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And it IS a good morning here. We have power! And heat! And lights!
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Something called a bomb cyclone came through the area on Tuesday afternoon. It knocked out power everywhere. We lost power at the start, and it didn’t come back on until Saturday night.
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Normally, being without power isn’t too bad. We have a wood-burning stove in the main house to keep us warm when we’re out here, then we go into town every now and again for services.
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Unfortunately, when I say everywhere? I mean this entire area. We had to drive 45 minutes to find places that had power and cell phone service. The local town didn’t get power or cell service until Friday. So any time we wanted anything, it was at least 45 minutes to food or services.
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Here’s a picture of the power outages in our area as of Sunday morning. Note: we live south of that huge band of red. So while our side of the street has power, the neighbors just across the street don’t.
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Now, imagine that map completely covered in red. That’s what it looked like before Friday.
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I was just starting to recover from Vegas. Only partly there when this happened, completely taking the wind out of our sails. It’s going to take another few days to recover from this, now.
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The good news is that I was able to start a new short story, that I’ll finish today. It was one of the ones that I was planning to write. I still have a couple more due. However, tomorrow I’ll get back to writing the novel.
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On Saturday, before the power came back, we went out to lunch with a bunch of writers, our usual writer’s lunch. It was lovely, as always to connect with people, to learn about what’s going on with their art, as well as talk about the business and craft of writing.
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I’m flirting with going back to a Business for Breakfast book that I’ve never finished, about your author brand. I talked with people about it at the lunch. It all boils down to digging deep and figuring out your brand, what it means to you, then playing around with ideas for how to express that in everything you do.
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One of the panels I was on at Author Nation was, “What’s My Genre?” Both Blaze and I were pounding on Author as Brand. I don’t have to brand myself as a Fantasy Writer. I am the Brand, and I write all over the place.
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At the author signing event at the end of the con (RAVE), Johnny B Truant had a marvelous poster expressing this:
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Honestly? I’m considering doing something like this, only for MY brand and MY books.
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Hey! It's November! Ice & Berries is now generally available!
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A cozy fantasy tale of friendship, work, and going out into the world. Oh, and snow cones!
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When the Ice Elf Elbriarien Itamar—or just El, for short—fails to get her Mage Mark after her apprenticeship, she decides to leave the frozen north and head south.
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Someplace where snow doesn't stay piled up in corners during the heat of summer. Maybe walk barefoot in the sand next to the ocean. Perhaps even chuck out all her learning and take work in a bar. (A fate worse than death, at least according to her parents.)
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However, without her Mage Mark, El cannot legally practice spells or do complicated magic. Just little things, cantrips native to her Ice Elf heritage.
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Join her as she makes her way in a new life and a new city, finding friends, business opportunities, a love of snow cones, and perhaps, if she's lucky, a sapphic love as well.
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To celebrate the publication of my new cozy fantasy novel, my first cozy fantasy novel is now on sale for $0.99!
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The spell to transform Killian the champion fails. Instead of a worm, he’s transformed into a wyrm. Swell. Now what? Thus begins the story of Talon the dragon and his eventual battle with a god. Or something like that. It’s a lovely cozy fantasy filled with humor, found family, gods and myths, and breaking of the fourth wall.
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Also, Blaze has a new writing book out that some of you may be interested in. He gave a talk about the subject at Author Nation, and had people tell him it was one of the best talks at the conference.
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