Watch for me on ‘Grimm’ tomorrow night, Friday Feb. 3rd on NBC. It’ll happen fast! If you blink you’ll miss me!

The cover art for Murder of Crows is in! This illustration was done by A.M. Sartor. You can find her work here. I can’t stop staring! She did such an amazing job of capturing the mood of the story and the energy! Now I’m super-stoked to get the whole book up and launched!

“I haven’t been this scared since the night before I drove out on the BlissQuest,” I said. “That night I was in a sleeping bag on a hardwood floor in my bare apartment, thinking, “What the hell am I doing?”” And Jessica said, “Good. You should be scared, it’s good for you. You should do [...]

The first disappointing piece of truth you will discover about indie publishing is: there is no proven method for success. The first exciting piece of truth about indie publishing is: there is no proven method for success. Furthermore, with the massive surge in e-publishing and indie authors – the definition of success, m

Dad: You sound sick. Me: Oh, I was crying. Dad: What? Why? Me: I was writing. Killed a character. Dad: *laughs* That’s so cute. Me: ….

How many of you have encountered a true Burgabesch? It’s a slithering, slimy creature that sneaks into your room in the later hours. It leaves a sticky trail across the carpet to the foot you’ve left dangling off the edge of the bed. Then, while you’re busy editing your manuscript, constructing emails and trying your

Last night the clock ran out on the last agent with my manuscript. This morning I woke up to the beginning of my official career as an Indie Author. There were over thirty emails in my inbox that are just related to this new decision. Forty by the end of the day. For day one, [...]

For those of you finding The BlissQuest for the first time through new sites running the RSS feed – Welcome! I’m linking The BlissQuest to several author related locations so the feed continues to stream as my team and I set up for our new launch. In the next three months I’ll be making myself available [...]

Here’s the trailer for Murder of Crows, my first fantasy novel to be released this spring. This version is the placeholder until we can film the clips. Feel free to leave suggestion for the next draft!

Be sure to sign up for Jessica’s new conference! I’ll be there – you should be too! Making It in Tough & Changing Times A Mini Writing Conference January 28th, Portland, Oregon At last, a practical one-day conference filled with just the information that you need to propel your writing career to the ne

I once took a job for a well-known glassblower and sculptor. It was a short-lived position doing small artsy embellishments and odd jobs in his studio in the woods of Southwest Washington. He was nice, professional and courteous, but we didn’t talk much – well, I should say, HE didn’t talk much. He lived a [...]

True conversation at my holiday gathering. Dad: I thought that was called a “hot box”. Me: Oh, cuz, I thought a “hot box” was when your husband farts in bed and traps you under the covers. Sister: (referring to my comment) I thought that was called a “covered wagon”. Admiral Fubar: (looks at both of [...]

Happy New Year! The holidays season is finally wrapping up, normalcy can resume. It’s been a long time since I’ve been excited about a New Year, but 2012 promises events and culminations, adventure and success. What’s not exciting about all that? Mostly, I just can’t wait to release my book, ‘Murder of Crows’. (

So the holiday season has officially begun; parties and adventures abounding, along with the mysterious pressure to find a mate. I went to a couple of parties on Saturday and had the good fortune of meeting some new and interesting people. Of course, when you’re single there’s a lot of pressure to mingle, whether you’

A couple of nights ago, as I sat in bed with a batch of raw cookie dough, weeping uncontrollably and stuffing my face while crying in to the phone with a friend. “I don’t know what’s going on! What’s happening?” Then woke up the next morning to my period and went, “…Oh.” Sneaky little uterus. [...]

In talking to other authors about considering the self-publishing path, I’ve noticed an interesting split. Every published author I’ve spoken with has strongly encouraged self-publishing. Every single one has praised the convenience, the fairness of royalties, the control over creative content and the greater payoff of

Woohoo! So I finally heard my episode of Grimm will be airing in January.  Watch for the background paramedic on scene in episode 10. I’ll be putting a c-brace on a guy in a car accident. I can’t give any more away just yet. If you spot me, shout out!

Ohmigod. I’m so excited! This morning I was able to negotiate and get a quote on the music rights I want for the book trailer at a reasonable cost. I can’t even describe how excited I am about this development. A film friend has already offered to help me do the filming at an affordable [...]

Meredith Barnes of the Lowenstein Agency had an excellent post about how to understand your Beta Reader feedback. A post that couldn’t have come at a better time. One of the difficulties in incorporating Beta feedback in a rewrite, is that it’s often conflicting information. When no one can agree what needs to be fixed

As previously mentioned here about considering the self-publishing path, I’ve been doing quite a lot of research about the options and what this venture would actually entail. One reason I’ve never put much thought into self-publishing was because logically, I know it will be a tremendous amount of work that would likel

It’s been a long BlissQuest tradition to allow all sorts of hate mail through the filter. While I know I can block it, it seems silly not to allow the dissenters a chance to have their say then allow them to be called out on their spew. Bring it to the light. I don’t believe [...]

The more I’ve been reading and weighing information, I’ve come to a staggering realization about my future as a writer. I may choose to take the self-publishing route. I’ve been published by a small press. Granted, small press comes with all sorts of disadvantage from the get-go, and most of you already know my disast

My apologies for the long absence. I’ve been recovering from another lung infection, Thanksgiving and Nanowrimo. The depressing things is that I didn’t manage to do any of them well, except maybe the lung infection. TMI. So, to catch up: I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with a lovely woman I do odd jobs for and [...]

Warning: Depressing beginning but has a turnaround. It’s easy to get discouraged as a writer. As an artist. As a human being. It’s easy to have those days when life just doesn’t line up for you, again and again. When the river of suckage just keeps flowing into your daily experience, and you’re caught in [...]

Dear Universe, You and I have had our disagreements over the years. I get the impression that you see me as a somewhat bumbling dilettante with stars in my eyes and trouble at my fingertips soon to be followed by a sincere and self-deprecating mea culpa. But while I know we are worlds apart in [...]

Saturday I went to meet up with NorthernStar. We played a little pool at Backstage and then walked across the street to 3 Doors Down for some grub. Towards the end of the evening as I’d been commenting on the cute guys at pool and talking a lot about men – I looked up from [...]

Yes, it’s that time of year again. National Novel Writing Month. www.nanowrimo.org. It’s that time of year when I shut down socially (okay, more than normal) and hook up the coffee drip and pound out a bunch of words, some useable, most not so much. It has become my tradition to experiment during nanowrimo with concept

Dear friends and family, loved ones and all We are all in a bind. Financially the world is in deficit. Emotionally we are stretched. And although some of us, here or there may feel fine for the moment, a great struggle lies ahead with loss and grief and a change of ways. I am going [...]

I can’t believe how fast this autumn is flying by. Monday is Halloween already and I don’t have a costume and haven’t even bought candy for the Trick or Treaters which I usually do weeks in advance and purloin bits here and there. Nada. I haven’t even gotten out to do any solid photography of [...]