It's almost Halloween....everyone needs a bit of fright on Halloween night! Shades of Blood and Shadow is just waiting to fill that void! Paperback's on Amazon. Hardback from the publisher.

And, while I'm talking with you...in our adoption news, the next stage of the game we were waiting on, is now past. We received our I-600 application approval this week and are also logged into the National Visa Center! I'm hoping for more good news this week! Now we're waiting on the Korean Emigration Permit and to be logged out of the National Visa Center.

Send those prayers and good thoughts and vibes...we're still hoping to bring Kiddo#3 home in December [earlier would be fabulous!]

In the meantime I got a gig writing non-fiction copy which is doing great things for our Legal savings account for all the things we have to write checks for once we get our little man here! Busy as can be, but very grateful for the opportunity to earn some extra money.

Okay...so we're going to get some coffee and find a birthday gift for Chris's dad...it's a chilly Fall day outside!

PS. Christopher Fulbright announced his latest acceptance on his journal : Bad Moon Books will publish Chris' novella, The Bone Tree, in 2010. Yay!

I'm using the Wilmington Tidings & Tales Fairy tale fabric for the focal point. Here's the fabric quilt panel and coordinating fabric:



We have to build a wall and closet yet, but here are the 2 walls I've finished. Beanstalks surround the window. The Rapunzel I modified to make her an Asian Rapunzel gazing into a moonlit night.



And a poorly lit shot at the 2 walls:



The sewing frenzy will commence as soon as the wall is built and all walls are painted. To be sewn are: window valance, diaper stacker, 2 quilts, sheets, wall hanging, dust ruffle, doll crib bedding, [possibly bumper pads], chair pads, closet door curtain, other quilts that don't match the fabric...

In good news, we found out that we've actually BEEN on the referral call list since April. Apparently, when we went to committee and weren't matched with the baby we requested, we were automatically added to the call list. We're still waiting for our paperwork to come in the mail and we'll file our 1600-A form with immigration as soon as we get it.

In the meantime, I'm staying busy with the nursery and the kiddos. My writing hiatus lasts until August...then it'll be back to the novels. Here's the scoop on upcoming book releases:



August 2009: Shades of Blood and Shadow [hor collection] from Dark Regions Press



TBA 2009: Terrible Beauty, Fearful Symmetry [ hor anthology, my story: "Skin Deep"] from Dark Hart Press
Winter Pre-order 2009/10: Inferno: Tales of Hell and Horror [themed 60k word collection] from Dark Regions Press
TBA 2010 Reprinting of The Commandments from Dark Regions Press
June 2010: As of yet Unnamed Robert E Howard/Project Pride Benefit anthology [Howardian genres -- my story -- "Two Dragons Blazing: A Tale of the Barbarian Kabar of El Hazzar"]
2011: [100+k word heroic/barbarian fantasy collection] Out of the Garden and Other Tales of the Barbarian Kabar of El Hazzar from Bad Moon Books

That's my scoop for now!

Updates of a sort...I'm on a writing hiatus...that's not to say the inner workings of the publishing industry aren't still turning in my brief absence, lol...turned in the manuscript for Inferno, so edits will be back on that sometime this summer. Decision is still out on whether or not there will be new stories in the reprinting of The Commandments. I will, of course, write whatever Dark Regions wants. I'm easy like that. You ask, I write. It's an easy job description, lol. Shades of Blood and Shadow is posted on the Dark Regions site, but not order-able yet from the looks of the page.



I imagine that will be posted sooner than later. I have a Fourth of July book signing at Eerie Books and Collectibles in Wylie, Texas set for noon to close [ 6 pm]. Randy [the owner] has stocked copies of Symphony for the Forgotten, and anthologies - Beneath the Surface and Frontier Cthulhu. Should be a busy signing as all sorts of activities will be going on down on the Wylie square. Come in and see me!

