Sheritta Bitikofer's Blog, page 20

Checking in and FREE SHORT FICTION!

So, I know I’ve been a little quiet for a while, but I have a perfectly good explanation. In a previous blog post, I talked about that I was going back to school. I started back in the beginning of May and I’m in the middle of my second course now. The free certificate program Full Sail University has offered to returning students focuses on Media Communications and at first, I was really skeptical if it would be helpful in my pursuits as an author. In this class on “New Media Tools”, my doubts were put to rest. The whole class is about maintaining and promoting one’s brand through social media and blogging. Part of the class requires me to create a new internet identity and create new accounts around this identity. My brand also has to be something new, apart from what I’ve already established on my own personal sites…

Being a writing and literature fanatic, this was a little difficult to decide. I finally settled on the concept of “short fiction” blogging. It’s kind of like fanfiction blogging, but I’m posting stories based from my own imagination rather than building on another person’s creation. So, I’ve taken two story ideas that have been sitting on the shelf for a while and twice a week, I’m posting excerpt updates for readers. The subject of these stories is “supernatural romance”. Along with these fiction posts, I’m creating informative blog posts about wolves and werewolves to diversify the site. To my chagrin, I have no followers, but have gotten plenty of views and likes. If you’re interested in getting a taste of my writing style without buying my novels from Amazon, this is just the thing for you to check out. When the course is over, if I can manage it, I’ll be transferring the stories to this website for my readers and I’ll attempt to keep up with doing at least one short fiction series here as well.

For the meantime, you can go to Moonstruck Wolfgirl’s Blog and read from two of the following stories:

The Outlaw – Sarah’s family has been killed by a ruthless outlaw and the sheriff of her community won’t lift a finger to help. In search of the outlaw herself, she finds someone who may be able to help. Ben Myer is a enigmatic man who roams the western planes, avoiding human contact for a very good reason. With his golden wolf eyes blazing every waking moment, he appears the vicious predator that lives within him. But Sarah sees something deeper and pleads for his help in taking down her family’s murderer. But will the journey across Indian territory and facing down outlaws prove to be their undoing?

(Disclaimer: this is just ONE of the backstories involving Ben Myers, the omega from “The Enigma”. This story takes place after he was changed and wandered off as a lone wolf to figure out his own existence. For those who have read my novel, “The Enigma”, this may be a fun read.)

The Mysterious Stranger – Tessa is a college student, bent on remaking her image from a lonely bookworm and teachers pet, into a popular club hopper with a scandalous social life. Christopher is the professor of anthropology at Tessa’s school, hiding a dark and mysterious secret about himself that no other soul on the planet knows.

When they meet for the first time, Tessa is blown away by his gentlemanlike personality and he is intrigued by her efforts to hide who she really is.

How To Recharge When You’re An Introvert

First, I’d like to say that this is not a professional list from some psychology handbook. This is what I’ve known to work for me when coping with anxiety and cases when being an introvert hits me hard in the face. These little things I do to take care of myself have proven effective and are my go-to remedies when I’m feeling stressed.

I consider myself a social sprinter. I may not want to go somewhere and do things with people, but when I absolutely have to, I try to make the best impression I can. This may be considered “fake” or like I’m wearing a mask and I have to say that I perfectly agree. Yet, for the sake of those around me and the people I care about, I don’t show the nasty side of myself because then you’d be wondering where all my black clothes, piercings, thick black eyeliner and black lipstick went because I’d be acting like a goth that’s mad at the world but not look the part exactly. Well, I’m not mad at the world. I just have the “resting bitch face”. I’m actually pretty amiable and not easily enraged by the actions of others (unless you’re just being a dick, which is unacceptable anyway). I can normally play the part of an extrovert for about an hour, maybe two, and then I start to shut down. The mouth that was once laughing and making small talk will turn into a slight frown and there’s little I can do about it. I become disconnected and distant from my situation and all I want to do is go veg on the couch or take a long drive with no destination. When this happens, the only excuse I can give is that I’ve “burned out” or I need to recharge.

When I’ve reached that point, if at all possible, I remove myself from the social situation. My safe place is normally my home or inside my car, so I’ll go to either of those places and do some of the following:

*Disclaimer: Since introverts are drained by social interaction, these activities are to be done ALONE or with someone who is not emotionally/mentally draining for you, like a significant other or close friend.

