Updates & Other Exciting Things

“My Roommate, The Rapist” A Shade of Vampire

Updates & Other Exciting Things

It’s February.

I’ve been dreading this month for, well, months. It’s the anniversary of the rapes last year, and the subsequent secondary traumas that lasted another 7 months after that, but I’m doing okay! Even with my husband’s serious accident last month and the tragic, untimely loss of my sweet buddy boy, Oreo, I’m doing remarkably okay.

I’ve found peace among the chaos.

January was, indeed, chaos. But then, hasn’t the last three years been? One trauma after another. Just as we pick ourselves up and begin functioning again, we’re slapped back down. So, I suppose, we’ve gotten rather used to it. That, and I’m ruthlessly cutting out anyone and everyone who even breathes as if they will hurt us, seeing as how I keep getting the same lesson over and over again: no matter how little you trust, it’s too much.

The great chaos of January included my novel Avalon Revisited getting republished by Riverdale Ave Books, in both eBook and paperback! Plus, I finished the 85,000-word first draft sequel (of sorts) Avalon Revamped ON TIME (even with the tragic interruptions, because I’m just that awesome). It’s out to beta beta beta readers now, and I’ll be doing revisions in March. It’s dark. Really fucking dark.

I’ve become deeply intimate with darkness, after all.

Additionally, my short story “A Kiss in the Rain,” written in 2011, found two homes at once! It can be found in the February Free For all over at SNM Horror as well as on the Kindle (& other formats) through Riverdale Ave Books. The cover is gorgeous, don’t you think?

“Final Word,” written early 2011, finally found its home, too, among the pages of The Rusty Nail, along with my most popular poem “New York Rain.” I also had the great honor of participating in 3,000 Weeks, albeit from afar.

My husband is healing well. He’s adapted nicely to the wheelchair, knowing it will be temporary (thankfully), and he’s busy at work on crossbows and other projects in between rests.

We’re adopting a new dog who is as in need of a good home as we are in need of a new buddy boy. His name is Buster, and he’s a boxer. We’ll be picking him up this week. Shadow, the cat, might not be terribly happy about this decision, but I think they will get along well once they know each other.

So now February will no longer represent my rape month. It will be the month my husband thrived even with a major injury, the month we adopted our new son, the month that several of my short stories were published, the month that I finished the second edition of my publishing & marketing book, and, as always, the month my husband proposed back in 2000 and the month of my youngest nephews birthday.

It will be the month we survived against all odds.