News & Announcements:

First of all, Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday is full of warmth and love!

I've come down with a cold, and on top of that, I've been extra achy. I really don't know what brought on the recent pain, but I've been staying away from the keyboard as much as possible, which means I don't have much of a word count for the week.

But I've shared a character journal (from Samandriel this time) and an excerpt, plus a new Spotify playlist for the holidays, a video series (also for the holidays), and a new (to me) book I've just started to read.

Happy reading!

Lois

News & Announcements:

My wrists have been pretty achy this week, which makes it hard to type a lot. Despite this, I'm still getting in a daily word count of at least 500 words. So far, I haven't missed a day.

I've started reading a new book and am loving it. I've linked it below. I highly recommend it. It's told in first person point of view, where James and Emma, the two main characters, tell the story in alternating viewpoints. I have a hard time putting it down each night, but I have to sleep, so I do. ;) You can read the description on Amazon at the link I've posted.

Happy reading!

Lois

News

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a good one here. We had my Hubby's dad and stepmom over for dinner in our little, itsy bitsy house. Then we went over to my son's house to hang out with him for a bit. All in all, it was a good day.

I had three days of no writing this week, but I've done well, despite this, as you'll see immediately below.

I hope you're all staying cozy, and that your spirits are high this holiday season. For myself, I'm trying to have as many koselig evenings as possible!

Happy reading!

Lois

News

I've posted two new freewrites to the Freewriting page. Strange New World is a short showing what the modern world in a city on Illdirin looks like to Jael, a chayal warrior who lived in seclusion for thousands of years. Pride shows a brief few moments in the relationship between two brothers, one of whom is the masked swordsman known as Le Dragón.

I've also read through several of the short stories on the Short Stories page and made little corrections here and there.

Otherwise, I've been writing a lot, as you'll see. I hope you like the freewriting and the other things I've shared below.


Happy reading!


Lois

News

So, I've been writing. A lot. This being November, I've been writing the first draft of the first novel in my Fallen series. This novel's entitled Vendetta, and it's going well, for a first draft.

Unfortunately, I'm also feeling a need to get all cozy and relax with lots of hot tea, snuggle under my fuzzy blanket, and read. I save those last two for the evenings, but every day, I want to do it a lot sooner. I've been good so far, and I've resisted those urges.

I currently have a simmer pot going on the stovetop: two apples; two clementines; a cinnamon stick; an herb and spice mix of rosemary, ground ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom; whole cloves; vanilla extract; amber and eucalyptus essential oils. Put them in the pan, then cover with water. Bring to a simmer and simmer all day long, adding water when needed. It smells like autumn! :D

I've got a few things to share below. I hope you like them.

Happy reading!

Lois

News


I took a tumble on Tuesday. Landed right on my bad knees and tried to catch myself on the dresser with my even worse hands. Yikes! So I'm taking an enforced break until the first. Not a complete break, but just not typing as much to give my hands a chance to recover.


This week, I'm going to start introducing the main characters from Fallen: Vendetta (book 1). First up is Samandriel, one of my fallen angels.


I've also included a mini encyclopedia entry a bit further down. This one will introduce you to the Creator Gods, Illdir and Tatia.


And there are a few other goodies, too. I hope you enjoy them. :)


Happy reading!


Lois

The News:

I've written a brand new short story for Halloween this year. You can find it here. It's called "The Hellhound," and it's from the Fallen series I've been planning (which I talk more about below). Zachariel and Archan make a bet that Archan can scare Zach. Zach says he's not afraid of anything. He says, "I've seen it all. Done it all. Had it all done to me. I'm still here, ain't I? Nothin' scares me anymore." Archan swears he can come up with something, and boy, does he ever! But is it enough to scare an angel who's spent nearly 13K years "down under?" You'll have to read it to find out! ;)

I wasn't really going for scary with this one. I just wanted to give you an entertaining read that fits the Halloween theme. Hopefully, I've done my job. If you read it and enjoy it, would let me know in the comments below? I love getting constructive feedback, and even a simple "I liked it" would help. And feel free to share the page's link with other people you think might enjoy it. It would help me a lot!

I've been hard at work on this website. There's still a lot of work for me to do, but you can now find some freewriting and short stories here.

My personal favorites are the short stories, "The Cellar Dwellers (A Hawkins Short Story)" and "The Gallant Ones (An Of Blood & Magic Short Story, Part I" and "The Gallant Ones (An Of Blood & Magic Short Story, Part II)". However, if you read the Of Blood & Magic short stories, you really should start at the beginning. They tell a larger overall story, and the first two stories, which are the longest, actually give some background that sets the stage for what is to come. "The Gallant Ones" is the most "fantasy-like" story of the bunch, but it does fit in with the rest.

"The Cellar Dwellers" was inspired by Halloween. I'd planned to have it posted this past Halloween, but I was too late getting it up. It's actually my top favorite at the moment.

To give you some background on this story, and the Hawkins storyverse, in general, Jonas Hawkins is a young deputy marshal from Arcona (on my fantasy world, Illdirin). He's hunted more paranormal beings than most on his world have ever dreaded encountering. He comes from a family of hunters, but he never wanted to get into it full-time. His brother, Jesse, on the other hand, will hunt anything with even the slightest paranormal gift because it's what he loves to do, and he'll break the rules to do it, which irritates Jonas to no end. The closest Jonas has come to hunting paranormal beings is hunting paranormal fugitives as a deputy marshal in the Arconian Marshal Service's Paranormal Division. He has a team of people he trusts backing him up, and they obey the law, as he does. Unfortunately, in "The Cellar Dwellers," Jonas finds himself at a haunted house out in the middle of nowhere with the one person he'd rather not encounter: his brother. But his brother isn't the only one giving Jonas a hard time in this old house. ;)

As for the Of Blood & Magic stories, I'll explain what the lead character and his trusty sidekick are. Lukas Walker and Vaughn Gallant are sentinels, people born with an immortality gene that becomes activated when they die a violent death. The original purpose of sentinels was to record history, but somewhere along the line it become more about protecting mortals from the forces of darkness, though they still maintain their original purpose, as well.

This series is kind of a The Walking Dead meets Highlander mashup, although the flesh eating beasties come later, as does my own version of a Six Million Dollar Man type character.

Adam, the main hunter in the first twelve stories, has always been taught -- usually by having it beat into him by his hunter dad -- that people with magic or paranormal abilities are evil, that they need to be eradicated. He's never questioned it, at least not until he meets Lukas and Vaughn. Meeting them changes everything, but to know how, you'll have to read the stories!

The current plan is to post two stories per week for the next three weeks. After that, it will be one per week. This is just for the Of Blood & Magic series. I have another modern treasure hunting fantasy short story I'm working on, and when it's finished, I'll post that, as well. And I'll always post a blog entry to let y'all know when something new is up, so keep watching your Facebook feeds, because that's most likely where I'll be posting them.

I'm also working on another possible series of short stories involving a fallen angel (Samandriel, mentioned in the previous blog entry) and an immortal. I'm looking forward to planning out their short stories, as well.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. If you read any of the short stories, let me know below how you liked (or didn't like) them. I'm eager to know what you think!

And for curiosity's sake, what do you think of the concept of paranormals/psychics/celestials being hunted by mortals? What do you like or dislike about it? What intrigues you about the idea? I'm curious to know!

Until later,

Lois