1.) Music. I know, it’s a little corny to say, but music really has proven to be my therapy over the years. I collect songs that epitomize every shade of my moods and emotions. I love opera, country, pop, hip hop, punk rock, hard rock, and of course Disney tunes which really don’t fall into any category. The key to utilizing music to bring you out of a funk or to mellow you out, is to NOT listen to something that mirrors how you feel. If you’re sad, whatever you do, don’t listen to sad songs. Those songs about breakups, death, the endless abyss of life that is meaningless, are NOT what you need. Listen to something light, something happy. But, if you’re happy, listen to happy stuff unless you want to make yourself miserable by listening to the opposite… Which if you do, you need more than my blog to help you. If you’re mad, don’t listen to Five Finger Death Punch.

Listen to something soothing like classical symphony style. Once you’ve found the genre that helps your down, empty mood: SING. I don’t care if you shatter windows and make dogs bark within a five mile radius. You need to sing. Singing releases endorphins, which is the “feel good” chemical in your brain. When I’m feeling low and I go off and sing a few of my favorite songs from childhood, it has a noticeable effect on my psyche. When I sing, I take my mind off of what was bothering me or why I felt anxious or drained in the first place and all that exists is me and the radio. If you’re confident enough in doing so, even dance a little bit. Dance like no one is watching and enjoy it. Dancing is a good, easy form of cardio and can get your blood moving, which will enhance your emotional state as well.

2.) Tea. OH MY GOODNESS! I’m baffled that no one had told me about herbal teas sooner! I’d spent nearly 23 years of my life without herbal teas and I don’t know how I made it! When I was having high anxiety issues, a friend recommended I try Yogi tea. Specifically, the Honey and Lavender blend or Kava blend for stress relief. I loved black teas when I was a teenager, but in later years, I developed some issue with the caffeine in the teas and stopped. I was very nervous to try the herbal teas, but I needed something to help my anxiety beyond what I was doing. I went to my local grocery store and they didn’t have the specific blend of Yogi tea that I was looking for, but I found a variety pack of Celestial tea that included chamomile blends and “sleepy-time” blends. Guys, I had sleepy-time tea that night when I was getting ready for bed and I swear I hadn’t slept that sound in months! Getting that good sleep then carried over into my day and I wasn’t as volatile in my anxiety. I tried the chamomile when I got home and after a long, difficult day at work, I actually had the motivation and energy to do stuff! I had the clarity of mind to wash the dishes, do the laundry, FOLD the laundry (which is a big deal because I hardly ever do that), and get so many other things done that I’ve been putting off for weeks because I was never in the right state of mind to do it. Since then, I’ve purchased more tea and am experimenting with their different effects and because they don’t contain caffeine, I have had no headaches. Anything with chamomile, lavender, kava, and ceylon are great for stress relief and to give your body the soothing effects you need.

3.) Sleep. You know when you call tech support and their first question is “have you turned it off yet?” Well, our bodies can work in the same way. If you’re stressed or just drained (even if it’s not physically), try taking a nap or going to bed early. Sleep has regenerative effects on the body and mind. And I’ve always found that it sort of wipes the slate clean. If I’m freaking out over something, I go to sleep and in the morning it doesn’t seem like such a big thing anymore. It might not have lost it’s bite, but the blinding panic is gone and I’m able to reason through it. Make sure when you get this sleep, that the room is dark, cool, and quiet. Anything different and you won’t sleep well.

4.) Candles. Aromatherapy has been used forever and their beneficial effects are still prevalent today. Find a scent that makes you melt and buy as many as your pocketbook will allow because you need that stuff. There’s nothing like coming home, brewing a cup of that hot chamomile tea and lighting a lavender or cinnamon candle.

5.) Take a break. Above all, you have to take care of yourself. Running on fumes for too long will send you to an early grave. When you feel you’ve reached that breaking point where “If I listen to another line of small talk, I’m going to blow my brains out”, take a step back and recharge. Do something you enjoy and forget about responsibilities for a while. Dishes can pile up, laundry can overflow, phone calls and texts can go unanswered, because there’s no one more important in your world than yourself. If watching sitcoms makes you happy, do it. If you get a buzz from playing a video game, play that game all day. If you enjoy painting, drawing, knitting, origami, alphabatizing your movie and music collection, browsing Facebook for hours, writing, reading, or whatever – then DO IT! Doing what makes you happy and what you enjoy is going to help you recharge faster and prepare yourself for doing the things you don’t like to do.

