Renewed Vigor...

Spring is here and projects are busting out all over!

We are getting delightful, balmy sun breaks in between showers and blustery winds here in the Willamette Valley. Birds are nest-building, and cottontails are creeping onto my lawn in the early morning to eat dandelions (no doubt practicing for when the vegetable garden is ready).

This Lent has been spiritually productive for me. I have been blessed with the grace to confront some issues that have lain dormant for a long time and finally needed to come to light. These reflections have caused me to reconsider my goals as a creator and to spend much time in prayer as I try to figure out what God is calling me to do with my gifts.

How much of what I have been experiencing is due more to winter doldrums rather than genuine self-knowledge, I can't say. I know that, with the return of the sun and all the new life around me, I am invigorated, truly re-born in anticipation of the Easter message.

The practical result of all this soul-searching is that the draft of book six of Beyond Cascadia, "Shadowminds", is officially finished! It's currently at 93,000 words but will probably go longer once I flesh out some chapters. I expect it to be about 350 pages in total. The scope of this story is tighter and more of a focused thriller, and I'm having a lot of fun with it!

In a few weeks, it should go to my beta readers, and while they look it over, I'll keep designing my cover. After another couple of rounds of edits on the manuscript, I plan for it to be published by the end of July—watch for updates!

I have also resumed work on my grand graphic novel project and have had some breakthroughs using some free tools (no, not AI)! This means that some of the technical hurdles that stumped me are no longer an issue, so I am finally making progress on that front. I'll post some pages when I feel ready to share.

I'm also keeping my hand in on the short fiction scene because I love how the format lets me explore concepts and styles without committing to an entire novel.

For those who missed it, I have a short piece entitled "Angel 2.0" in the spring issue of Silence & Starsong magazine, available here: