High Tide Episodes 19: Some Necessary Background, 20:  Meanwhile, Back on the Yacht, and 21: Worrying As a Hobby are all live on Kindle Vella. Go forth, read, enjoy.

So, an update: I’m now two weeks out from surgery, my left jaw and lower lip are slowly coming back online, my neck is still swollen but the incision is healing beautifully, and I can eat most foods if I cut it into small pieces, chew carefully, and sip something between bites (anything hard, really crunchy, or spicy is still off the menu for the foreseeable future).

More importantly, I managed to chunk out 936 words today and I’m going to be posting High Tide eps on Kindle Vella every day this week to make up for the two weeks I wasn’t able to write (so much for creating an episode bank). I’m hoping to have the book done by mid-November, which will allow me to release it around mid-December. I’m not going to put Hurricane Warning out on Vella so that I don’t have to wait the mandatory 30 days from my last episode post to publish, so you might get that before the end of the year but it’s more likely that you’ll get it in mid-January. I’m sorry about that, but it’s amazing how developing cancer and having to have four teeth, gum tissue, and a strip of jawbone removed cuts into your writing time.

Speaking of that, I have an appointment with my chemo oncologist tomorrow, at which point I’ll learn the stage of the cancer and what comes next. Fingers crossed.

High Tide Episode 15: Dangerous Truths, Episode 16: Mothers and Sons, and Episode 17: How I Met Your Mother are now live on Kindle Vella. Yeah, yeah, I know, but there are Reasons™ why I’m just posting about this now.

Namely, I am on a working vacation, so to speak. My sister was kind enough to invite us up to stay with her in beautiful mid-central Illinois for a week. Since all we’d have to do is rent a vehicle that both Ramón and I could drive (he drives a pickup truck and prefers vehicles that are higher off the ground), we jumped at the chance. And yes, the usual cat sitter is at the house taking care of the J Crew so don’t worry about them—they still have a human staff member watching over their every move, as they expect.

But this change in scenery has been very welcome. I got to see both of my sibs, say hello to my lake, indulge in a bag of White Castles, have dinner with my BFF and his husband, and just generally enjoy not dealing with Texas heat. I mean, it’s been anywhere between 69-80°F here during the day. AND we had rain. I ask you.

As for working, the BIL has his own small office building so Ramón is set up in an office here (he’s a contractor so no PTO, but he works remotely anyway so he’s working from Illinois this week) while I’m in the receptionist area with my sister writing and doing various authorly tasks. It’s been incredibly nice being here—there’s a great diner across the street and a McDonald’s a block down the street, and we’re staying in a lovely room at my sister’s house that looks out over a lake. I feel a lot more relaxed and recharged, and so does Ramón.

Which is good because I need to start hauling ass on High Tide since we’ll be on the road Saturday which knocks out one writing day, and I have an unavoidable event next week that will knock out at least one other writing day as well, boo. But I’m past the 1/3 point and on my way to the halfway point, so we’ll just have to see what we can see. And yeah, ignore that deadline—it was set before I knew we’d be coming on this trip. I’m aiming to finish the first draft by 10/20/23 or so, with a release on 11/21/23.

So mark your calendar, Susan—you’re gonna be getting High Tide soon!