A Pawful of Fall

"She held a pawful of Fall."

I rather like that sentence: a bit flowery, poetic, “literary” as some would say. I haven’t yet used it, so feel free to grab it. She (I picture a dog or fox or wolf) could be holding a bunch of dead leaves, a pile of detritus, a pumpkin, whatever. But it is Fall, and she’s embracing it in her paw. Perhaps she just plowed through someone’s tidy mass of raked leaves, or the compost bin, or the dying vegetable patch. Go with it and imagine what you will.

But I ramble. I’m really just wrapping up summer, rereading two of my favorite book series, and pondering NaNoWriMo in November. Yes, there’s always that pesky writing and the items on my "mundane, logistical, writing-related resolutions for 2015." I’ve finished (most of) the rewrite of Book 7 in my Animal Guild Series: Seven Secrets in the Upper Attic. I axed 1,000 words, quite a feat for me, as I suspect some of you are thinking. Heh. People can change, can’t they? This book can also be considered a stand-alone novel since it’s a tad different from the others in the series, but you won’t get all of the references unless you’ve read the others. So Seven Secrets is in the paws—I mean hands of my beta readers, and thank you, guys! I hope to publish it in 2016 as e-book and paperback.

And then there’s items 3 and 4 on my New Year’s Resolutions list: Outline the sequel to Seven Secrets, and finish outlining the novel that comes after that one, which will definitely tie in the human, animal and beetle worlds in a big way. That’s two books to outline, but if—if—I use NaNoWriMo as impetus to finish the research and outlining, it might happen. So there wouldn’t necessarily be increasing word counts (heck, who wants to write a 50,000-word outline?!), but each word will count. The camaraderie, community and excitement that is NaNo will spur me and hordes of others onward in our writings. And that’s important.

Oh, and here’s a goofy teaser for Seven Secrets, for those intrigued:

This novel, about the adventures of a group of human kids, segues into the Animal Guild world in wacky and surprising ways. A group of runaway kids, an attic, a bad guy, a strange dog, ghost hunters, fortune seekers, theatrical shenanigans, crazy chases, other stuff, and, oh yeah, magic! Just what are the Seven Secrets in the Upper Attic?

Keep reading!