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Friday, October 24, 2025

I need my own theme song...and a personal assistant

The theme song would be great when I have no idea what the fuck is happening in my life and need music to cue me in. 😬
Jaws theme? Splendid. 
Imperial March? Cool.
All Star? Yeah...that tracks.
Looney Tunes theme song? Here we go again...
Little Girl Gone? Strap yaself in, because I am coming to fuck it up.
Eighties hair bands? I need NOSTALGIA!!! Stat!

And a personal assistant?
Oh. My. God.
This is one of my goals for next year. Sales are up, and I want to build on that. Live events create the most revenue, and I simply don't have enough spoons to zip around. 
There are events I've looked at which seem great, but they simply aren't feasible. I don't have it in me to haul my cookies and my books from venue to venue, even with my stubborn ass giving myself a pep talk.

I would like a personal assistant to travel with me. Handle putting together a street team. Keep my professional socials up-to-date. I need someone who understands my chaotic madness (does this person exist? πŸ€”). Well, or a nice facsimile. πŸ˜‰ 

That's me today.
Gorgeous rainy day in Oklahoma with temps that won't take my skin off.
Come to me, sixties as high, COME TO ME! πŸ‚πŸ’–
I'll take some of that rain, too.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

My fair share of tribulations

I have fibromyalgia. I'm in chronic pain every day. My starting pain number is a 5, on a non-chronic pain patient's numbers. Mine runs from 5-12.

I had a book event Saturday in Waukomis, Oklahoma. My God, it was so much fun and truly amazing! What fell far short of that is how my body felt about two, of the four, hours in. I hated the chair I sat in. My spine, right hip, and both arms began to flare. Fibro speak for throwing a fucking tantrum.

Fibro causes severe pain in muscle and joints. And there's no rhyme or reason, IMO. My worst flares occur, usually, in my arms. It feels like someone slit the skin open from shoulder to elbow, reached in with both hands, and are wringing the muscle like a wash rag. Then there are the sharp pains, usually my legs and feet. Burning and tingling, also feet but add hands. Dull and throbbing could be, and is, everywhere. 

I've been diagnosed nearly two decades. 

Monday, I went with my middle child to clean out a storage locker which needed to be cleaned out years ago. I put stuffed animals in a plastic bag to wash. I moved a few things, nothing heavy, around, and threw some books, in an old crate, into the backseat of my car.

I didn't know if I was going to make it home. It was an hour drive back. I barely made it. Had to take a shower. Vaguely remember that. And then I crawled into bed. My body gave the "we're done" order, and I...was...done.
I've been in bed the past two days. Monday and Tuesday are a wash. I only got up today to take another shower and grab a WM pick-up. 
I spent the time in bed, in great pain. We're talking a 9-10 on my modified scale. I would've gladly harmed someone for a pain pill. (I only take ibuprofen and acetaminophen.) This is the time I consider pain management because there is NO managing this shit.
I don't medicate until I feel better. I medicate until I can function. 

My back, right hip, feet, hands, head, and arms absolutely shut the fuck down on me. I couldn't sleep because of the pain. Random sharp shit in my extremities. Throbbing aches in my arms. Painful vice grips on my right hip and my lower spine. 

I hurt right now, but I can mostly deal with it. I'll make sure and take my OTC drugs every however many hours. 

This is one of my big tribulations. Disappearing from social media, even for a couple of days is nearly the kiss of death. Especially for someone in the writing business. Add in the fact I'm releasing "Canary: Out of the Shadows" on November 14th, and you have yourself a shitshow. 
I am truly, TRULY, the star. 😬 

To tie it up with a bow, we all have our shit we go through. Try not to be so hard on yourself during these times. We tend to beat ourselves up over the smallest slight to ourselves while gladly forgiving others of the same.
Be kind.

And pass me a fucking pain pill...πŸ˜„



Tuesday, October 14, 2025

If you believe it, you can achieve it.

Hokey as hell, right? I mean, I identify as a realist. One would think I would dismiss this as New Age bullshit. Au contraire, mon frΓ¨re. I'm a free-spirited little manic psycho who believes in a bigger world than the one we see. I believe in speaking things into existence. I believe words hold great power. 

I believe in my goals.
Remember them?
I posted earlier, um--sometime 😢, about my goal list. I believe I may have went into how the first three quarters of 2025 were a depressive shitshow where I couldn't leave the tent. I didn't want to check out, per se, but I surely didn't want to check in.
(Med explanation on a later post.)

But I stated I achieved some goals in the last quarter. Didn't touch any of the assholes through August, but with a new med and whatnot, I could mark a couple off my list.

One of the goals is: Speak at 3 Author Panels. πŸ₯³
There is NOTHING better than talking about writing. Nothing. I could go on for days. It's a never-ending kinda love I got.

