I've been busy writing three novels simultaneously. Cherry was finished first. I'm awaiting the proof copy which should be here shortly.

Cherry is about a young woman in her early twenties who works for her father's real estate business. She's the younger of two daughters in what appears to be a normal family, however, when Charlotte is found sitting on the front porch of her family's home, having recently sustained some injuries in a trip and fall accident after showing a house, violence explodes when she's brought home from the ER by her older sister's boyfriend who found her and took her for treatment. She rapidly finds herself thrown out of the only home she's ever known. Homeless, she's taken in by her sister's now ex-boyfriend. While Charlotte struggles to find her way in a world thrown into chaos, Archer slowly introduces her to his family. He's had a less than ideal upbringing himself, but has been fortunate enough to be taken in by his uncle and aunt and made a part of their family. Violence strikes Charlotte again during a house showing and it's Archer who is there for her during her recovery from her injuries. Gradually she begins to realize that he's more than a friend to her.

I was a CreateSpace user for several years, before Amazon did away with that publishing platform in favor of KDP Publishing. Navigating through KDP to create my last three books has been a learning experience. I was becoming frustrated with trying to get the back cover done last night when I remembered that Kelly and I had recently gone to a young author's home to help him when his mother, who was putting his book together, ran into the same problem. That reminded me that we'd had to change web browsers because KDP is compatible with Google Chrome and Firefox, not plain Google. Once I remembered that the rest of the book cover set up was a piece of cake. Within a few hours I was able to order the proof copy. The shock of discovering my $5.97 single author copy had an $11 and some odd cents shipping and handling charge attached didn't please me. Basically, the S&H cost about twice what the book cost me, but they are delivering it in 2-3 days. I guess the fee is for expedited shipping, so I shouldn't really complain. Plus the book s over 400 pages, chunky.

I've been doing a lot of drawing during the past year- black squirrels, birds, raptors, owls, wild animals, big cats, and cats and dogs. I created an etsy shop in which to sell my art- BicycleCityArtworks. Now, having taken a break, it's time to get back to writing. NaNo novel writing month is nearly over (I cannot believe how fast the month has gone by!) Spindrift, a romance set at a grand resort hotel on the coast of Maine is written. Cherry is written. Memento Mori: Garnet & Quella has been written twice to completion and numerous times in various attempts to develop the novel. I got 55,000 words into another version of the novel before convincing myself that one of the two completed versions will do. It just defies any further attempts at writing it. It's time to get that one done, too.

It'll be a busy end of 2019!