Sirens in the Desert!

Postmortem: Not A Mistake Release Ready or Not, #RT16 Here I Come!

Sirens in the Desert!

Where I am

This week I’m on a much needed vacation–our annual family pilgrimage to Tucson to visit my in-laws. The weather’s great, the kids can bob around in the pool, the cactuses are so freaking surreal and gorgeous, and in theory, I get to rest.

In theory. Because, fellow writers–do any of you know how to actually rest?

I do not!

This is me on vacation:

What I’m doing–but not with such a great manicure.

The day job is work. Writing is the thing I love, the thing I pour myself into in every spare second. But the truth is, writing is also work. It’s demanding, stressful, comes with ups and downs and deadlines, and I am no good at from resting from it. Just ask my husband. He’s giving my laptop the evil eye right now.

I got on the plane thinking I would just do a quick read-through of my third Siren book, The Siren’s Dream, which will release in November. (And man, every book I write about Slavic supernatural creatures is more and more fun–rusalkas, vilas, maras–all kinds of cool, creepy girl ghosts to write about!)

Quick? Ha! I don’t know why the read-through took so long–possibly the constant interruption from the almost 5yo twins, or my equally constant need to actually pay attention to them and be present to the fun moments of vacation. They are my offspring, after all–everything is fun with them as they grow and learn new things. Consequently, that read-through plus final tweaks took a while. I finally sent my fabulous editor the manuscript Monday night. Whoo hoo!

Then the vacation really started!

Oh, wait. I realized I need to promote my upcoming release:

What’s coming next

And to remind folks the first book is on sale for another day:

What’s on sale

Then, finally, the vacation could begin. We’ve seen trains, desert animals, a planetarium show. Of course, we’ve been eating and drinking. Did you know Tucson was designated by UNESCO as a world city of gastronomy? Yum!