I spoke at the Lawton's Farmer Market. I will speak again at the Sapulpa Library on November 15th. And today, I found out that I'm giving a talk at the Bethany Library, on November 8th, about Plotting/Outlining/Organizing Chaotic Thoughts.
Am I not the poster child, or what?

Three. Three talks. ah ah ah
I'm so damn excited.

But there it is. Three author talks. Like in my goals. πŸ’–

Dream it. Believe it. Achieve it. 
I have a four line mantra I repeat to myself every day, sometimes more than once. It's inspiring to me and aligns me with my goals. 

Three speaking engagements. 
Oh, but I have to pass a background check first. πŸ€”
Maybe I should wait for the paperwork to come back. πŸ˜‚


Sunday, October 12, 2025

Live events

I had the BEST time at the 2025 Books & Brews in Lawton, yesterday! πŸ₯³
The people were fantastic, and it was a nice venue. 
It was a little over four hours, and I sold a book every 12-15 minutes on average. And I say unto you authors...DON'T SLEEP ON SMALL VENUES.

They are more intimate. They invite conversation. Whether people buy a book or not, I simply enjoy being there and interacting with everyone. But massive appreciation from Vanessa to Taylor to Dev to Shari for purchasing my books. You made it an incredibly wonderful day!

It was a family friendly event, and I only took "Canary"-both, "Over Her Head", and "Dream Walker". I WILL be in Waukomis, Oklahoma, this Saturday with my erotic romance offerings under my pen name, C'ann Inman.














It's hard to know what to take when you're unsure about it. I brought the romance on the off-chance there might be a reader or two interested. But my big sellers were my urban fantasy and supernatural thriller. 
As my catalog grows, it's going to be up to me to decide what I want to haul with me to these live venues and figure out what works best. 

I usually brought sixty books--a nice cross-section of genres, but I don't necessarily want to haul around eighty. 
And there's no precise gauge to use. "Chimera" sold big at Book Me Romance in August. 
I'll continue to fiddle with numbers and see what works best. 

Next month finds me in Oklahoma City for "Socially Booked" and the 2025 Authors Showcase at the Sapulpa Library.
Then I'll wind down the year and start up again with "Flirty in Kansas City" 2026.

It's not work when you love what you do.
πŸ’–

Friday, October 10, 2025

Time Travel Romances

Are these going out of style? You know, like "secret babies" a couple years ago? "Secret babies" are back, by the way. Vampire romances are making a comeback. And the spicier side of life--think "Why Choose" and "Monster Romance" are incredibly popular.

I'm immensely glad the romance genre and its subs (so much pun intended) exist. 

I received my rights back to a Time Travel Romance I published back in the day. I'm editing now. It's longer than I remember, around 77,000 words. It's contemporary. And I feel as though I simply don't see as many of these as I thought.

Needed to reclassify a couple of my stories to "Romantasy"; a word which didn't even exist when I wrote the books.  

This ties in to "writing to market."
I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  It's impossible. The writing market ebbs and flows. A genre breaks out as popular. Authors flood the market with the genre. Market is saturated. Sales decrease. Rinse. Repeat.

Write what you want to write. Need to write. The market, and its readers, will catch up. 
Good books always find a home.
I'll keep that in mind as I edit "In His Own Time". 

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

And the heavens opened...

Working on "Canary: Out of the Shadows". No. That whole sentence is NOT a typo. πŸ˜‚
Let's face it. I've been about as excited as a child getting their first shots. Sidenote: received the flu, pneumonia, and COVID vaccines yesterday. Put my short ass into bed at three in the PM. My arms still hurt like a bitch, and are still swollen, today. πŸ˜‘
And my body revolted, Oh...dear GOD! Arms, hips, right foot, left side. It's all some bullshit.
Moving on.

Today is OOS, and I AM excited about it. (Mostly.) More than half my tie-ins left actually happen in Hell, and I'm sadistically ecstatically erratically HERE FOR IT!

Been building up to this showdown and the big reveal for 2 1/2 books. πŸ₯³
I think readers will really enjoy the end of Ray's story and understand all the consequences which take place. 

As for me? I love Ray. Love her damaged little soul. Her audacity. Her morally grey morality. I don't know I've ever created a character I've enjoyed so much. Ray is top tier.

Also, check this out! It's 59 degrees here! πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘
Ya girl ran to WM for like, five things or so, and opened up her moonroof and the back windows. 
OMG...heat destroys me, and this cooler weather is AMAZING.
(not for my fibro...but whatevs...)

That's it from my desk. 
OOS has 36,453 words. I hope to have it released November 14th.
Need to finish it first.
ha
ha
sigh