It’s that day of the year again, so I’m looking back on what’s been going on in my life while I eat some cake. A lot of what I had hoped for this time last year fell short, due to personal troubles. Instead of being able to focus on writing, I had to spend that time worrying intensely about a close family member, their deteriorating health, and eventually having to say goodbye to them for the last time. In the midst of all that, I really struggled to find the ability to put one word in front of the other.

Things continued on, though, and now I am doing much better. There’s probably a number of vague platitudes about dealing with loss that I could recite, but the fact of the matter is that it’s not so much about leaving your grief behind, but learning to know when it’s all right to feel it. I know that every member of my family, those still with us now and those who have passed on, have always wanted me to be happy and successful. I won’t let them down.

What this means is that after an overly long hiatus, my next piece of fiction is soon to be released! I hope you guys like magic and the paleolithic, because it’s both of those things and more. It’s called A Gift From the Sky, and it might be part of a larger series to come. Time will tell.

This also means that the month of April will be your very last chance to read Izzy Hartley and the Luminal Magnifier on this website! After April, it’s going to become available only as a Kindle ebook for the foreseeable future. So tell your friends, your loved ones, even random strangers in the street that this is the last chance they’ll have to read the first instalment of the Izzy Hartley series!

Meanwhile, I’m going to finish this slice of cake, sit back, and enjoy the rest of my birthday.