August: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen!

I survived August 2014!

I'm determined to put that on a t-shirt. From where I sit, I feel like I survived a disaster.

August 2014 was a horrible, heart-wrenching, grueling month. Not only is August my usual HELL MONTH when I work nights, weekends, and early mornings on a detail-oriented, time-sucking annual project (and totally go dark on this blog--didja notice?), but this year I had to say goodbye to two very dear friends: Silver, a horse we've owned for 29 years--29 years!--our very good friend who carried us through many a horse show, trail ride, elk hunt and "pleasure cruise"; and just 12 days later, Jazz, our happy-go-lucky Border Collie pound puppy who grew up on the ranch and matured into a very old but happy dog in the span of just 13 short years. Yeah, it's been rough.

The hardest part of saying goodbye to these two four-legged soulmates was that, because it was Hell Month, I had almost no time to grieve and come to terms with their loss. Both days, I had to pick myself up and haul myself off to work to deal with issues that I couldn't possibly put off or reschedule. Stifle the tears, stuff down the sorrow and just get my mind back to work.

But it's September now. The monster project is behind me, Silver and Jazz are resting in peace, and I need to raise my eyes and look forward. It's time to put the worst behind me and move on.

And moving on, I am.

I've made an announcement on my Facebook authors page. It's been a long time coming, but *ta da!* I'm aiming for November 1st to release my first! published! work! ever! Yessss.

It's a novelette that will be circa 15,000 words titled Farewell Andromeda. And yep, that's a pretty short deadline. I have a lot to do and learn and accomplish in the next two months. It's going to be a big, scary whirlwind, but the kind I think I'm going to thoroughly enjoy.

So that's my big news of the day...but I'm not done yet. Watch for more in my upcoming posts. :)

Have a great week!

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