Supernatural Sickness

So, my husband and I watched the show Supernatural almost religiously up to a little ways into season 4 and I think we were getting bothered about how much of the demon stuff there was as opposed to the other mythical beings and monsters. I began watching the show for inspiration for that stuff specifically.

I’ve gotten back into watching it, after being bombarded with Supernatural memes, pictures of Jensen Ackles, and hilarious outtakes. I decided to give it another shot. I was not disappointed. Right off, they got back into ghosts and stuff. I have no problem with the demons, I just didn’t like that it was taking over the whole show.

Anyway, I wanted to flaunt my fandom by posting some of my favorite outtakes and Supernatural related videos.

1.) THIS! I was frickin’ rolling at this. I still don’t know how they managed to get the actual crew to add their appearance in at the end, but this is internet magic.

2.) Next to the video above, this was pure awesomeness. Lucky girl!

3.) When this came at the end of the video, I was SCREAMING!

4.) More hilarity with funny outtakes!

In closing, I have to say: Jensen and Jared are amazing actors and though I haven’t met them in person, they seem to be awesome guys. I’m looking forward to binging on the coming seasons.

What is “Lycanthropy”?

Moonstruck Wolfgirl

Most of society – unless you’ve been living under a rock with no television – knows what a werewolf is. It’s a person, male or female and typically human, who can transform themselves into a wolf. Many different authors and hollywood producers have their own take on werewolves.

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Coping with “High Functioning Anxiety”

I want to make it clear that these are NOT my words. I am sharing this from The Mighty.com article that I just read.

Without going into too much detail about myself, I found that this article hit me spot-on and possibly explains why I crank out novels like a freakin’ printing press sometimes and stay busy with my stories and creative mind. I hope someone out there reads this and begins to grasp what it means to have anxiety, but still function in society. And if you find yourself in this article like I did, rest assured that you are not alone in your suffering. Go to The Mighty.com and search for articles to help you cope. I’m going to do that right after posting this.

“High-functioning anxiety looks like…

Achievement. Busyness. Perfectionism.

When it sneaks out, it transforms into nervous habits. Nail biting. Foot tapping. Running my fingers through my hair.

If you look close enough, you can see it in answered text messages. Flakiness. Nervous laughter. The panic that flashes through my eyes when a plan changes. When anything changes.

High-functioning anxiety feels like…

A snake slithering up my back, clamping its jaws shut where my shoulders meet my neck. Punch-in-the-gut stomach aches, like my body is confusing answering an email with being attacked by a lion.

High-functioning anxiety sounds like…

You’re not good enough. You’re a bad friend. You’re not good at your job. You’re wasting time. You’re a waste of time. Your boyfriend doesn’t love you. You’re so needy. What are you doing with yourself? Why would you say that? What if they hate it? Why can’t you have your shit together? You’re going to get anxious and because you’re going to get anxious, you’re going to mess everything up. You’re a fraud. Just good at faking it. You’re letting everybody down. No one here likes you.

All the while, it appears perfectly calm.

It’s always looking for the next outlet, something to channel the never-ending energy. Writing. Running. List-making. Mindless tasks (whatever keeps you busy). Doing jumping jacks in the kitchen. Dancing in the living room, pretending it’s for fun, when really it’s a choreographed routine of desperation, trying to tire out the thoughts stuck in your head.

It’s silent anxiety attacks, hidden by smiles.

It’s always being busy but also always avoiding, so important things don’t get done. It’s letting things pile up rather than admitting you’re overwhelmed or in need of help.

It’s that sharp pang of saying the wrong thing, the one that starts the cycles of thoughts. Because you said too much, and nobody cares, and it makes you never want to speak up again.

It’s going back and forth between everyone else has it together but you, and so many people have it tougher than you.

Get your act together.

Suck it up.

You’re not OK, you’re messing everything up.

