is slowly surrendering to my ongoing efforts and my goal is by the end of the year have the major sore spots dealt with. Then I'll work on fixing the rest, but have discovered a few things that might make life less stressful or more, you can never tell. The joy of weeds is they are relentless. I swear screw pushing a boulder up a hill, try keeping your yard weed free.
I'm looking for some new beta readers for my Cori at Large novels, so if you are interested click here <-- Some of you may have signed up before, but this is for this round of beta, so let me know.
I will talk more about Vegas next week, but don't forget to check out Reader Nation. It is completely free, there are a TON of authors there, and they will be selling books. Plus a bunch of them are friends, so you know they have to be awesome!
Book Recommendations!
If you love a good fantasy, and even more the heroes getting stronger, then you should be checking out Shami Stovall and her Words of Power series. Book 2 - Empire of the Twin Suns - will be available Tuesday. And look at this cover!!!
If you're looking for an enemies to lovers, where weight equals power (sign me up!) check out Perpetual. A different look at dystopia and a touch of Romeo and Juliet. You never know what will ignite the spark.
Weekly Micro Story
An Open Book
I sat on the dock, the book heavy in my hand. It had been presented to me three hours ago. I came down here two hours ago. Yet I still hadn't opened it. I knew when I did nothing would ever be the same.
Not just magic, though I suspected there would be some of that. But truths that I had never wanted to face head-on. Truths about me. My parents. My life. My friends. And I suspected the Lisande who walked away from here, would not be the same one sitting here now.
How can I live without knowing?
That thought rang in my mind. I knew, knew that as soon as I started reading, everything I had known, had believed would be gone. All the lies I told myself would no longer obscure the truth. The girl I'd been at 14, angry at the world, ready to burn it down would have already read this book. Probably two hours and fifty-nine minutes ago. That girl didn't understand the price until she'd seen the blood on her hands.
Four years of accepting their edicts, the training, the lessons. Four years of refusing to confront, seeing the discrepancies, of telling myself I was being silly and imagining it. It would all be gone. Instead I would finally have the truth.
Oh sure there was a tiny chance, I estimated it at 3.4% that I would not lose everything, but the longer I sat there and no one came, the lower that percentage got. They all knew and were waiting for the storm.
Would there be one?
I didn't know that either. Instead I looked down and opened the book. The thick leather cover was supple and in the light of the slowly setting sun reminded me of blood that would probably be spilled. As it opened I felt something break in me. A barrier, a guard, a block that had prevented me from being me.
The percentage dropped to 0.1%
On the first page was a letter written in elegant script that I remembered from the strange holiday cards I got each year, that no one saw but me. They always said the same thing - "Merry Yule, Lisande. Three years." The number of course changed, always a countdown to today, my 18th birthday.
My eyes dropped to read the letter.
"Everything you know and believe is a lie. You have never been what you thought. Now you shall become what you were created to be. Our Harbinger of Justice."
~*~
I'm still not happy with this one, but close.
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