Happy December! We're nearly halfway through December and I just realized I hadn't put up a blog post for this month. OOPS! But, to be fair, I've had plenty going on. Personally: We are still minus a Christmas tree. No, we haven't gotten it up, yet. But I'm hoping this weekend it will happen! We don't usually take this long, but we've had some things going on. One of those things was that we had to replace our washing machine. Our previous one decided that it had enough of our household and no, thank you it would not work properly any longer. Poor thing limped along until it wouldn't drain out the water in the clothes (I had to squeeze them the best I could and pop them in the dryer for longer). But that's at an end since we now have a brand new washer, which we've had for about a week and it's doing okay so far. Not long ago, Averie Cat (that's his social media nickname) had some health issues that made me quite concerned about him. Fo...

  Happy November! The months need to quit changing just when I get used to one!  I meant to post this post earlier in the month, but I forgot! 😬 Let's see... I continue to query Sugar & Frost. Responses often take a while. I love this story so much that I'm hopeful it will do better in the query trenches than my other manuscripts, but only time will tell. I did make an "Agent's Guide" (which has been something that I saw pop up on X/Twitter and decided it might be fun to have one for S&F). The words on it might be a little hard to see in this condensed version of it, but maybe if you click on the graphic it'll be easier to read. I've got some other graphics I've made for Sugar & Frost , too. Some I've used, some I've done just for fun. November is an interesting flurry of election, Thanksgiving, and Christmas things all happening at once. I'm not sure what our Thanksgiving plans are, yet.  In terms of Christmas, my husband has...

  Happy October Everyone! I'm posting this later in the day than I normally would. But, sometimes it's fun to do something a tiny bit different. (In this case put up a blog post after 4pm my time, when it would normally be up early in the morning). October always used to give me a sort of "giddy" feeling when I was growing up. I guess because my birthday is this month (Oct. 15th). But sometimes, on rare occasions, my part of Texas would start getting cooler. I always liked the little nip in the air that hinted at the holidays to come. The day I'm writing this post it was 88 degrees Fahrenheit earlier in the day, but now is up to 90. Hardly autumn-feeling weather. I'm going along querying Sugar & Frost (the manuscript's "mood board" is the image in the center). I do hope an agent gives me an offer. I love this story so much! It's fun and whimsical and definitely romantic. Sugar & Frost's Mood Board Some people call "romance-fo...

Happy Friday Everyone! September has arrived! For some reason August seemed a little slower than other months, but then I thought how about how school days started back up and I was like "Wait...didn't we just enter summertime?" Let me think....August was busy. Some things that have been important to my family over the years have closed. Whether price, attendance, or whatever, they closed. One of those has been resolved, while we work on others. As for writing...yes, progress is being made. I've been editing Sugar & Frost and I still love it. I've been editing for a while, now, but polishing my manuscripts the best I can before querying is important. I really hope readers will like it / love it, too. It's such a fun story! I've also made progress on other things I need for querying. Major work on my blurb is done, thanks to the help of my long-time critique partner. When I sent it to her, and she sent me back her suggestions, ideas started coming. I t...

  Happy August! Wow, it's the beginning (or, rather continuation, if you go by what the stores have had in stock for awhile) of back-to-school activity...already. Didn't summer begin like yesterday? Somehow this year has seemed to zip past me at a rate I didn't expect. Then again, I've had plenty to fill my days. Auto insurance issues continue for the Averie clan. I won't go into detail, but let's just say I'm not impressed. 😑 Oh, and car issues aren't fun, either, but whatever. Just gotta keep going and trust that the Lord will pull you through (the only way I know how to manage). Hurricane Beryl barreled through my part of Texas and we were without power for about 3-4 days. Not long when you consider how some people were out for at least 2 weeks (maybe more?) But, luckily it wasn't worse. (Someone in my neighborhood had a tree fall on a car! We saw them working on it, they did manage to get the car out. I don't know if it was damaged...it look...

  Happy Tuesday Everyone! It's...July? Yep. July. Can you believe it? I know I often say this, but it feels like the month went by very quickly. Or maybe it just seems that way because of all the weird things happening in my life. And, yes, it's hot. (But when isn't it during June and July in Texas?) Real Life: At the end of May, lightning hit my car (at least, that's what we think happened, didn't SEE it, but based on what we know, that's what we think). Nobody was in it, but the car got damaged and wouldn't work properly. Insurance had it towed and thus began a saga (which is still going on at the time of the writing of this blog post). It's been about 3-4 weeks. We had a rental for a few days, and then had to return it. Then my husband's car had a problem and had to be towed to the dealership. So, husband talked to insurance and told them we were getting a rental because we needed transportation and he needed to get to work. Hopefully all this ge...

