Life Gets In The Way

You might remember seeing this picture in a previous post. I used it to depict how my life was going at that time, and it's been like that again. I honestly can't remember all that has happened since August, but I do know I forgot to do a giveaway of Learning to Love Again for my birthday, so I'm going to do it for Christmas. Not only do I have several print copies of Learning to Love Again

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, but I have copies of my YA thriller, Finding Jenna, as well. 

And, if you are not interested in a print copy, Learning to Love Again will be going on sale the last week of December as part of I Heart SapphFic's big end-of-the-year sale. 

This has been a completely bizarre year. I published Learning to Love Again on January 1st of this year, and I thought I would publish more books this year, but that didn't happen. My doctor found a lesion in my skull, and for several terrifying days, I thought I might have metastatic brain cancer. I had brain surgery at the end of March and found out that I had a hemangioma, which is a benign vascular lesion that a surgeon removed. I retired from the job that I had been at for fifteen years, started DoorDashing part-time to support my writing, and watched my oldest grandchild graduate from high school and the from basic training. 

There was more craziness. My partner found out that she has two 20 percent blockages in her heart arteries. And my youngest grandson is having liver trouble and will have to have a biopsy next month. He is only nine.

With all that has happened, I have learned to slow down and appreciate each new day. I am so thankful for everything the Universe has given me, and I have peace within that I have never had. 

Despite only publishing one book this year, I have been working on revisions of Suddenly, which will be updated and given a new cover next year. I'm adding episodes to Suddenly Continued on Kindle Vella on Amazon, and I am currently working on a sequel to Learning to Love Again, titled Ridgway Moon, that I will be posting on Kindle Vella as I work on it and eventually, it will be released on Kindle Unlimited. 

I have been struggling with my energy levels since getting Covid early in the year and having my surgery, but I am hoping for great things to happen in 2023. 

If you are interested in a print copy of Learning to Love Again or Finding Jenna, please email me at metudor.com@gmail.com

Wishing you peace and blessings through the rest of December and the upcoming holidays. 

Keep safe.

With Love,

M. E. 

August Celebration!

August is my birth month, along with several other family members, including two grandsons in our family. So to celebrate, I ordered a bunch of print versions of Learning to Love Again and will do a giveaway on my birthday, August 24th. 

Things have finally slowed down a little bit now that the kids are back in school. I've actually had more time to do some writing and editing. Getting Suddenly republished with the new cover by the end of the month is still a big maybe, but I'm hopeful. The main thing that reworking this story, ten years later, is that I can see how much I've grown as a writer. 

I haven't had the desire to write another young adult novel for a while. I think that's because I'm having trouble having positive thoughts about young people right now. So many of the young people, especially young queer people, are far removed from me. The world is such a different place from what it was just ten years ago that I'm not sure I can write a realistic novel about young adults now. But, I will try again if the story and desire come along. 

These days I've been thinking more about romances involving older lesbians. So many of the novels available are about women in their twenties and thirties. I think there is a market for stories about women in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s finding love. I guess we'll see when I put out my next book, which will be a follow-up to Learning to Love Again. I'm not going to give away any more about the story, but I think women who want to believe you are never too old to fall in love will enjoy it. 

There's not much more to write about right now, so I'll leave you with this note. If you are interested in being put into the drawing for free print copies of Learning to Love Again, please send an email to: metudor.com@gmail.com. 

Hope the rest of August is joyful for you all. 

 

Chaos, Mayhem, and a Surprise

 

1723206 © Ralf Kraft | Dreamstime.com

I found this picture on Dreamstime.com, which accurately depicts my life for the last two months. I have been a swirling mess, and I can't find the road going forward. I have so many projects and plans that I have overwhelmed myself and don't seem to be able to find a starting point. Well, that's not necessarily true. I keep bouncing from project to project, and I need to pick one and see it through. 

