Okay, so, I know, November isn't even over​ yet, but I have amazing news: I DID IT! 

Adjustments is finished!  The first draft clocks in at about the same length as The Proper Bearing, and I'm letting it marinate for about a month while I work on fresh new art and the fifth-anniversary edition of From The Desk of Buster Heywood.  I've got the start of a roll-out timeline for things, but I'm waiting for some news outside of my author life before I start throwing down release dates and setting anything in stone.   I will tell you that it is well worth the wait: everything has come together in just the way I hoped it would, with a few surprises and new details that I hadn't predicted when I started.  

If you know anyone who needs to catch up on previous installations of Lines of Power, or if you would like a signed copy for that special someone, I have some printed stock here that I can ship out!   As of this blog post, I have the following in stock:

• From The Desk of Buster Heywood - Vol. 1 - 3 copies
• In The Cards - Vol. 2 - 2 copies
• The Proper Bearing - Vol. 3 - 4 copies

Each novel is $16.00, with an additional $4.00 to cover shipping and handling costs within the United States.  If you order a signed copy from me personally by emailing me, I will also draw the character of your choice on the inside cover, and include an exclusive Lines of Power bookmark!  This is the same treatment folks get at my book signings, and adds a personal touch you won't get from Amazon, Lulu, or Smashwords.  If you wish to order one of each, there is a Bundle Sale Price​ of $40.00.    Think outside the box: books make great gifts for charity, as well!  Every year, I donate a signed set for the NH Children's Auction, along with a disclaimer that they are suited for age sixteen and up due to some of the content.

The deadline for ordering signed copies for arrival varies depending on the type of mail.  I usually ship via Media Mail/First Class.  To allow time for processing, deadlines are as follows:

I've taken the dates from the US Postal Service website as a guideline.  If you are shipping to a military base, please refer to their chart and mark the deadline two dates earlier to allow for the aforementioned processing!  If you would like me to include a personalized holiday note, I would be happy to do that as well.

As ever, I am grateful to all of my readers for your continued support - not just as "people who buy my books".  It goes so much more deep than that: you are on this creative journey with me.  While I write these stories so that they make it out into the world, knowing that there are people who are falling in love with some of these characters as much as I am helps keep me writing when it is difficult to do so.  I wish you all the best in the season to come, and if I get swept up in it all and don't find my way back here before the New Year, my love to you and all of yours.

​Until next time, I remain your hostess,

It may have only been seven days (I haven't written yet today - this came first), but I already feel like this is my best NaNo in a few years.  I've stayed a day ahead of my word count goal almost consistently, and there are only three chapters left in Adjustments!   THREE!   ...  It was two, but then I realized that there would be a lot of things going on, and splitting the last chapter to allow my readers some breathing room was probably a good idea.    Earlier this week, I got to write a scene that I've been looking forward to ever since I published From the Desk of Buster Heywood ....  Buster, himself, was less than pleased, but don't worry, he'll be okay.   He's got a good support network when it comes to dealing with what I throw his way.

As any of you who are participating - or see participants around your social media of choice - may know, NaNoWriMo updated and overhauled their website over the course of the year, in honor of its 20th anniversary.  I'm still acclimating to it, and those looking for blogs about the pros and cons of the new layout will probably be able to find them with ease - this isn't one of those.  I do like the lighter color scheme, and the addition of clip art: it makes it a little more fun to check in and add to my word count.  I'm not a big user of the forums or other site features, because I signed up to write for an entire month, and it's far too easy to lose my focus and go clicking around to other people's projects (yeah, you know me) building my beta-reading wishlist. 

Right now, my word count is at 16,390 and today's benchmark is 13,336, so ... I'm rocking it.  1,667 words a day is turning out to equal about an hour of work if the words aren't fighting me, and since it's been so long since I felt able to really dive in here, they're not fighting me at all.  I still have a few worries about what, exactly, is going to go down in the climactic scene, but sometimes I have to treat writing as though I'm sitting in a theatre, writing the play script as it gets improvised in front of me, and trust the characters to do their work.   Usually, when I do this, they surprise me in some really great ways:  Buster's conversation with Cameron at Charlie's Bar in the first novel is a great example of this: it's how I ended up with the coconut rum anecdote ... something which comes up again here in Adjustments and really helped me learn a little more about my favorite anxious accountant.    So far this month, it's also given me a place for Troy to share a crucial story about how he got to Aviario, and is quietly driving an unexpected wedge between some of the villains.  Ambition is a dangerous thing - I just have to figure out how much it's going to cost them.

I'm keeping it short and sweet this time, so I can get back to things, but next time you can expect another update, and maybe a character or place feature.   I'll see you then! 

​Until then, I remain your hostess,

It may seem strange to highlight a protagonist here, particularly the reluctant hero of my first novel.  Buster Heywood is so very much in the spotlight already that he's even the only character to get name-dropped in a title.  But he's had a very, very, long journey to become the character you see on the page, and with Adjustments being his second appearance, I thought it fitting to give you a glimpse into that journey.

Long-time followers of this blog will know that I'm not shy about sharing his inspiration: comedic character actor James Urbaniak, primarily known for his voice work on Adult Swim veteran The Venture Brothers.  He's a little more widely known now for the Hulu series Difficult People, but he took a turn on the dark side for a single season of a show called Kidnapped... and that's where Buster's roots really took hold.  Originally, he was meant to be a villain, menacing June Slovich in a storyline that never completely fleshed out.  The more I tried to get to know him, the more he defined himself, as most of my characters do: and I got a clear picture of someone who wasn't creepy or awful, just extremely awkward and misunderstood.  I started to wonder how someone like Buster could wind up in a villainous role ... but before I could really start thinking about it, my own life kicked into overdrive.

I'd been working an office job for a year and a half: the longest position I'd held since college.  Without warning, the business closed because its owner had been involved in illegal activities 99% of his employees had no clue about.  I lost my job, then my apartment, and a decent amount of professional credibility.  Despite this, I knew how lucky I was to not have been involved.  In the aftermath, between looking for a new job and putting my life back together, I found Buster's story without much problem at all.  Mind you, Loren Jarvon isn't based on my former boss in any capacity, nor are Daniel and Jeremiah, or any of the victims of their collaboration.  But Buster's realization that he had to become his own advocate was a lesson I taught him so that I could teach myself.   

Like Buster, I live with anxiety and panic attacks.  My debut was a way to work through what happened when I lost that job, yes, but writing Buster now has a better purpose, a stronger one: to show that people who struggle with mental illness can still be heroes.  In Adjustments, Buster is a little older and wiser, but he's still got his anxiety, and a hefty dose of PTSD on top of it all (thanks, Loren).  In spite of these, he is still trying to be his best self and answer what he's realized is his calling: to use his uncanny knack for observation in service of the community he's come to adore.    ​

A friend on Twitter recently asked which character I thought resembled me the most, and there was no hesitation whatsover: I chose Buster.  I like to think I'm not quite as particular, awkward, or as much of a slave to my habits, but we both notice patterns, hate crowds, struggle with the spoken word, and prefer the familiar.  We also share a love for old books, puzzles, and diner food.  Buster's favorite restaurant, The Fountain, is based on a place I've loved since childhood ... and in an amusing case of life imitating art, I live within walking distance of it.   I didn't, when I started writing.   Funny how things turn out, sometimes, isn't it?  Either way, the muse is quite happy that stepping into his shoes is as easy as stepping out the door... which brings us to something we don't have in common: Buster's love of walking everywhere, or what he and his friends call Wandering. with a capital W.

A lot of events in From the Desk of Buster Heywood revolve around or begin with a Wander, and the origin of this habit was originally a flashback in the first chapter.  It slowed down the flow of the plot, though, and it is now a stand-alone story that you can find in "Finders Keepers", the free e-book I offer my readers.  I got the idea when I set out to take pictures of a local neighborhood that inspired Buster's, armed with my camera.   I didn't walk everywhere, but the more photographs I took, the more I got a clear picture of his favorite habit, and the sort of things he would notice.   Ideally, I'd share those pictures here, but an unfortunate hard drive failure in 2014 took them away from me.  They live on in words...

Please join me next week, when I'll share the inspiration behind The Fountain in my Sense of Place feature.  In the meantime, if you want a decent representation of how Buster gets squeaky when he's agitated, I invite you to enjoy a skit by the inspiration himself.  (Word to the wary: he does drop a couple of f-bombs.)

Until next week, I remain your hostess,