I'm excited to announce that another of my short stories, Making Monsters, is now available through Amazon.com.

Making Monsters

Shai is a girl who has nothing in a world run by men. Her parents are gone. She has no lineage to brag about. No future to hope for. Only her brother keeps her safe, but even he isn't willing to stand up to Kurth, the leader of their little band. Not when it comes to keeping Kurth's hands of off her and not now, when he should be disputing the older boy's plans to involve them all in a dangerous heist.

Shai knew the heist would go terribly wrong and, when it does, she is the one to pay the price. Only this time, what promised to be a tragic end brings her together with a woman secretly practicing magic, a craft forbidden to her gender. The encounter will give Shai the strength and freedom she needs to turn the tables on Kurth, but she may have to abandon her humanity in the process.

In other news, the sequel to The Girl and the Clockwork Cat went to the publisher this week. Fingers crossed they like it and we can get it on track for publication soon. Now I’m ready to start editing another project, assuming I can decide which other project to work on.

Lastly, for anyone who still doubts me when I say jumping spiders are the cutest things, take a gander at this (brought to my attention by the wonderful @ViolaFury).

Happy writing and reading!

Here it is, almost the end of September and I’m just getting to my one new thing for August. There have been books to edit and write (and read), swords to swing, dances to learn, parties to plan, friends to hang out with, and far too little time for all of it. In the face of it all, the blog has been chugging along slower than usual. What I wouldn’t give for a clone (as long as it didn’t lead to twice as many story ideas).

Outside of my work, August was dedicated in many ways to the old new things. The perpetuation of prior adventures, the nurturing of continuing friendships, and the never-ending pursuit of learning.

In spite of the rather overwhelming task of keeping up with life, there was opportunity to do something completely new and slightly out of my comfort zone (which is a good thing to push occasionally).

Michael and I were talked, rather easily I might add, into performing a dance for the Arthur Murray Summer Showcase (Michael being that darling gent theatrically rolling his eyes on my left and our instructor being the lovely enthusiastic lady on my right).

Sadly, I haven’t gotten my hands on a recording of our performance, but it was a Foxtrot routine performed to the song He’s a Tramp by Peggy Lee (we didn't use this version from Lady and the Tramp, but it's one of my personal favorite movies).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wiNGW97JiE]

I’m not that comfortable in front of a crowd and dancing is still a relatively new activity, so this experience, stepping out in front of all of these people and performing, was a bit nerve-wracking and yet refreshing in an odd way. I like to push my boundaries toward becoming a stronger, more confident person, and this was a great way to do that. I didn’t pass out on the dance floor or die from the pressure of so many eyes looking my way. Awesome!

Now we’ve signed up to do a tango routine at Arthur Murray’s Masquerade ball in October. We’ll be dancing to The Lunatics Have Taken over the Asylum by Collide. Dancing in costume during my favorite month of the year. Oh, yes. This will be fun!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0imdMMIBToQ]

Happy adventuring!