Tea Guys Pumpkin Caramel Tea, photo by Corrina Lawson
It is the time of year for pumpkin spice–which tastes mostly like nutmeg to me–but this is a local twist on that, a flavored caramel tea by a tea house about an hour from me. Happily, the local Big Y supermarket carries their teas. This, so far, is my favorite, probably because the other teas carried by Big Y tend to be the fruity teas and I’m not a big fruity tea person.
Gotta have my caffeinated black tea.
What does pumpkin caramel taste like? A little bit sweet, a little bit cinnamon, and pumpkin, all under a strong black tea flavor. Highly recommended. Now, if I could have only found a good Star Trek tea blend at the Star Trek Mission NY convention over Labor Day weekend, it would have been perfect. Alas, not even Earl Grey. The Trek convention was fun but the dealer room seriously lacked in swag.
In other news, I’ve been writing and revising, fiction and non-fiction. With the twins back to school on a mostly regular basis, it’s time to look back on what I’ve done and what I need to do.
In non-fiction, my work continues at GeekMom.com, (Whoa, I didn’t realize I wrote so much last month.) Then there’s Heroes and Heartbreakers–a review of Margaret Coel’s Winter’s Child, and the Barnes & Noble SF/F blog, with a post about the Lost Stories of Star Trek, and a post at B&N Reads about romance authors with multiple identities and why they do that.
In fiction:
Finished:
Hawk’s Family–a 20,000 word erotic m/m/f novella featuring characters from Phoenix Legacy. This story was happenstance, meaning it came to me mostly fully-formed and took only 3 weeks to draft. It’s been out to beta readers already and is in good shape.
Above the Fold–my romantic suspense.
In the final revision stages:
Death’s Door–a modern gothic romance with ghosts turning murderous.
The Crystal Tower–my ambitious urban fantasy
Have to revise those before we can send them out.
Drafted and Sitting While Thoughts Percolate:
The Hidden Mage of Lotus Hall–a sequel to The Curse of the Brimstone Contract. It’s a “truck draft,” meaning that if I get hit by a truck today, it’s publishable with editing. Normally, this would be my priority. I fully intended to turn it into my editor at Samhain Publishing earlier this year for publication in six months but then news broke of Samhain’s closing/notclosing weirdness. I want to self-publish it but I want to do it in the best way, so I’m waiting until I can do that.
In Research/Outline Drafting Phases:
A paranormal Victorian story set in my steampunk world, more in the vein of Amanda Quick’s Victorian paranormals than steampunk.
A new SF/F romance
An idea set in 1970s Hollywood on the set of a television detective show. This may just become my first screenplay.
There’s something else going on too but until that become real, I’d rather not talk openly about it.
Next up for me in events? A trip to New York Comic Con where I’m definitely going to use this backpack that the awesome pirate lady, Maureen O. Betita, made for me!
Wonder Woman backpack!