This is the longest I've gone without posting on my blog in almost two years.

It's been an interesting few weeks, my friends, and I'm so sad that I haven't been posting on this blog. I wanted to take today's post and share a bit about what life things have been happening, what's new in my book world, and explain my plan moving forward. 

Three weeks ago, I sold my house and moved. There were a lot of reasons why my husband and I decided to sell when we did, and we were able to find a place with a lot more space for a very similar monthly price to what we were already paying, so we went for it. The moving process was simple enough, but it was pretty stressful. We had 48 hours after our sale was recorded to be completely vacated from the premises, and we weren't able to get into the new place until the house actually sold. So, in essence, we had two days to do everything - moving, cleaning, all of it. 

And, thanks to the help of some truly magnificent family members, we did it! 

Five days after we moved, I had a surgery consultation appointment. I have had carpel tunnel in both wrists for over three years (without being able to figure out what it was), and I had finally gotten some answers, including a solution. 

After my surgery consultation, I scheduled to have both wrists taken care of in the middle of November, but by that Friday, they called me back and asked if I wanted to fill a cancelled spot the following Monday. It was sooner than I had expected, and we still hadn't finished unpacking everything, but it actually worked much better with my work schedule. 

So, I had surgery on both hands. 

I'm still very sore, and I've had to limit the amount of things I do with my hands (who knew we do SO MUCH with our hands?), but I'm getting there. I can now type pretty well for short amounts of time with little discomfort or soreness. 

So, I'm very sorry it's been so long since I wrote any blog posts. My plan now is to take a little bit of time each day over the next couple of weeks to build up a content store, so I have posts to share with you even when life gets unpredictable. 

Now, what's going on in my world of books?

Joyful, Grateful, Hopeful has been out for almost a month already (WHAT?!) and it has definitely been most popular among an older female audience. I'm not certain yet how many sales it has had so far, because some of my paperwork is still packed up. But I should know in the next week!

The final book in the Bound Trilogy just came back from a developmental editor, so implementing the suggested edits will be my large writing time focus for the next several weeks. I am SO excited to get this book ready to release, and I've got big plans for the trilogy once it's completed. 

In the little bit of time I had for writing between moving, working, and getting surgery, I have outlined my next novel, and I'm so bummed I haven't had time to actually get into writing it yet, because I think it's going to be awesome! 

What's on the docket to release for the rest of 2025? 
AzureStar Press is releasing The Little Red Fergie by author Gary R. Motte (and illustrated by me) THIS SATURDAY, November 1st. It's a children's book about a little red tractor who experiences all the ups and downs of life as he ages. 

I will also be releasing one more children's book this year, one that I wrote early in the spring of this year and have very slowly been chipping away at illustrations for. The story is titled The Boy and The Stone and tells of a little boy who finds a skipping stone that catches his attention on his walk by the riverside. This book should release in paperback, hardcover and ebook on December 1st. 

That's it for now! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week, and I'll see you (more frequently) as the year winds down. 

Keep writing. Stay awesome.