So, new projects. As soon as the scrapbooks are finished [photo albums] and the nursery is painted, and sewn for, I'll be back to the grindstone. I really needed a hiatus. I've been writing non-stop since August of 2008. Almost every night. My brain needs a break. When the nursery is finished, I'll rest easier. I'm an avid nester. The nursery MUST be completed. For Kiddo #1 his nursery was finished 4 yrs before he was born...the cat was confused, she thought it was her room. lol.

So....Bad Moon Books has my entire Kabar series coming out in an awesome collection: Out of the Garden and Other Tales of the Barbarian Kabar of El Hazzar in 2011... Inferno: Tales of Hell and Horror will more than likely come out in 2010...so I'm covered. I have handful of anthology stories coming out as well in the meantime, and as soon as the hiatus is over, I'm sure I'll have a plethora of other story announcements. It's all silently churning....

In sewing: except for a few Bambino/Bleuette ensembles that I'm sewing while I wait in the soccer mom line at the school, the only other thing I've worked on is the first baby quilt for the nursery. Photos when finished of course.

Photo albums: .I'm up to mid-May in the photo albums now...I predict another week until finished. Then it's on to the nursery painting/mural...then the sewing...

AND I already have 3 tomatoes in the garden and 1 almost ripe jalopeno! Go garden go! The pear trees are doing fabulous as well! We had a minor front tree incident involving Teh Hotness and weed killer, but I think it will hang in there. He's been very diligent about rescuing it. He's rather the green thumb...this was a freak accident!

Adoption news:  We're waiting on copies of our home study from our social worker so we can send in our immigration form and start processing the petition to adopt a foreign orphan. Lots of waiting. I get sad from time to time. I check the baby webpage every morning when I log onto the net...always hoping to find "our baby girl"...we're on the direct call list now...so really, any time we could get a call. This is a lot more difficult than waiting while pregnant. At least then you have a focal point...this is nerve-racking. The not knowing. Once we get a referral it will be easier. We'll have something to focus on and then will just have to wait to bring her home. For now, we just have to wait and hope and pray. We know there's a baby girl out there waiting or perhaps waiting to be born...but she's ours and we pray every night for her birth parents and for her.

That's the scoop for now...school's out tomorrow!! School's out for the summer...air guitar! Woot! Mom Taxi is on vacation!!!

I received notification that my novel-length barbarian collection will be published by Bad Moon Books in 2011!

Out of the Garden and other Tales of the Barbarian Kabar of El Hazzar features apprx 94,000 yummy words of All Barbarian Goodness!

The collection will feature 2 all new, unpublished novellas, plus 3 all new, unpublished stories, and 6 reprints that you may or may not have read in various anthologies and magazines. I *THINK* but not confirmed on this yet, that the cover will be an AWESOME work of art by Stacey Drum, of Cemetery Dance covers, etc etc. Years ago Stacey designed cover art for a novel that I pulled from a flailing publisher and the art is so striking that I wrote the novella, Out of the Garden, to go with it. I submitted the artwork along with Stacey's info to the publisher, I'll keep you posted when I find out if this spectacular cover will indeed be the cover art for the new collection.

This ain't chick lit, and it's not for the faint of heart....be prepared to slay creatures most foul, fight with mythical beasts of all imagined kinds, travel the ancient world, carry a big sword and rescue hot chicks! You'll meet all of the usual cast of characters in Kabar's world along with new ones! Sword & Sorcery in the traditional vein....Get ready....Kabar's coming! Blood, gore and mayhem. Can you handle it?

A reader hungry to mainline pure sword-and-sorcery adventure should flip to Angeline Hawkes’s “Lair of the Cherufe.” Barbarian hero Kabar goes forth to rescue a kidnapped princess — from sacrifice to a lava monster, no less — and generous portions of creative action ensue. It’s quite tasty; if you want the heroic goods delivered, this is the place to start. -- Ryan Harvey, reviewing anthology, The Return of the Sword, Black Gate Magazine