You’re totally OK, stop being such a baby.

It’s waking up in the middle of the night sobbing because the worst-case-scenario that just went through your head at high speed seems so real, so vivid, that even when it’s proven to be untrue, it takes hours for your heart to slow down, to feel calm again.

Because how “OK” are you when a day without a plan is enough to make you crumble? When empty spaces make you spiral at the very anticipation of being alone with your thoughts? When you need to make a list to get through a Sunday: watch a show, clean your kitchen, exercise, answer five emails, read 10 pages, watch a show… ?

It’s feeling unqualified to write this piece because I’m getting by. It’s when you’re social enough to get invited to things, but so often find yourself standing in a room where it feels like no one knows you. It’s being good at conversation and bad at making close friends because you only show up when you feel “well” enough. Only text back when you feel ready. Because you’re afraid they’d hate you if they really knew you. That the energy would overwhelm them, and you’d lose them.

So you learn to reign it in. Channel it. Even though sometimes you do everything right (exercise, sleep, one TV show, five emails, 10 pages…) and you’re still left with racing thoughts, the panic. The not good enoughs.

When will it be enough?

Having anxiety means constantly managing motion that can be productive or self-destructive, depending on how much sleep you got. Depending on the day. Depending on the Earth’s alignment with Mars. Depending on…

It’s when “living with it” means learning how to sit with it. Practicing staying in bed a little longer. Challenging the mean, unrelenting voices that say you’re only worth what you produced that day.

It means learning how to say, “I need help.” Trying to take care of yourself without the guilt. It means every once in a while, confiding in a friend. It means sometimes showing up even when you’re scared.

It’s when answering a text impulsively and thoughtlessly is an act of bravery.

It’s fighting against your own need to constantly prove your right to exist in this world.

It’s learning how to validate your own feelings. That even though you don’t feel like you’re enough, and you’ll never be enough, it’s knowing you’re at least anxious enough to benefit from help. That admitting you need it doesn’t confirm voices’ lies. That taking a break doesn’t mean you’re a failure.

It’s finding your own humanity in the anxiety, in your weaknesses. It’s trying to let the energy inspire you, instead of bring you down. It’s forgiving yourself when it wins.

It’s a way to live, with this constant companion. Your bullying twin. Collapsible luggage you can bury away at a moment’s notice. Shove it under the bed. Pretend it’s not there until you can’t fit anymore. Until you can no longer ignore it. Until you have to face it.

A first good step is staring at it straight on and calling it by its name.

High anxiety can be a natural consequence of a busy lifestyle, but its existence is akin to the chicken and the egg. Which came first, the anxiety or the busyness? Am I always moving because I’m anxious or am I anxious because I’m always moving?

Either way, it’s not a noble way to suffer. It’s not a “better” way to be anxious. Just because you’re “functioning” doesn’t always mean you’re happy. And just because you’re functioning doesn’t mean you shouldn’t slow down, breathe and take one damn second to be happy the way things are.

In this very moment.

This quiet, short moment.

To remember the peace you found in that second of silence, until the electricity starts again, and you’re forced to move.

My Favorite Writing Memes

If you’re like me, you “like” things on Facebook and join groups you’re interested in. As a result, I got a lot of very poignant memes about writing and being an author. I thought I’d share a few of them with you for laughs.

 

 

 

Very accurate, especially when you know you know squat about your subject matter. Makes you an expert almost over night – if you know the right resources.

This is about where I’m at right now. I want to enjoy writing and not care about what others want of me; readers, publishers, editors, whatever. I write for me.

 

 

 

 

Aye, captain!

 

 

 

 

 

 

If that many superheroes say I should be writing, I probably should be!

 

 

 

 

This is so insanely true that it isn’t funny.

 

 

 

 

Forget about the superheroes. If THESE GUYS say I should be writing, I should have gotten started yesterday!

 

 

 So much…

 

 

If you think my fandom is coming out in these memes, you’d be right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The struggle is real!

 

 

 

 

  

 Hemingway said it best.

 

 

Not necessarily about writing, but still funny to me. Give me a book I can sniff any day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting a little deep there.

 

 

 

And to wrap this all up, here is my favorite of all time. In fact, I have this as my laptop wallpaper to remind me of this truth every day.

