A Writer's Life: Death and Publishing

I am behind in my blog. These things happen. Sometimes, life gets in the way of  our best intentions.

A few weeks ago, I had to put down my amazing horse, Second Chance.

It knocked the wind out of my sails.

As some of you know, Chance was rescued from a kill pen in Enumclaw, WA. He was emaciated and terrified. Many people believed he would never recover from the physical and psychological abuse and neglect he had suffered.

He was a walking skeleton.

It took a lot of time, work, patience, and love to get him to trust people again.

I spent hours in the arena and round pen doing groundwork. And it all paid off. He was happy, playful, and had enormous heart.

Then the accident happened. It was unexpected, as accidents are, and fatal.
I didn't see it coming. 

It was a few weeks before I could bring myself to tell very many people. It was too painful to talk about. Still is. But life does have to go on. I'm slowly coming back to "work." I'm catching up with where I should be on book three in the Eddie Shoes Mystery Series. I'm updating Facebook and contemplating Twitter. Returning to social media and the public side of a writer's life challenged me. It's hard to do when I'm sad. And I am. Sad.

But I love what I do. I love to write. I love to teach writing. I love to interact with readers and writers, so that too is something I put time, work, patience, and love into. So - I will be writing about some great writerly things soon - Killer Nashville, Bouchercon, the cover reveal of Two Heads Are Deader Than One. Soon. When I'm just a little less sad.

Thank you for listening.