When is the Next Book Coming?

June 14, 2022

When is the Next Book Coming?

When Is the Next Book Coming?

Dear Readers,

Many have written to me to ask when the next book is coming. It was close to completion (a couple more passes through to edit) a year or more ago but, like many of you, my life was thrown into great upheaval--both bad and good in this case. There was job loss, resume overhaul, job search, kids suddenly home from high school and college.

The time of my kids being home could have been very stressful. Instead, they all had a great attitude of Let's get down to business, get jobs, and get this house paid for! They were all happy to see their brother home from college, despite the reason, and I view those months as a unique blessing--especially in contrast to what they might have been. Life is 99% about attitude.

We ended up with several moves--the kids to their father's new house farther away from the violence happening to close to our home last year, me to an apartment, marriage, moving to my husband's house and now, moving to the house we bought together! It's been a whirlwind and a lot of packing and sending carload after carload to Goodwill!

Our house sold so fast that we ended up, practically speaking, homeless for three weeks until we could close on our new house. But it's been a beautiful and relaxing time living in an RV in the northern woods.

In the meantime, at the same time I lost my job teaching lessons, editing jobs poured in from Ilona Parunakova--a phenomenal person whose books I highly recommend!--and a return to co-writing with Kendall Price as we are now working on 220 BC, the sequel to 221 BC.

Ilona is a force of nature who proves that life is all about attitude. Some of her books, available and forthcoming, are: Bella's Butterfly, Royal Grand Berries, Am I Godfident?, Unleashing Your Potential, and Unapologetic. Ilona writes in Opium of the Almond Tree about her life growing up in Soviet Armenia, the persecution of Armenians and her own family's tragic losses in those days, of being discriminated against because, having a Ukranian mother, she didn't look like the other Armenians; of surviving the war years after the fall of the Soviet Union and making the decision to keep going and succeed regardless.

In Godfident Voices, she collects stories from people around the world, of overcoming difficulties. I have included my own story, one I rarely tell, in this book, although under a pseudonym. But it's not hard to figure out.

Her other books are about the keys to success and I think well worth reading.

I've also kept busy with my own projects. I compiled the second Gabriel's Horn anthology of new poetry in traditional forms, Startled by: NATURE 2020 and did some online 'tours' with the poets included in the book. I've designed the cover and started accepting submissions for our third anthology, Startled by: LOVE 2021.

In my brief interim in my apartment, I began a memoir called Love in a Snot Green House. Sounds delightful, doesn't it! In 2004, while I was still in Washington state, my (then) husband was pressured into buying a house (by a relative) that was wildly inappropriate for our family and thus had a significant negative impact on how we were able to live and what I was able to earn teaching music lessons.

The title comes from the fact that we literally couldn't name the color of the house. Some people thought it was yellow, some a peculiar shade of green; others thought maybe beige or very light brown was the best descriptor. One day one of the kids said it's sort of the color of snot. We all studied the house (while stroking our beards thoughtfully no doubt!) and no one could really argue the point! It was, indeed the color of snot. And somehow--that just seems right for that house!

It's a story about family, joy, and love--despite our outer circumstances, despite our background, despite what other people may be doing around us. I look forward to getting back to it soon!

After moving into my husband's home, and our honeymoon to Florida, I began collecting some of his poetry and lyrics to songs he's written since we met in 2014. That compilation became the basis for a joint project we put out on May 11, 2021--On Wings of Love and Light: poetry and essays on love. The book delves into what love is really about: honor, sacrifice, giving to one another, laughter.

As I've sat here in our RV waiting for our house, I was able to finish up another project I'd started-- The Four Spheres: habits for a better life. This is a journal based on an old concept that's gone by many names, that we should engage in activities every day, in each of four realms: physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental. An introduction discusses this and the journal gives space to write goals by month and by year and to record what is done in each of these four areas daily--thus helping to build habits that change lives.

I've continued my monthly interviews with authors at Books and Brews with Laura Vosika and Michael Agnew. We've had some really wonderful guests ranging from gut-wrenching non-fiction like Forty Thieves on Saipan co-written with the son of the commander of that unit, which recounts the story of the toughest Marines who helped take Saipan during World War II, to the brilliantly funny Melonie Johnson who bills her light-hearted romance novels as fun and flirty and a wee bit dirty!

I have also resurrected the program I started, just before the world turned upside down, called Step into a Story, where I interview authors. Coming up are Shawn David Brink and Linda Wisnieski.

With a bit of extra time here and there, I've gotten back to marketing my own books and those of Gabriel's Horn authors. I've started once again appearing on other people's podcasts and shows. You can find me on DK Marley's program

and on Look Who's Famous with J.B. FayVour. Notice the plants! I was so proud of keeping plants alive that I put them all around the camera!

Now, as we are about to move into our new house, as I've wrapped up a number of smaller projects, as my days of moving are over hopefully for the rest of my life, I will finally be getting back to Castle of Dromore.

MORE DETAILED INFORMATION AT the GABRIEL'S HORN BOOK CLUB page.