March News

My friends, I hope you are staying safe and well amid the COVID-19 crisis. My home of Kansas City instituted a stay-at-home order over a week ago. My husband and I are both high-risk for the virus, so we have been keeping ourselves isolated as much as possible. We are fortunate that both of our jobs allow us to work from home.

The new supervisor's a real hardass though.

We are greatly saddened to see friends and family getting laid off with no idea of when they will be able to return to work. As people with chronic health issues, we are no strangers to being homebodies, so it's also difficult for us to watch our friends and family who are NOT accustomed to being at home so much struggle with boredom and loneliness.

If you find reading to be a good way to pass the time (and if you're here, I assume you do), please check out my books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other major retailers. They are all reasonably priced, some as low as 99 cents. I write fantasy, horror, children's books and poetry. I also have several free short stories on this blog, as well as links to read my poetry for free in literary magazines. Feedback and reviews are always appreciated.

For me, this is an opportunity to dedicate more time to writing. I only have one chapter left in Going Forth by Day, the final book of The Order of the Four Sons series. In unreal times, it seems even more unreal that this story is finally ending. I expect I will have a good first draft completed sometime over the next month, which will probably push the release date back to sometime this summer.

My latest poetry collection, LANGUAGES, FIRST AND LAST, is now available on Amazon and through the publisher site, Cyberwit Press. If you happen to snag a copy, please leave a review. I also have spare copies of it and my other poetry books at home. If you would like to purchase directly from me, hit me up.

The latest issue of The Honest Ulsterman is out. My poem, "Comfort Animals," is included as part of the Seamus Burns Creative Writing prize. Big thanks to the Verbal Arts Centre in Northern Ireland for honoring my work. 

Over on Fill Your Books, I share my thoughts about my favorite reads with Colin Dardis.

And finally, I received this nice note from Madeleine Corley at Barren Magazine. It was both humbling, and an amazing pick-me-up. Inspiring others is really what it's all about for us artist types.

Try to keep positive thoughts, everyone! (Or just do what I do, y'know, escape into fantasy.) We'll get through this.