“The Enigma” Now Available on Amazon!

It’s been a long time in the making, but I’ve finally decided to release “The Enigma” on Amazon Kindle and in print.

Now, this is just the first book in the series, so hold onto your hats for the rest. I’ll release the second continuing book in a few weeks to a couple of months (haven’t decided yet).

But in the meantime, go check out what I consider to be my “flagship” novel! Also check out the “Loup-Garou Series” page on my blog!

After spending months lost in an emotional fog, teenager Katey McCoy was slipping to the end of her rope. An orphan since infancy with an abusive foster mother, she had little to live for besides her few good friends at school. That is, until she met Logan Keith. Katey came alive when she gazed into those striking blue eyes and found herself falling for this handsome stranger she met late at night in the middle of a graveyard.

But her world flipped upside down when she discovered that Logan was a werewolf. After the initial shock, Katey made up her mind to accept Logan and his pack, seeing things that few humans have been privileged to witness. But will their relationship crumble under the strain of their secret? Or will she accept his offer to join their pack and let their secret become hers?

 

Pushing On A Pull Door

There’s a lot to be said about someone who pushes at a door that they believe to be locked.

As an indie author, I understand this concept all too well and have been struggling with this for the last few months, so I thought to express my thoughts here.

Like I mentioned, you could say a lot of things about someone who pushes on a locked door. One might say they’re determined, courageous, goal-driven, patient, or that they know what they want and they go for it. Others might say they’re stubborn, hard headed, and can’t take a hint that they are just not getting through that door.

When we make the decision to walk through that door – whether that means applying for the job you always wanted, trying to have a child, making plans to be financially secure, or doing the thing that scares you the most – we are going to make a real effort to step over the threshold into the success we desire.

Most people, when they try to open that door and find it locked, they get discouraged. They think “Well, I guess this just isn’t what I’m destined for” and they move on. I hate the analogy of God closing one door so you can go through another or find an open window somewhere. We know what we want in life and if we want it bad enough, we shouldn’t have to walk away.

Other people, the ones who want it bad enough, will keep trying to open that lock door. They’ll bang on it, demand that the door open, get a battering ram and force it down, shoot at the lock. They will do whatever it takes, short of killing themselves, to open that door even when they don’t even the tiniest result from their efforts

As an author who has several books out on Amazon, I find this comparison so accurate. I’ve done my own social media marketing, I’ve paid someone else to do it, I’ve paid for press releases, editing services, fantastic book cover designs, begged for more money to help my books become publisher-ready, taken classes on writing, paid through the nose for a creative writing degree, slaved at my computer for hours reading and editing my books until I wanted to claw my eyes out and cry into my pillow until sleep silenced me. I’ve done absolutely everything I could possibly think of to make self-publishing work and all I’ve got to show for it are 7 shoddy novels and a butt-load of debt that will take me years to pay back and the royalties from my books aren’t going to cover even a fraction of it.

Back to the proverbial door. Sometimes, if you’re doing everything to get that door open and it’s not budging, maybe it’s time to look at it from a different perspective. Maybe, instead of forcing your way through, you should take a step back and let it open for you. Take a break, rethink your strategy, think outside the box.

Maybe that door was never meant to be rammed down, but gently opening inward. Have you ever tried to open on a pull door when you have very little space behind you to back up? It’s the same thing. Maybe you never considered opening the door towards you, because it would have put you in a tight corner and made you uncomfortable. Yet, that was what you needed to do all along.

Quit doing what you feel comfortable with, and do what actually needs to be done to get through that door. Get over the fact that it’s going to strain you, make you feel cramped, make you feel nervous and a little claustrophobic. Because once you let that door squeeze past you, it’ll open up a whole new world, a whole new life that you’ve been wanting with all the leg room you could possibly imagine.

The Road So Far…

First off, I’d like to apologize for the static. There have been a lot of life changes going on and, as a result, my writing and author career has taken a back seat.

First change came with my signing up as a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. Yes, I am now authorized to peddle makeup and skin care products. I enjoy it because I get half off of the product I buy directly from the company. However, it is commission based so if I don’t sell anything, I don’t make money. And the way to sell product is to get out and have skin care parties. That meant that running around town in the evenings and going to meetings and working my business from home used up a lot of my free time. Life got very busy, very quickly.

