Devon Monk's Blog, page 7

Dragon Pig

Yowza, April was busy! So busy, I didn’t have time to put out my newsletter. As you may know, I give away one toy I knit in each newsletter. (You can subscribe. My newsletter is monthly, and I pull the name randomly from my subscriber list).

Anyhoo, April was busy. I had to really put my head down and get book #8, NOBODY’S GHOUL drafted, and off to my copy editor. Now that I’ve done that…it’s May.

So…yeeeeeah. Um. Tomorrow’s newsletter (May 18th) will be an April/May edition. I will be giving out...

Road Trippers

Last year, right before the pandemic roared into our lives, we bought an RV. Well, we bought a third of an RV. My brother and his wife, my sister and her husband, bought a third of it too.

Three couples, one RV. A timeshare on wheels.

Now, that could have been a great idea, or a terrible one, and we didn’t go into it without some test runs. Before even thinking about an RV, we wanted to know if the six of us got along in tight quarters and on long road trips.

So we took an eight hour dr...

The Cubes

A couple months ago I asked around on various social media, looking for solutions to my yarn storage problem. Things had gotten so bad, every time I waded into my mighty stash, it triggered an avalanche.

People offered a lot of good ideas (thank you!) Here’s what I needed:

To see my yarn while it is storedTo contain the yarn so when I pull a skein, three more don’t fall outTo access yarn by color (not weight or fiber content)To use the wooden cubby things I bought a decade ago because they...

Knits and Stuffs

Bee-hold the knit bumble bee I will be giving away in my newsletter on March 29-ish.

If you want to be in the drawing for this little bumble buddy, just sign up for my monthly newsletter and I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner. I’ll mail international.

Writing: I’m currently working on NOBODY’S GHOUL, which is book…well, it’s actually book #8 in the Ordinary Magic series, as the short novel: SEALED WITH A TRYST (available in Dirty Deeds antho) is book #7.

I’m aiming for a ...

Virtual Rainforest

For the last six years or so, I’ve run off (with great delight) to attend the Rainforest Writers Retreat right on Lake Quinault in the wilds of the Washington rainforest.

This year, due to the very nature of lots of people traveling from lots of places, it was decided the writer’s retreat would go digital.

Digital retreat. So…sit here at my desk and do what I usually do? It didn’t sound like the best way to suddenly write more words. After all, part of what makes the Rainforest Retreat work for ...

New Book, New Digs

We had our share of weather drama the last week or so as an inch of ice covered our area. I’ve been through a lot of winter storms, but this one trashed the trees, which in turn trashed the power lines, which in turn trashed the easy-peasy electricity-and-hot-running-water lifestyle of which I’ve grown so accustomed.

Luckily, we were only without power for three and a half days. We had wood fireplace for heating, propane bbq and a camp stove for cooking, and water on hand. That said, whew, it is...

Catching My Breath

January went by in a blur, and I’m almost shocked it’s well into February. This happens to me every year, it seems. The hubbub of December rolls into January filled with plans, goals, and projects. Let’s not forget the never-ending renovations/improvements/repairs to yard and home. (Did we remove 13 raised garden beds last weekend and use it and other random rocks and whatnot to fill behind a retaining wall we built? Yes, yes we did.)

Then, boom! It’s February and I feel like I still haven’t...

I Can See The Future

Thanks to a sharp-eyed reader, I just discovered I have psychic powers!

This is an excerpt from MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY, book #8 in my Allie Beckstrom series, published in 2012.

“The epidemic is getting worse. They’re telling people to stay off the streets, stay home, unless absolutely necessary. They’re telling people to wash their hands and wear masks.”

See? I knew the future!

Haha, okay, so when the reader posted the paragraph in a reader group I’m a part of (here, if you want to join: Urb...

Bigfoot and Death

Why, (you may ask) did I decide to write about THESE characters in the Dirty Deeds anthology?

Bigfoot stole the show for me in SEALED WITH A TRYST (my short novel in the antho). I’ve mentioned him in the Ordinary Magic series. Just little things like: he’s a kleptomaniac who collects light bulbs. He got drunk once with Odin and got arrested. He’s allergic to magic.

But while writing Delaney and Ryder trying to escape the vacation town of the gods to go on a vacation of their own, Bigfoot’s swe...

Dirty Deed Snippet #4

This is the last snippet before the book comes out, because Dirty Deeds comes out tomorrow, January 12th! Eeee!

This delightful selection is from RJ Blain’s Doggone Mess:

After a long week of work, I couldn’t really blame anyone for grabbing fast food on the way home, but did everyone in Long Island have to visit my specific branch of McDonald’s? From vanilla humans, lycanthropes, practitioners, and centaurs, to devils, demons, and even an angel, everybody wanted a hit, and they wanted me to ...