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Month: November 2013

Trying to Get It Right

  Househunting is a pain in the backside. Every time I move, I want it to be the last time (until I hit the NYT Bestseller List and/or win the lottery, so I can move without worrying, anyway.) So finding a forever home that I can afford? Not so easy to do. When I moved into the house before my current one with my then-roommate, I loved the house. It had a fenced yard for the kid and the dog! It had a dishwasher! It was all tile, so it would be easy to clean. Managed by a professional company instead of a very nice but not particularly stable man who took in every homeless cat ever but was completely ineffectual about fixing anything.

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My Beloved

Last year around Thanksgiving, I wrote about how grateful I was for my family.  It is hard putting into words how amazing they are, but I tried. Today I will try again.  I’d like to talk about my husband, who, when I talk about him online, I call “my beloved.”   It started out as a way to keep my personal details private, but it has now grown into an actual name I call him. 

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The Origins of Shards

The other day, someone asked me about how I came up with the title for Shards (urban fantasy, coming out on Dec 1) and it took me back to the early days of working on the novel, which, to be honest, I haven’t thought about in a long time. Shards started as a dream. Occasionally I have really vivid dreams, and when I realize I’m dreaming, I start to structure the dream into a story. Shards was one of those, though more complete–and more coherent–than most when I woke up. In those days, I kept a notebook by the side of my bed, and I scribbled down everything I could remember–about the characters, the plot, the world. And then I lost the notebook.

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Sneak Peek for Shards

To celebrate our upcoming release of Shards, coming out of December 1st, we thought we’d give you a peek at the story! This section is from the middle of chapter 3. The story itself is urban fantasy. If you want more, the very beginning of the book is included in the Best of Turtleduck Press, Volume I collection. A bit of background: Eva has literally run into Michael at college and has felt some sort of odd connection with him. Gabe and Rafe are her bosses, who run an eccentric bookstore just off campus. ~ It had started drizzling and Eva pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up. Hopefully the rain wouldn’t get any heavier before she made it to work. “Which way are you heading?” Michael asked, digging an umbrella out of his bag. His was blue with butterflies on it. Eva stared. “It’s my roommate’s,” he explained with a shrug of his shoulders. “Man loves an oddly colored umbrella, and I couldn’t find mine this morning so I just grabbed one of his.” He put it in his pocket. “No sense using it quite yet, but it helps to have it handy, just in case.” Eva pointed in the general direction of the bookstore. “I’m going that way too.” Michael offered Eva his arm and she took it, curling her fingers around his warmth. It was oddly comforting.

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