The one I've decided to focus my attention fully is the re-editing and re-publishing of Suddenly with a new cover. The very first version of Suddenly was published by Itoh Press in August 2012. I hope to have the revised version with the new cover available by the end of August, but I'm not sure I will make my deadline. You will find the new cover at the end for those of you taking the time to read this post. 

Reading Suddenly now, with new eyes, has been fun and refreshing. I'd forgotten how much I loved this story. It will also help me with the sequel, for which I need to write a new episode. One of the readers expressed that she was disappointed that the sequel is not in first person, but it has been so long since I originally wrote Suddenly that I was having trouble getting inside Jamie's head again. Since I've already posted the story on Kindle Vella in third person, I will have to keep it that way, at least through this first part. 

It's been a struggle all these years to try to write a sequel, but now that I've picked up where Suddenly ended, it's coming along. I know everyone wants Jamie and PJ's relationship to be perfect, but there has to be some drama, or the story will be boring. But, never fear, I am always about the happy ever after.

I really appreciate all the fans who have stayed with the Kindle Vella story. I know it's been slow coming, and I've been back and forth about the title. I am literally writing and posting as I'm going, and that may not be the best way to post a story, but it's the way I'm going to have it for now. Maybe I'll be able to write the second-semester story more quickly. 

I'm always interested in hearing what my readers think, so please feel free to email me with your thoughts at: metudor.com@gmail.com.

I am keeping this short this month, and I will wrap this up. As promised, here's your preview of the new cover for Suddenly. 

April Showers Bring May Flowers And Good News

A lot has happened in my life since my post last month. My surgeon called and told me that the place they took out of my skull was not cancer. PRAISE GOD, THE UNIVERSE, ALLAH, and whoever may be in charge. I saw the surgeon a week later, and he said my incision was healing nicely. I guess as far as large scars go, it's not bad. It's right at my hairline, so you can't really see it. I saw my local nurse practitioner because I still have headaches and fatigue. She did a bunch of bloodwork, and everything came back okay. I guess it's just part of recovering from major surgery. 

The second bit of good news comes with a bit of melancholy, but it's a good thing overall. I've decided to retire from my job at the library where I have worked for 15 years. I hadn't planned on retiring this soon, but with my continued health issues and a lot of prompting from my life partner, Rosa, who is ready to start traveling, I decided it was time to take a new path. This will also allow me to write full-time. 

I'm currently working on three stories: Suddenly Continues/College Hill: Semester One, Chosen Family, and Take A Chance On Me. 

Suddenly Continues/College Hill: Semester One is the series about Jamie and P. J. from my book Suddenly, which is available on Kindle Vella. I'm going to officially change the title of this series to College Hill, and the seasons will have titles associated with Jamie and P. J.'s college years. 

Chosen Family is a murder mystery with lesbian characters and possibly a romance. As most of you know, I'm a pantser when I write, so I never really know how things will turn out in a story. I will post this as a series on Kindle Vella and Inkitt after I get a few more chapters written. I should have links available next month. 

 

Take A Chance On Me is the sequel to Learning to Love Again. Ava and Mel will be going back to Colorado and meeting new friends. I don't know if I'm going to post that as Kindle Vella or just wait and post it as a full book. I'm still deciding about that. 

I am also working on re-editing Suddenly and getting a new cover for it. I will re-release it in August to celebrate its 10th anniversary. There will be giveaways that will only be available for people who read my blog, so keep an eye out for those. 

I'm going to close today with a link to a Judds video. I've always loved their music and was very sad to hear about Naomi Judd's passing. I am sending love out to you all.

          Love Can Build A Bridge 

 

Time for New Growth

March was a month filled with cancer. A close friend died of cancer, a friend from high school's husband died from cancer, and I had brain surgery to remove a lesion that might be cancer. Ever since my dad died at the age of 52 of a heart attack, I've always worried that I would have the same fate. It never occurred to me that I might get cancer. Now that the risk looms large, I see that cancer runs in my family pretty prevalently. My father's mother died of stomach cancer at 64 years old. My sister had cervical cancer, but I plane crash killed her. My brother is recovering from lymphoma, and now I may be taking on cancer myself. 

