Excuse Me, Who Are You Again?

Whoa -- October 25, 2013 was the last time I posted something?  You're kidding?  You're not kidding.

Jeez.

I blame The Husband.  Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket!

Honestly, I have to admit that I'm not that great at keeping this blog up to date, but you all knew that.  I really want to, but on the list of writing things to do, something has to give and all along, this has been it.  Still, never give up, right?

Lots has happened since that long-ago update, including Wes coming back from Afghanistan, spinal fusion surgery, even a new rescued Great Dane-- yes, our fourth.  And in keeping with our theme, we named him Grendel (yes, from Beowulf), which means we now have our own personal 4-G Network.  Ha!

Grendel and Yvonne - © Amy Breckenridge Smith 2014

Grendel, who's blind and has had a really rough life that includes being shot, attacked, and who knows what else, settled right in with Goblin, Ghost and Ghoulie.  Now that it's monsoon season in Arizona, however, the poor boy is having a pretty hard time with thunder and lightning. It's not surprising that booming noises terrify him, considering he's blind, he bumbled his way around the streets, and he's been shot. A bad storm is about the only thing that will distract him from eating his meals.  Oh, and spadefoot frogs.  They terrify him.  I am not kidding.

Our sweet, deaf Ghostie is in the end stages of renal failure, but we are fighting it with everything we have and are happy to say she's hanging in there.  Yes, she's thin, but she's happy, perky, eats (most of the time, anyway), plays, wags her tail, and generally still seems to enjoy life.  As long as the quality is there for her, we'll hang on.

Goblin is also still gracing us with his big-boy presence.  If you recall, we almost lost him three days before his tenth birthday last year (read below, if you haven't already).  Since then he's doing great, and this August 23 he will be a proud eleven years old.

Front-Back: Ghoulie, Ghostie, Goblin

Ghoulie, of course, remains our little Terrorist.  Now that she's comfortable with Grendel, she's decided that he, too, is fair game for her Troll at the Top of the Stairs Game.  She is always a Daddy's girl.

Although I haven't been updating here, I have been writing.  I've done some work for IDW in their V-Wars and Zombies vs. Robots universes, and also penned a long tale for the Rocketeer anthology.  A few other tales, too, here and there.

Where am I now, you ask?  (Of course you did.)  Why, I'm in Harrington, Maine, at the Golden Apple Studio.  Fate smiled on me and I ended up one of two writers-in-residence for their first session.  I've been hammering away at the universe and structure for a new series (nope, keeping it all a secret right now!).  Lots of writing and planning, lots of photo-taking.  I left The Husband with all the worldly chores and responsibilities, so he's getting a taste of what it's like to be me (bwahahahahhaha!).  I'll head back to Arizona this weekend, just in time to probably drive home through a monsoon downpour, collapse in the house and get lots of smooches from The Husband and pups alike, then fall into bed... so I can get up bright and early on Monday and head to work.

Don't want to think about that right now.

It's raining here, although I can see Harrington Bay from the window of the studio where I go to write every day.  The cottage where I sleep is even closer.  I arrived just after Tropical Storm Arthur hit the Maine coast pretty hard, but it hasn't done much more than drizzle and get breezy.  I was kind of hoping for a good thunderstorm or two, but who knows if that'll happen.  I'm enjoying my time here and the ability to focus on the new series, but I'm missing my home, S/O and puppy lovelies more than I had any idea I would.

Back to work with me!  

::sound of whip cracking in the background::

No Better Time Than Now...

... to save a bit of moolah on some great dark fantasy and horror titles!  Think Christmas shopping.  No, really-- it's only five months away and there are some AWESOME bargains to be found here.  Speaking of an awesome bargain, The Husband's incredible short story collection, Multiplex Fandango (25% off!), is one of them.  So check out the goods and splurge splurge splurge!

Who Wants Nookie?

Whoa-- what happened to the last three months??!

Remember when you were a kid and it seemed like summer vacation, or spring break, or above all, Christmas would just NEVER get here?  Then, of course, you'd be on summer vacation for a few weeks and you'd run out of sh--, er, stuff to do, and then you felt like school was just NEVER going to start again.

Remember?

And now... oooh, now.  "What do you mean, Christmas is almost here already?  What the hell happened to the last year, anyway?!"

The older we get-- let's hear it from the choir-- the faster times flies.

Sounds silly, but it's true.  An incredible amount of stuff has happened since my last post.  Alex has been in and come back out of the Navy, and shortly after that, she and her sweetheart got married.  And, if I may preen just a bit here, she wore my wedding dress.

Yep, The Husband and I have suddenly become in-laws.  Wait... we were just dating only a couple of months ago, right?

Somewhere along the way, the right hip that's been bugging me off and on since I was (literally) a kid suddenly decided to REALLY make itself known.  As in it ran out of cartilage, completely and totally.  The end result is that I get a brand new complete hip joint replacement at the end of this month.  My view?  They could do it tomorrow and it wouldn't be too soon.  Rather than whine about something that whining does nothing to make better, I will instead offer you a little nookie:

Come on-- you know you want it.  After years and years of being out of print, a quirky novel I wrote called DeadTimes is finally available again.  Do you have a Nook?  Then you can pick it up at Barnes & Noble here:  

 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/deadtimes-yvonne-navarro/1102508953

 For those of you who don't need nookie (hee hee), run on over to Crossroad Press and pick it up in some other format.  The Husband, author Weston Ochse, being a man of many and multi-talents, designed the bookcover for me.  Tell me what you think:

I might be a bit biased, but I think he did a pretty awesome job!

DeadTimes is about a woman who doesn't want to die.  She makes a deal with you-know-who and she gets the short end of the supernatural stick.  Sounds pretty common, right?  But hey-- when have I ever stuck with common?  Nope.  Trust me, there are loads of surprises in here, twists, turns, monsters, magic, you name it.  Yeah, I know I wrote it but it's beautiful, it's dark, it's tragic, it's brutal, it's violent... all wrapped up in a nicely packaged ebook.  "Try it-- you'll like it!"  (Hey, Mikey!)

So I'm hobbling around and as always trying to catch up.  Swearing every day that I'm going to do better by this blog and by the great folks who take the time to read it.  So say hi, drop an opinion, fuss about something-- whatever.  Make yourselves at home.

Ciao!