  Happy June Everyone, June is here! Yep, it's here. May was more eventful in my real life. So, off we go: Writer's Life Updates:  Nothing fun to report on the query front with the YA Fantasy I've been querying. I still have a couple out. Editing: I've got a YA Fantasy with a Christmassy theme to it. I'm enjoying getting it polished. I hope to start querying it, soon. I'm not sure what 'soon' is, yet, though. Writing: WIPs (Works In Progress) that I'm writing are on hold (for the most part) while I edit. Other stuff: I fixed up my Mood Board for the YA Fantasy (Christmassy) story and that's up on my social media accounts (Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram). As for real life...strap on your safety belts: it's a wild ride! There have been several storms in my part of the world (especially in May). We're all safe, which I thank God for that.  One particular storm did something strange (well, strange for us, it's never happened before to...

  Happy Thursday! It's May....which means the year is almost half-over. Wow. Well, my May is shaping up to be pretty busy: QUERYING : So, I'm querying one of my YA Fantasies. (If you keep up with X(Twitter), or Facebook, or even Instagram (I don't post on Instagram often, but I updated it). The Forgotten is the story I'm querying. It's a fairytale. I've got more-recently-published comps (that is, books that are similar somehow to it) in my query letters, but if you're a fan of Once Upon A Time , I could see you liking The Forgotten . We'll see what happens there. But it's close to my heart for a variety of reasons. EDITING: Saturday, April 28, 2024 I finished writing my Christmassy-type YA Fantasy, Sugar & Frost . This was a fun one to write as I leaned more into a whimsical type approach (although there are some serious moments). I played with some of the Christmas-themed stories (Kringle, Jack Frost, little Christmassy type town). (Fun Fact:...

  Happy April Everyone! April has sprung or arrived or hopped in (whatever image suits you). The leaves are returning to our trees and I've seen some flowers around in different places. How about you? My Easter was very nice. We went to Mass (Catholic Christian liturgy). I really like the joy involved. It was beautiful. In the evening, we went over to one of my sister's house and had dinner with her and her family, my parents, and one of my aunts who had come into town. It was fun. My father made apple pie (one of his specialties) and my sister cooked (delicious).  Updates? I think I've mentioned this before...I've been working on a Christmassy-mythology inspired type of novel. It's a YA Fantasy (of course...because I like to incorporate fun type of magic in my work). It's going pretty well. I'm getting closer and closer to the end of writing the manuscript and then I can move into edits. It's mostly whimsical and light, with some serious moments. I'...

Happy Thursday Everybody, It's March!  February seemed a little long to me (and not because of Leap Day) so on March 1st I was like "Oh wait...it's is March. I need to flip my wall calendar." So, what's going on? Let's see...I continue on the query road (nothing I'm ready to report, yet). As for writing, I decided to take one of my WIPs (Works In Progress) and write it with a completely different plot. And then, I got another idea and had to work on that! I try to focus on one WIP at a time because it helps me move forward, but sometimes you gotta get that other idea going before you can finish the previous manuscript. Sometimes the new manuscript becomes the one you finish first.  When I started with this blog post I was at a loss as to what I should say--not that I didn't have things going on, it's just that when I'm querying a manuscript, I don't say much about the process publicly. The same is true for when I'm writing a manuscript....

  Happy February! Okay, for the first time in a while I can say that a month didn't zip past me at lightning speed. I don't know if that's good or bad. Just that January didn't seem to go by quite as fast as most of last year seemed. Perhaps the lack of "zipping by" has to do with the fact that my eldest had a bacterial infection near the end of December and then 2 weeks later had Covid and a week later I had a bacterial infection (different one from eldest). So for awhile there, it was a bit crazy at my house. Luckily the rest of January was pretty healthy. This February has a couple of particularly interesting things about it...for one, there are 29 days this year for this month (most of the time it's 28) so Happy Leap Year! Query news...not really anything I'm ready to report on, so I'll let you know when there is. Writing news:  I have several unfinished manuscripts and after some revision work that I did for like 2-3 months, I'm back to th...

  Happy January, 2024, and Friday! If December snuck up on me, January just blew right in without me being ready to be done with December. Christmas cards got mailed Wednesday (as in January 3, 2024!) Yeah, I was that behind. But I think my close friends and my family members are a forgiving bunch and won't mind getting their Christmas cards a little late. My Christmas was fairly nice. I had a sparkly red dress this year (see my Instagram for a photo). I love sparkles. I don't always wear them, but I do like them. I did refrain from purchasing glittery eyeshadow for Mass (Catholic Christian Church Service). A little sparkle at Mass is okay, but I don't need to be attention-grabbing there. Later in the week we ate Christmas dinner at my sister's house (no, not on Christmas Day because we were waiting for one my brothers and his family to arrive in town and they couldn't get in any earlier because of their responsibilities at home). The weekend of New Year's my el...