On top of that, we got a second dog! Her name is Tammi and she is also a rescue from Alaqua Animal Shelter; the same place we got Sharla from. She is a nine year old lab-plott hound mix (in my opinion). Some have said she is part boxer and other part pit bull because of her coloration and build. At first, the girls did NOT get along. On the second day, they had their first major fight and both came away with some battle wounds. But now, they are best buddies and play-tousle all the time. It’s a little scary to watch, but judging by their body language, they are totally playing. Tammi had a little case of diarrhea as well, but that was taken care of and now we just need to get her down to a manageable weight. Through the shelter, she was in what they call the “Unconditional Love Program” where dogs are leased out to prisons so the inmates can put them through obedience training. It’s supposed to help both the dogs and the inmates rehabilitate. Tammi knows many of the basic commands like “sit”, “down” and “stay”. But she doesn’t understand a strict feeding schedule just yet. She was very skinny before coming into the program and her trainer pampered her with treats, bulking her up to a weight that wasn’t exactly healthy for her. But, she is losing weight and getting plenty of exercise through playing with her new sister. They’re both very different breeds, ages, and backgrounds, but they really are turning into best buds. It’s funny to watch them do silly things together like steal toys and chase around the house. Thank goodness nothing has broken yet. Tammi is also a very different personality from Sharla. She loves to chew and nap while all Sharla wants is to cuddle and be petted. Tammi was once a stray, so it makes sense that she’s not so affection-dependent.

Next on my list of things I’ve been doing instead of writing, is school! Yes, I have gone back to school. Full Sail University was offering a free Media Communications Certificate course to former students. After much deliberation, I decided to go for it. The course is 8 months long, consisting of 4 classes that will go over some aspect of Media Communications. It’s an online course so I’ve been able to work ahead and have learned a lot about what media communications is, what it is not, and how to use it to my advantage in my writing career. I’ve only been in the course for about a month, but I feel like I’m getting a good grasp of the course material.

And last but not least, we are installing hardwood floors in our home. I love my home and it’s had carpet since before I can remember. But with two dogs and the amount of dust my husband tracks in that seems to just disappear inside the carpet, we’ve realized that wood floors may be better for cleaning up messes. We purchased a sizable amount of carbonized bamboo flooring which is supposed to be 20 times stronger than regular hardwood. Last night my husband and I busted our bums pulling up the carpet in the living room, where we will be starting our project. We were going to start the gluing process and lay half the floors down tonight, but we realized that we didn’t have enough paint thinner to take off the glue residue from the tools and my husband’s hands, so we will be starting on it officially tomorrow. In the meantime, Jared is laying down a quarter of the planks and cutting them to size.

But in the midst of all this chaos, I have accomplished one thing. “Passions” is completely written and my personal round of edit is done! I sent it off to a professional earlier this week and hope to get it back by the end of June at the very latest. I’m not too terribly confident in this novel, having cranked it out the way I did. It’s been in the makings for about 6-8 months and there were a lot of hiatus periods where I didn’t write in it at all and lost track of the character development and plot continuity. Although a good bulk of it was written in November, I hadn’t touched it since. But, regardless of how I feel, it will be published on Amazon as soon as the edits are complete. I just hope I’m not giving my editor too much work, seeing as my grammar sucks. Haha.

Next project will be “The Rose”, which is not a new novel, but it will become one. It was the first novel I ever wrote completely and it’d in very rough shape. I’ll be reconstructing half of the plot and developing the characters further, so it may take a few months to get done, but it will be so worth it. I can’t wait to write about my smexy Scottish vagabond who is possessed by demons.

In the meantime, check out this video I made for my media communications program. The goal for one of our assignments was to create a video that had all the potential elements that could make it go viral. Whether I did that here or not, you can be the judge.

I will be posting on a more frequent basis; hopefully weekly if I’m able.

Sidetracks and Update

Hey there, readers! Just dropping in to let you know that I haven’t died or dropped off the face of the planet. I am alive and well. I just got a little sidetracked for the past month by this little cutie. No, not that hot hunk of man to my right. I’m talking about the little pouch in our laps looking like a scared rat.

