Hi, remember me? I can’t believe it’s been six months since I last published anything (gasp!). Honestly, it feels like it’s been soooooo much longer than that.
I’ve been going through some things.
The holidays were the best they’d been since the madness of COVID began—full of ice shows, shopping, gift-giving and reconnecting with friends and family. As usual, I didn’t get a lot of writing done in the month of December, though I had a novella that was more than halfway done. I had no worries about that, though. I could finish up PARTY GIRL in January and launch into a new series, THE MEN OF PSI, in the upcoming year. Piece of cake.
Then one morning in January, my mother had a pulse-ox level of 67%.
The ER visit morphed into a terrifiying ICU stay as her condition deteriorated. The doctors weren’t sure what was wrong with her, and it took days before most of the docs decided she was suffering from congestive heart failure (though one doc to this day is still certain she had COVID despite six separate tests coming back negative).
After the diagnosis, life became a series of stress-filled days and sleepless nights. Writing? My mother was dying. Who gave a damn about writing?
February came and went with a couple more hair-raising hospital stays, a pastor coming in to pray over her, a Digoxin toxicity scare, and a nightmarish sojourn into a Skilled Nursing Facility (swear to God, I will NEVER put my mother in one of those places again). Getting her stabilized seemed like the impossible dream.
March rolled around, and… something worked. I still don’t know what. Whether it was a medication change or an attitude change, something wonderful happened. One morning my mother (who is living with me) walked into the kitchen, announced she was hungry and wanted to get her hair done. She felt great. Peppy. Her old self. So I loaded up the car with her new wheelchair, her oxygen tank and her walker (in case she didn’t want the chair), and off we went to the salon. We then had lunch at one of her favorite restaurants and laughed over how it was the first outing we’d had in months that didn’t involve a doctor or blood samples.
That evening, I sat down at the computer and opened up the long-ignored file for PARTY GIRL.
So far, my mom’s doing well. We battle over her salt intake. When I hover too much she kicks me into the office to write, because apparently I’m a much more pleasant person when I’m writing.
I have to admit, she’s right about that. Nothing makes me happier than to slip into the world that exists in my head. I’ve learned to write when I can, and not beat myself up about not being able to write when I’m stressed. Come to find out, I’m unable to make words when I’m sick with worry and sleep-deprived. Who knew?
I don’t know what the future holds, but then again, who does? For now, I’m enjoying the moment and back to writing as much as I can. I guess that’s the biggest takeaway I have from these past six months—enjoy what you can, while you can. There is no promise of tomorrow, so go ahead and smile now (or in my case, write).
With that being said…
IT’S COVER REVEAL/BLURB TIME!
BLURB:
PARTY GIRL
TRIGGER WARNING: This book deals with a character dosed with Rohypnol, a date-rape drug. Though the assault goes no further than that, if this is a trigger, this book is not for you.
Content creator. Trendsetting influencer. Society columnist.
Hannah Raven has worked nonstop since she was sixteen to make it big. Abandoned by her mother to a grandmother who didn’t want her, Hannah fought to create a space for herself where she belonged. So what if it was on the internet? That didn’t mean it wasn’t real.
Decorated military hero. Doctor. One of Chicago’s prized eligible bachelors.
Dalton Derico thought he’d seen it all, and what he’d seen wasn’t worth a damn. Then a stunning woman collapses in his arms after being slipped a roofie, and everything changes. There is beauty in the world, and he will have it for himself… as long as he can convince Hannah that all her roads lead to him.
Flitting from party to party has always been Hannah’s way, but now that she knows the darker side of party life, she’s reconsidering where she belongs. Is she destined to cover the celebrations of other people forever, or should she risk putting her faith in Dalton by creating a new world that could belong to them both?
***This contemporary romance includes a fiercely protective Alpha who’s hot enough to raise temperatures and drop panties. As always, no cheating, no love triangles, no cliffhangers. HEA guaranteed, with an epilogue built to make you happy-sigh. Due to adult language and sexual content, this book is not intended for people under the age of eighteen.***
50,000 words
Release date for PARTY GIRL is June 23, 2022!
Stacy Gail -- Romance Author 