As a result, I've decided to make some major changes in my life and focus on how I want to live for however much longer I have. Getting cancer is not usually an immediate death sentence, and I certainly pray that is not the case for me because I feel like I have a lot more left to give. But, ultimately, God decides how long we are allowed to stay in our human form before we return to pure energy. 

 Life is constantly changing, and sometimes you get a chance for new growth. For me, this means taking a new road. I can't go into this fully at this time, but my focus will become more on my writing and traveling with my beautiful partner, Rosa. 

In the past, my kids, grandkids, and other people have dictated how life was going to go, but it's time I fully take the reins of my life and follow the path of my heart. 

I'm still writing episodes for Suddenly Continued on Kindle Vella. That story's name will be changed to College Hill while the series covers Jamie and P. J.'s college years. I'm not sure what the title will be when the story moves on to Jamie and P. J.'s life after college, but we have a little while before I need to worry about that because I'm still in just the first semester of college for them. I've also decided that at the end of each semester, I'm going to put the story in full book form and release it on Kindle Unlimited for my fans who do not have access to the Kindle Vella. 

Something else that is going to change with Suddenly is the cover. This August will be the 10th anniversary since I originally published Suddenly with Itoh Press, which is now out of business. The cover with the two girls in bathing suits on a boat does not reflect any part of the story, so I'm working with my cover designer for a new cover that will be released in August when I re-release the newly edited version. 

The other thing I'm working on is a possible sequel to Learning to Love Again. I've had several people ask for it, so I'm seriously thinking about how to do that. That story might also start on Kindle Vella. 

A couple of other things that have changed is that I've decided not to try to maintain a newsletter. I don't have enough people interested in reading it, and I think it will be easier for me to post on this blog so anyone interested in what I'm doing can stop by and check it out. 

I just finished reworking my website. It's very basic, with links to my books on Amazon and a link to this blog. This is where I will post information about giveaways and how to register for them. I'm not doing a giveaway this month, but I am going to do one next month to celebrate Mother's Day. I only have two books in which the main characters are mothers from beginning to end, and those are Standing Her Ground and Learning to Love Again. These two books will be featured in the giveaway. I will upload a post on this blog with information about the giveaway and how to win. 

I'm going to wrap this up now with wishes for good health and joy for you all. 

Falling Behind and Springing Forward

I keep reading all these posts about how important it is for a self-published author to grow their mailing lists. I'm sure the authors of these posts are probably right, but how does an author who is strapped for time keep up with writing a newsletter once a month when they do good to post on Facebook occasionally. 

I have a newsletter that I have been sending out periodically to the 30 people on my mailing list, but I also have this blog and a website that I try to keep up with. For those of you who have been following me for awhile, you know that my partner and I have been raising three of my grandchildren on top of working. My partner retired which helped a lot with the grandchildren, but the loss of her income put us in a tight spot financially.

On top of working a full-time job and writing when I can, I've taken up delivery for DoorDash part-time for extra money. Trying to spread myself into so many places has worn me pretty thin. Now, just because I didn't have enough going on, I'm going to have to have surgery in a few weeks. 

The surgery is to remove a lesion I have on my head. When this was first discovered on an ultrasound the word "metastatic" was added to lesion and it floored me. Metastatic lesions are usually something that come about when you've got cancer in other places in your body. The surgeon who is going to take out the lesion said he didn't think it was metastatic, so I'm praying he's right. 

The result of this new health issue has made me take a good look at what I'm doing with my life and what I want to be doing. Now, if I could have my choice, I'd be making enough money writing so that I wouldn't have to do anything else, but that hasn't happened. If I had a second choice, my partner, Rosa, and I would be travelling and getting by any way we could. That hasn't happened either. The result of this introspection is that I need to decide where I really want to spend my time, and where I have to spend my time. 

