TWISTING THE MYTHS

Last IWSG, I posted that I was moving all the posts to Substack. That's still the main place I want to be found, but I did get a comment from someone who said they don't use Substack. There are probably more people who don't as well. I don't blame people who roll their eyes at yet another site that wants them to sign up to use. So I'm going to cross-post my IWSG posts here for those peeps. I'd love you to join me on Substack because I really like the platform, and I post my arts and crafts as well as exclusive flash fiction, but it's not the end of the world if someone doesn't as all I have to do is copy and paste what I already wrote.   Dear 2023, Man, you’ve been…something. Between the deaths in my family and the ridiculous amount of travel, I honestly would rather deal with 2020. At least, then we got to stay home. Seriously, we were down in Mississippi from February 22nd through April 15th. The next weekend, we traveled for my grandma’s memorial. Th

My IWSG posts are going to my Substack now. I thought it was silly to have the blog and a newsletter when the Substack can act as both. Although, IWSG has it's own segmentation that you have to subscribe to separately from the rest. To do so, you have to go into your Substack profile settings and toggle which segments you want to read. It'd be nice if Substack made subscribing to an author's segmented lists easier as not everyone who subscribes will care to read IWSG or they might not care about Monster Hunting. Having IWSG there might not work and I may end up coming back here. I'll see how this experiment goes, and you can watch and learn from whatever mistakes I make.

With how 2023 has been derailed I feel life is telling me to just be a 24/7/365 panster because every time I try to make a plan for a year, it gets thrown out the window! I'm combining my blog and newsletter since Substack has a nice feature where I can publish posts just to the website or send it out as a newsletter too. I considered just keeping IWSG here, but I want to consolidate things and the blog doesn't let me collect emails like a newsletter does. At least, I didn't get too far into things this year so it's not a big deal to scrap a few things. Here are the social media you can find me on. Substack Pinterest Twitter I want to thank everyone who took the time to read the posts here and leave a comment. I can't explain how grateful I am, especially since this part of my journey is extremely bumpy with lots of potholes to navigate around. I hope this part of the road is short and smooth sailing is on the horizon.

My father-in-law passed last month from cancer so my writing came to a screeching halt. But earlier this week I had a thought. Maybe I'll get to write. I've never been so excited about a thought. I don't know how much writing I'll get in. There are still plenty of things to get sorted with my father-in-law's belongings. But it's nice to know that things are calming and I'm getting closer to writing again. Now, I just need to remember how to do it! Today's post was part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group . Created by the ninja captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's a group for the writers (AKA all of us) struggling with insecurity to gather and discuss our fears or to celebrate writing victors. If you are a struggling writer or need encouragement and friendship, join us. (Someone might have cookies!)   Remember to visit the co-hosts and give them a shout-out for helping. Jemima Pett , Nancy Gideon , and Natalie Aguirre !

 The third book in the Influenced series, Revelation of Love is now available! I've written this post ahead of time, so I'm not sure where I'll be at when it goes live. At the time, I was still down south, helping family after my father-in-law's death from cancer. I really appreciate the friends who are helping me spread the word so I can focus on family. Their voices guide us. Or deceive us. But is there more to Light and Dark? Influencers are the voices that whisper in our ears. Tiny Angels and Devils sitting on our shoulders and guiding our choices. They are sworn to thwart the other. It is their duty. According to the angels. Sacrificing his angelic powers, Kemuel becomes a Light Influencer to discover why they are disappearing. As well as securing the mortal's soul for the war. But with each Light choice, the mortal's soul grows ever darker. What piece of the puzzle is Kemuel missing? Why would a Dark Influencer choose Light? The truth requires great sacri

The holidays elicit a mixture of emotions, from joy and revelry to despair and rage. In these stories, we examine the dark side of the holidays with a twisted Easter egg hunt, a desperate St. Patrick's Day curse, a monster that's only visible in the light of fireworks, a mother's guilt on Halloween, and more in this follow up to Happy Ghoulidays that embraces the underlying shadows of our favorite holidays. Available for pre-order on Kindle, Nook, Apple, Scribd, and Smashwords. Paperback link coming soon. Author Bio: A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her stories can be found in over forty anthologies and magazines, and her three solo horror short story collections and her nonfiction title are available now, with her fourth collection releasing March 2023. You can also find her as a co-host of the podcast Mysteries, Monsters, & Mayhem. When she's not writing, she's hiking through the wilds of C

I told you. I freaking told you. I did not trust 2023 and I was right. This IWSG, I won't be visiting everyone as much as I'm with family.The health news I mentioned in my round up post is bad, but I'm not one to plaster the details all over. All I'll say is good vibes and prayers are appreciated. Today's post was part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group . Created by the ninja captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh, it's a group for the writers (AKA all of us) struggling with insecurity to gather and discuss our fears or to celebrate writing victors. If you are a struggling writer or need encouragement and friendship, join us. (Someone might have cookies!)   Remember to visit the co-hosts and give them a shout-out for helping. Diedre Knight , Tonya Drecker , Bish Denham , Olga Godim , and JQ Rose !

I'm happy to share the second book in the Influenced series, a sweet enemies to lovers romance fantasy, is now available to read! And me being me, I almost forgot to post about it here. At least I had some awesome friends who were sharing it and that reminded me I should do it here. Their voices guide us. Or deceive us. But is there more to Light and Dark? Influencers are the voices that whisper in our ears. Tiny Angels and Devils sitting on our shoulders and guiding our choices. They are sworn to thwart the other. At any cost. But is it worth it? Landon fully believes in his duty as a Dark Influencer. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to win the mortal’s soul—even seducing the beautiful Light Influencer, Antonia. Yet, he struggles to secure the mortal’s soul. As his feelings grow for her, Landon’s resolve begins to shake. Is there more to influencing than blind obedience? It’s not Antonia or Landon who will pay the price for their mistakes. Grab it for a mere 99cents at Amazon

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of my surgery that gave me back my life. For those of you not in the know, I have Endometriosis. It looked something like this. Blank days were the days I didn't have pain. There weren't many. You can see it progressively getting worse each month. I went to the ER three times in four months because the pain was so bad. Ever not brush your teeth for days in a row? Or shower? Or use deodorant? It's not pretty. On February 1st in 2021, I had surgery. It went... a little off the rails. I was supposed to go home the same day and instead spent two nights in the hospital. I had a catheter in for a month because my bladder (and bowels) were trying to fuse with my uterus, and it had to be pried off and in the process tore. I gave my doctor a challenge, but she rose to it. The uncertainty of how much the surgery would help vanished. She was 100% certain I'd feel better. And I did. Infinitely better. The thing is there's still healing going o

In 2022, I did something drastic. I quit writing. Sorta. Kinda. I pulled my published books, deleted a bunch of social media, and hit pause on my paranormal and fantasy writing. I had been feeling lost and uncertain about what I wanted when it came to writing and indie publishing. Having all that stuff distracted me from really thinking about it. Instead, I'd be plotting what I could do to get my books in front of readers, what to post next on social media, and all that marketing crap. So, I went dark in order to get my shit together. I promised I would be back at some point and in some form. Cue epic return. (Yes, this is a new blog.) Does that mean I got my shit figured out? Sorta. Kinda. I didn't quite think about what I wanted from writing as much as I had planned. For one, I got a summer job at the local Salvation Army. I actually enjoyed it a lot despite being a self-described anti-social introvert. There were some interesting characters who came in. (Can you say writing