Update on fall 2012

I've neglected my blog lately, but not because anything is wrong. My life has been really busy!

I will have a real post up on Friday, 30 November. Check back then to read a great guest post by author Karin Gastreich on crafting spells for your fantasy story or novel.

In other news, all Hadley Rille Books ebooks will be on sale for a week starting tomorrow (Thursday, 29 November) for 99¢. Some new novels have come out this fall, so you may want to see what's new at http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/titles.html. Ebooks make great holiday gifts.

Here's some of what's been keeping me so busy.

1. I've been a guest at other people's blogs.

In October, I did a Halloween-themed post at Star-Crossed Romance on how to create fear in your reader:
http://star-crossedromance.blogspot.com/2012/10/guest-shauna-roberts.html

Also in October, I blogged at Nicole Galloway-Miller's blog about whether one should research historical fiction before or after writing it:
http://nrgalloway24.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/guest-blog-how-circumcision-taught-me-to-always-research-first-write-second/

In today's guest post at Karin Gastreich's "Eolyn Chronicles" blog, I talk about how preconceptions kept archaeologists from realizing that at least some of the women buried in the Royal Cemetery of Ur (in ancient Sumer) were probably ruling queens:
http://eolynchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/11/women-and-archeology-queens-of-ancient.html

2. I am having a great—but exhausting—time teaching a University of California at Riverside–Osher Institute extension course on the "Epic of Gilgamesh." The Osher Institute here is one of several in the United States; as I understand it, all serve only people over 50. No homework, no tests, and no one is there because they have to be. My students are incredibly enthusiastic, making it a joy to teach them.

3. I also have received the edits for my summer 2013 fantasy novel, Ice Magic, Fire Magic. A new manuscript is due back to Hadley Rille Books by the end of the year, so I won't have much time to breathe until 2013.