Hey all, and happy November! Can you believe that we are only two months away from the end of the year already? Everything seems to speed by so fast after July, to me. We are fully into our fall weather here and I love it — wind, rains, some thunderstorms, and lovely cool gray days. I’m not being facetious, I absolutely love overcast days. They feel so calming to me.
As most of you know, I always decorate early for Yule, because I love the sparklies. We decorate for autumn on September 1st, and for Yule, the first week in November.
Part of that’s because I just love the holidays, and I surround myself with things that make me happy. Part of that’s because December holds so many rough memories (together, Sam and I have 7 death-aversaries in December), that I want as much beauty and sparkle as I can get.
And this year, well…we had a beautiful Samhain ritual. It was both solemn and sad and lovely, because one of my dear friends died this summer. Sam really liked her, too. I can tell you that the world lost a beautiful soul in July. She was a true warrior, one of the most resilient women I’ve ever known. She was only 42 when she died, but she lived a lifetime in those 42 years. I miss her dearly. Anyway, our Samhain ritual was solemn and emotional. And I’m definitely ready for the “happier” part of the autumn. We love our holy days, but Samhain is always an emotional ride, celebrating those we’ve had to bid goodbye to along the way.
This week, we got almost all the decorations up this week, and I always feel emotionally cushioned when I see the sparkling lights in the decorated trees. I’ll post pictures soon of our decorations! This winter’s supposed to be chillier than usual here, and potentially we’ll see snow this year.
Along with the emotional roller coaster, the past few months have been SO busy. I believe I told you last time that I’m putting all of the Otherworld books that I had the rights back to back into circulation because scammers were ripping me off.
I did get the scam books taken down, and now we have uploaded all the Otherworld books that weren’t available anymore, plus Flight from Death and Flight from Hell. I will slowly get the paperbacks ready over the next month or two, but right now, they’re all available in e-format again.
This includes Etched in Silver, The Shadow of Mist, and Ice Shards. I will be putting out paperbacks of those as well (including Flight From Hell), even though they’re novellas rather than full novels. They’re big enough for me to do so.
So, yes, I’ve been working in a mad rush to get those ready and backup.
Not only have I been working on that project, but we also have changed hosting sites for my website. That’s been an adventure, though our new host has made it much easier than the last time we did this.
I haven’t been updating my blog much because the former site host had somehow screwed up things so that it was taking three to four days before an update (such as adding a link or a blog post) would show. That was incredibly frustrating and the site host was a money pit, charging for everything and doing nothing to help.
Now, we’ve always coded my site, and I do my own graphics, but the site host has to be quick, accurate, and employ people who understand how to do the work. (Cue eyeroll here).
Our new site host doesn’t outsource their tech support staff, they’re quick to answer, and they are a lot more inexpensive. So that’s good, but it’s taken a lot of work to get the site ready for transfer. Thank gods, the new host ported it over for free. It’s so nice to have it working quickly again. But we’ve got a lot of updates to add in now including all the links to my Otherworld books. So we’re getting that taken care of.
I’m returning to Shopify for my direct sales because Fourthwall just wasn’t working well for me. Shopify can be a pain in the ass, but not as much as Fourthwall. And I wasn’t able to offer preorders through Fourthwall without them getting on my back.
Which means, we’re slowly re-adding the links to my direct sales to the book pages on my website again. Do be aware that you will be required to register for Shopify so that we can better keep track of who has purchased what. One thing that’s become a problem is that some readers have been buying a lot of books from other authors on their direct sales site, downloading them, then demanding refunds. By requiring registration, we can block/ban people who do that.
Amidst all the chaos, I’m trying to keep up with my LitRPG — The Glass Unicorn — and finish writing the book that I desperately need to finish writing right now.
So yes, I have been busy, swamped even. I’m hoping by the end of the year that things will calm back down to normal…at least, my normal level of busy.
So that’s what has been going on. You’ll probably see more blog posts from me again, and the site will be updating more accurately now. As always, I have books up for preorder, and if you want to support me on Patreon I’m active over there, and I hope you have a cozy reading season!
Bright blessings, until my next newsletter!