Yes, we have taken the plunge of puppy parenthood and adopted a beautiful, sweet 2 year old miniature Australian Shepherd.

It started off as an innocent plea to my husband for a change in his schedule. You see, as writing is my passion, tabletop gaming is his. For those of you that don’t know, I equate it to Dungeons and Dragons, but a little more complex to my understanding. It started with the game system Paladium and his interests kind of expanded from there. He creates a character using a series of dice rolls, and then he, along with other players, go on fantastic adventures and the direction of their journeys and battles are dependent upon more random dice rolls. Yeah, I tried to get into the craze early on, but I wasn’t able to grasp the concept. So, instead of stressing myself out by getting confused one night a week, I let him run off with his friends and play.

It makes him happy, and I wouldn’t have a problem if he wasn’t gone for so long on Friday and Saturday nights. Our house, as wonderful as it is, gets very lonely on those dark nights and no amount of writing can fill the void that my husband’s absence created. Yes, as terrible as it sounds, writing was not able to fix this problem for me. I needed another living soul in the house with me.

So, after a very short and emotional discussion in bed one Saturday morning, we got dressed and traveled down to Alaqua Animal Refuge to take a look at who we could offer a forever home to.

This no-kill refuge is an amazing place with friendly volunteer staff and a trained veterinarian on staff to help the animals in need. They offer a shelter for horses, pigs, donkeys, goats, cats and even emus! They have two female emus residing on their land and I was shocked when I caught sight of one in its enclosure. Anyway, out of all these lovely animals, they had dogs and puppies.

Naturally, I wanted to take them all home with me. But this little angel caught our eye. She was so quiet in the midst of all these barking dogs in their kennels and I instantly knew that she had my heart. We put in an application to adopt her and after a week, we were able to bring her home.

Since then, it’s been quite an adjustment period. I hadn’t owned a dog since I was very little, and even then he was kept outside in the yard and my mom took care of him most of the time. He was too smelly and jumped on me too much for my liking. Well, Sharla – our newest family member – is smelly sometimes and jumps a lot, but I’ve grown up a lot and have gripped the responsibility of owning a dog with both hands.

You see, not only is Sharla a rescue, transferred from the county shelter, she tested positive for heartworms, was pregnant, and a double merle (which in short means that she is blind in one eye and explains why she is mostly white instead of the typical Aussie coat). It broke my heart when the vet told me that she was pregnant. They didn’t even know until they performed the spaying surgery. I would have given up my hopes of ever owning a dog if they could have just let her carry out the term and birthed those six puppies. However, with her having heartworms, I can see the logic in it. And that would have meant six more puppies to find homes for.

The blindness in her one blue eye is not as big of a problem as I thought it would be. Some Double Merles have it a lot worse and are completely blind and/or deaf. She can hear just fine, especially when I open the door and pick up her leash.

As for the heart worms, the vet at the refuge has elected to treat her with a series of injections, performing a slow kill of the worms that have invaded the blood vessels around her heart and lungs. It’s been two weeks since her first injection, and in another two weeks she’ll receive her second and third. She’s doing just fine despite my constant fussing and fretting that she’s not okay.

And it almost goes without saying that because of Sharla’s arrival into our home, I’ve been putting writing off to the side until things slowed down and we could get into a routine. And that time has come.

I’ve finished the final edits for “The Enigma” and “Becoming the Enigma”, however I’m still waiting for their release until I’m completely done with “Passions“. Before, I had mentioned that I was writing “Passions” strictly from Chloe’s third person perspective, but I have come to my senses and decided to add a few scenes with Gavin telling his side of the story. He may be a male vampire and it’ll be a stretch to put myself into his shoes, but I did some soul searching on the matter and came to reason that some parts of the story NEEDS Gavin’s view and how he feels about Chloe and what they are going through.

I’ll be going back through and reading what’s been written thus far and making the necessary changes. Then, I’ll be sending it off for its first major edit. After that, I’m playing it by ear.

I’ll go ahead and wrap up this blog by encouraging all of you to find a local animal shelter and donating a few bucks towards the great work that they do. You don’t have to go adopt every animal in the place, but help them keep the doors open with what you can. Some will take donations of food or other pet supplies too.

Until next time, happy reading!