Hey kids, I'm baaaaack! (As if you couldn't tell by the blurb under 'Recent News' on the main page. ha ha)

But yes, I'm back.

To say it's been an interesting few months would be an understatement, but I think we're (the family) finally beginning to slog through the mire, and are seeing the first points of light at the end of the tunnel. I hope so at any rate.

In other news, I have a contest on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/authorshilohwall for an autographed copy of 'Under Your Skin'. The only thing you have to do is pick a number between 1 and 100. I'll spin the wheel on the 'super duper number picker thingamabob' and the person closest to the number it chooses wins. Contest ends on the 28th of March.

The Journal of Furies is finally starting to take shape and I see a late Summer release for it. Probably in September. Maybe earlier, like August. It all depends on how long the muse sticks around this time.

Now that my self-imposed hiatus appears to be ending, you'll be seeing a lot more of me I promise. That said, if you don't care for politics, I'd avoid my Twitter feed as most of it is me being snarky towards that person currently holding the White House hostage. Don't get me started on that.

xoxo,
S.

     If you haven't noticed, and I'm sure you have, the site, the blog, my Facebook and my Twitter have all gone radio silent for the most part. I haven't been updating, and to be honest, it's been a bad summer, which is putting it mildly.

     Back in July, we noticed my mom, who was only 61, was deteriorating in health quite rapidly, for no discernible reason.  I had my suspicions as to what was going on, but I guess I didn't want to admit it.  As the summer progressed, I kept having this feeling of impending dread, like something was going to happen, and I didn't know what; but knew that whatever it was, there was nothing I could do about it.

     July rolled into August, and with it my first meet and greet, which went okay. I won't say great, but it did turn out better than I thought it would, so there's that at least. August morphed into September, which has notoriously been a bad month for me for the last 19 years (you'll understand why in a moment). My feeling of dread was growing steadily worse as the days ticked by. You see, back in 1997, my dad died in a helicopter crash in Bosnia on September 17th. (You can Google this if you want to know what I'm talking about.) The closer it got to the 17th the more ill at ease I became. On the 14th, my mom had dropped off the radar so to speak and we couldn't get a hold of her via phone or email, so I called and had a welfare check done. At that time, she was fine, so we thought. She told the deputies that her phones were not working properly. My husband and I were planning on going to her house on Saturday which was only a couple days away, but even with the welfare check and the sheriff's department saying she was okay, I didn't feel any better.

     Saturday, I wake up and start to get dressed when my husband comes into the bedroom saying that a friend of my aunt's had just called and said we needed to get to my mom's house like right now, but wouldn't explain anything else. I muttered prayers to some unknown Gods and Goddesses (yes we're Pagan) and hoping for the best, but somehow, I knew. As we pulled into her driveway, there were emergency vehicles everywhere and my worst fear had been realized. I got up to the porch with our son and was told I needed to sit down. I refused and just said 'She's dead, isn't she?' When confirmed, I finally sat down, looked up and said 'You know what today is don't you?"

     It was the 17th of September.

     And it was cancer. If she knew she had it, she didn't tell anyone. Or maybe she didn't know. We'll never know obviously.

     So yeah, I'm on a bit of a hiatus right now. I'm slowly starting to write again in fits and starts, but it's probably safe to say that 'The Journal of Furies' will NOT be released this winter.  And that's okay.

     And please, don't ask me how I am. I'm fine. Really. I promise.

xoxo
S.

    

     If  you've noticed, sadly I haven't really been updating not only this site, but my Twitter and Facebook pages as often as I had been. I have a really good reason though I promise!

     It's not that I haven't wanted to, but it's because it's just been too physically painful to. Back in September of last year (the day after I finished writing and editing 'Under Your Skin' no less!) I had a wrist fusion surgery done on my left wrist. To say that the recovery, which was supposed to be fairly quick, did not happen that way. I had way more swelling than anticipated and it's only been over the last couple days that I've been able to bend ALL my fingers on that hand properly at all! Granted, it still hurts like a bitch, but typing has become quite a bit easier now that I pretty much have most of my range of motion back.

     I could have written in longhand, and I actually did some, but...my handwriting is chickenscratch to put it mildly, ha ha! Part of the problems I have had with 'HBB' is the fact that I'm working out of my journals for that time frame and I'm having to decipher some as I had a tendency to scribble madly. Ever so often I'll look at a word and go 'whuuuuck???' So yeah.

     I'm seeing lots of visitors here, so don't be shy! Come on over to the Facebook page and interact!

xoxo

     I thought I had already posted the blog on here, but it looks like I didn't. Oops! Let's face it, I'm not exactly as tech savvy as I used to be in my younger years. Why, I remember in the late 90s to early 00s creating and maintaining websites for others with no issues. As a matter of fact, I did it all by what's known as 'hard coding'; none of this 'click and drag and do a chant and hope it works' stuff. This is why the website is kinda...bare bones. Fear not however, I'll be getting back into the swing of things shortly.

    A couple weeks ago, my computer for the most part bit the dust, necessitating the purchase of a new one. This also means that I had to move everything (and I mean EV-ER-Y-THING) over to the 'cloud' with the exception of all my music. Thankfully, my manuscripts and articles in progress etc, survived the move, which means I can get back to work. Assuming that I quit playing Diablo 2 (and 3!) while theoretically 'thinking'. I haven't been able to play D2 in years on my old computer and D3 never worked at all because the computer was so outdated. The new machine has all sorts of nifty bells and whistles on it and playing is easy peasy. So yeah, I've been a little distracted. We'll overlook that I've already beaten the game twice...besting my old record of 4 days by beating it 2 and 3 (with two different characters respectively) days.

     So 'oops' for not keeping the blog up to date.

    What can you expect to read in the blog you ask? Well...writing related stuff, ideas I have swirling around-  ie: in addition to working on 'Elegies for the Years of the Insane' , 'Heartless Bipolar Bitch--A Tale of Misdiagnosis' and 'Elemental', I'm also helping my husband on a book of his own, without giving away major plot points, I'll say that it's in the Fantasy and Supernatural realm. I'm supposed to be doing research, but I've been slacking as he hasn't given me a clue as to what exactly I'm supposed to be researching! And yes, there will probably also be random, boring day-to-day stuff posted in here as well.

    So stick around, it's sure to be an interesting ride!

xoxo,