Hello, friends, it’s been a while. Though not by design. I kinda just glanced at the calendar and realized September was almost over. A lot happened in September, and a lot is still happening. ORACON was a smashing success (yay ORACON!) and I got to hang with some of my favorite people, including Candice Gilmer, Cassandra Chandler, Elizabeth Leandre, Heather Snow, Allison Merritt, Ellen Harger, and meet others, including Candace Havens from Entangled Publishing. It was an action-packed, informative day, and I know for a fact at least one person—ahem, Kimmie—left inspired.

Conferences are hard to describe, really. You hit the ground running and exhaust yourself before you even get out of bed, especially if you’re a part of the behind-the-scenes team. Even smaller affairs like ORACON can absolutely take it out of you. Ours is a modest convention, but a powerhouse all the same. And it’s great for smaller communities, especially when attending larger conventions—whether due to time, distance, expense, or all the above—seems impossible.

Among other things that happened at ORACON, placed 1st in the Weta Nichols Writing Competition in the Category of Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Fantasy among fiercely stiff competition. Seriously, Allison Merritt’s work is amazing. And when I awoke the morning after receiving the results and confirmed the whole 1st place thing wasn’t a fever dream, I (finally) finished Hellion. It still needs a heavy edit before I send it to my crit partners, but I’m hoping for early 2016 as probable release dates, depending on what I do with it.

I really like the world in Hellion, but at the end of the day, the Sinners and Saints world is where I feel most at home. So I’m finally writing Book 5—full on this time. I keep waffling between projects, but the truth is, this is where I want to be. And the timing is great, too, since I’m about to leave for a few days for the Deep South, where I (for whatever reason) do my best writing. I hope I can crack this book out between now and year’s end. That’s my goal, anyway.

And yet…

As much I’m screaming “yes” to be back in Lucifer’s playground, Book 5 is definitely competing for attention among other projects. I have half a dozen things I want to be writing and at least four things I want to be rewriting. Yet I am not a fulltime author, and I don’t think I’d want to be—writing’s what I do for me, and it wouldn’t be fun if I was always worried about the bottom-line. So I’ll tackle these things as they come up, and as the mood takes me.

What could go wrong?

(don’t answer)

Love in the Time of Conferences

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