My day job as a librarian provides an okay income, but more importantly it provides insurance. My writing provides me with joy and some extra income, but not enough to quit my day. I've decided that if I want write for joy, I'm going to have to let go of something else. So, I've decided to give up trying to write a newsletter. Most of the information I put in the newsletter I put in this blog and on my Facebook page, so it's kind of redundant. Plus, the fact that I only have 30 newsletter readers is more than a bit depressing. On top of that, I spend the time I used to spend trying to think about something to write in my newsletter to write on my books. 

There's really not a lot of exciting things going on in my life to add to a newsletter, and I can always post giveaways of my books on this blog or Facebook. 

I do have a few exciting things going on though. My oldest grandson, Jacob, passed his ASVAB and will be going into the National Guard after he graduates from high school this May. Jacob is the first person in our family to graduate from high school in a very long time so we're all very excited about it. 

I am also working on having my very first published book, Suddenly, edited again and I'm considering a new cover for it. I'm also working on the continuing story of Jamie and P. J. from Suddenly on Kindle Vella. It's also available as College Hill on Inkitt. That's been going pretty slow. So many people have wanted me to write a sequel to that book, but it has not come easy. Hopefully, it will start to really flow soon and I'll get more episodes up. 

Learning to Love Again is still doing really well in sales on Amazon. It's getting a lot of Kindle Unlimited reads and a lot of good ratings. I'm working on more story ideas, but with the impending surgery coming up, I've been a little distracted. 

I hope that 2022 has started out well for all of you. The Spring Equinox will be upon us soon and I am looking forward to seeing more flowers and trees blooming. 

If you're a praying person, please say a prayer that my surgery goes well. If you don't pray, a few good thoughts will be appreciated too. This world is crazy so stay safe. 

It's February! The Month of Love!

This year is already zipping along. It's February already. Every year I tell myself I'm going to write a book with a Valentine's Day theme that will come out in February, but I haven't done it yet. Maybe next year. But, my newest book Learning to Love Again is a charming, romantic, dramatic, over 50 story. So for us older women who still believe in romance, this is a great story about what could be. And for the younger women, it will give you hope that love can still be found later in life. 

Learning to Love Again has already received many  4 and 5 star ratings and reviews, which is very exciting. I've been asked if there will be a sequel, and I've already come up with some ideas for one. Of course, I have to find time to write which hasn't been easily lately. But, that's my fault, I took on a second job and I've become addicted to the money. The theory behind the second job is to get my debts paid off so I can write full time, but it's still at least a year away before I will be able to consider leaving either job.  

I've been working on the print version of Learning to Love Again, but Amazon and I are not getting along, again. They provide formatted templates, and in theory I should be able to just load the book into the template, but that's not the case. There's still a lot of formatting to be done in order to get it to print correctly. If the writing gods are willing, I will have that completed and available very soon. Once it becomes available I will have a giveaway, so keep an eye on my Facebook and Twitter feeds for news about that. 

As most of you know I'm a huge music fan. I love most music genres, although I'm not a big fan of rap. Music almost always creates a memory of a time and place for me. Not long after I met my partner, Rosa, I heard "Forever Love" by Reba McEntire on the radio at the factory where I was working. I wanted to so badly to call her and say, "Listen to this song! It says what I want to tell you." I didn't call her, but I told her about the song the next time I saw her. Being a huge Reba fan, she was already aware of the song and said she felt the same way about it. At the time, we were both still in relationships with other people, but we knew we were meant to be together. The lyrics to that song gave me hope that we would be together one day, and here we are 23 years later. 

Not everyone is lucky enough to find their soulmate and I'm thankful I found mine. But, even if you're by yourself this month, take some time out for some self-love. Pamper yourself and find your happy place.