November Booksigning

Yes, I did warn you I'd be talking more about this one, and so I am. Haha! I'm really excited about going--some of my favorite writing people will also be there--and we had such a good time at the March event that I know this is going to be wonderful, too. It'll be even more wonderful if you can come join us there! The venue was terrific, and it's a pretty easy location to reach from the nearby highway. I've got all my books stocked up, so I'm ready to load up the car and get on the highway in two weeks! It'll be a fun day to kick off the holiday season. If you click on the graphic above, it will take you to the event's Facebook page, where our amazing hostess Stephanie Julian has been introducing the attending authors!

I do still have a few things on my weekend chores list (though I might skip one of them in favor of working on my revisions, but don't tattle!), so I'll get right to this week's snippet from Protecting Medusa.

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            She frowned into the skillet, stirring more vigorously than she needed to. Had he really been spying on her? For how long? She didn’t even remember the last date she’d had. 

            When her mother’s car pulled into the driveway beside hers, she inhaled deeply, forcing some of the tension from her shoulders and neck. After three days of forced solitude, she wanted to see her family. Very much.

            Jason burst through the back door. “Aunt Phila!”

            She smiled and held out her arms, bracing when he flung himself at her. “Hi, baby.” She scooped him up, even though he really was getting too big for that. She kissed one of his cheeks, then his mouth, then his other cheek, while he giggled. It was their ritual for whenever she’d been away. A kiss for each day they’d been apart.

            He wrapped his arms around her neck, tight. “I missed you.”

            “You know I missed you, too.” She caught sight of her mother coming in and gave her a strained smile. Her mother lifted one eyebrow, and Philomena shook her head. “How was school today, buddy?” She set him on his feet and unzipped his coat.

            He shrugged out of his superhero backpack and his coat, bouncing the whole time. “You know the hamster in our room? Harvey? He got out of his cage during recess today, so we had to crawl around looking for him till Nita found him hiding under the bookcase in the back corner. Oh, and we got a new girl in our class today. Her name is Rose, and she has red hair and a million billion freckles on her face. And Eddie brought a picture of his new German Shepherd puppy with him. Eddie’s gonna train him to be a guard dog an’ keep bad guys away. He said I should come see him this weekend. Can I go?”

            Philomena relaxed a bit more, listening to him while she heated some frozen vegetables and set the table.

            When Jason came up for air, he frowned at the table. “Hey, how comes there’s four plates, Aunt Phila?”

            Her spine stiffened, and she took a quick breath as she turned from the stove.

            “Because I came to visit, little guy,” Ryder said from the foot of the stairs.

            “Daddy!” Jason shrieked and met his father halfway across the room.

            Ryder’s grin was as big as Jason’s, and he swung his son around in a big hug while Jason clung tightly to him.

            Philomena watched as they greeted one another, doing silly guy stuff--funny handshakes and high-fives, and hugging again--and her heart squeezed in her chest, painfully. She’d never seen such naked delight on her nephew’s face. Or imagined it in his father’s.

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I had to add something else this week to my to-do list for this month: adjusting the Thanksgiving menu. Hubby has some new dietary limitations that mean we need to make some changes going forward. I don't think I'm going to persuade him to switch to my pescatarian diet since he's not a seafood fan, but he'll have to lean more into the veggie side of my diet now, which is going to be a huge adjustment for him. Wish us luck! Haha!

This week's list includes finishing up my signing prep list as much as I can without loading up the car, plus working out that dinner plan. And I'd really like to finish these revisions so I can start to make more concrete plans for releasing this new book, likely in the early part of the new year, and hopefully followed in short order by at least one more in the series (I'd like two more in quick succession, but we'll see how things go; I know life sometimes gets in the way, hahahahaha!). And I'd really like to get some reading time in (new Nora release month!).

Have you started on Thanksgiving prep yet, if you live in the U.S? Are you getting in some reading time, or are you already in full-on holiday prep mode? I'd love to hear about it!

Until next week, happy reading!