This week’s stunning song brought to you by the insanely talented EZI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIF3IHIHvZU
Ooof, guys, this song. This fucking song. It did things to me. I got crazy inspiration from it for a dark fantasy villain romance, and I have not been able to stop thinking about it. I almost based our one-shot on Patreon off that song this week, but then I decided this new idea I have is huge. I didn’t want to release a one-shot and give away things that will happen in the inevitable book. I’ve already written like a million notes in my phone about this new idea and honestly, I think you guys will love it. It has everything. Plus, villain romance. I’m so excited for the day I can share it with you because I’m fucking loving it and the song that inspired it.
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So, I didn’t post a new blog last week because it was my honey’s birthday. Yes, our birthdays are indeed less than two weeks apart (and yet, no, we don’t share the same sign 🤷♀️ I’m a Virgo, he’s a Libra). What were we up to? I’ll tell you below after a quick update on publishing and life.
I haven’t been able to make a lot of progress on the manuscript since I got it back from the proofreader, mostly because I was prepping for Balloon Fiesta. For those of you not familiar, Balloon Fiesta is a huge international event here in New Mexico, where hot air balloonists from all over the world gather together and they all take off in one giant field (yes, our city built a whole park for it because it’s huge for us). For the gallery I work in, this is by far the busiest time of year. I’ve been running around gathering photos, printing, matting and framing as well as getting my wall ready and working with some other photographers. It cut into my editing IASAD time, but thankfully, I should only have two more very busy days towards the end of this week I’m responsible for, and then I’ll be able to make more progress.
I’ve been working on IASAD today and… Wow, guys. Just wow. I set deadlines for myself so that (hopefully) nothing can possibly interfere with my release date, and the date I need to have the manuscript complete for my schedule is coming up. Shit’s getting real. Like, really real. Because after I pass this new deadline and the manuscript is more or less ready for printing, I’ll order an author proof, and within the next six weeks, I should be holding a physical hardback copy of “I Accidentally Summoned A Demon”. Cue screaming. I will definitely be doing a video where I open the box and show you all, so if you don’t follow me on instagram and want to see that opening (no face reveal, sorry), follow me and you won’t miss it! I never thought I’d hold the actual book in my hands. I know we’ve been talking about it, but… It just hits different now that I’m not far away from having a real copy, with a book cover, with everything. I’m just 🤯.
The only other thing is I’ve been working on some book launch week activities and giveaways and eek! I’m so excited for that, too! We’re gonna have a lot of fun 😏
So that’s where I’m at there. If you’re interested in honey’s birthday adventures, here we go. He had a strategically scheduled exam the day after his birthday (he’s in school for Mechanical Engineering). Given he’d need to study and not be able to stay up and enjoy the special bourbon he picked out, we decided to spread the celebration over two days. On his actual birthday, I made the breakfast he requested. French toast. It’s his favorite breakfast food that I make. (Hmm, should I make an Elder series cookbook? Because Addie’s spaghetti is my mom’s spaghetti, Kora’s French toast is my French toast, Sophia’s green chile is my mom’s green chile, Darius’s guacamole is my sister’s guacamole, and Kaden’s banana pancakes are my honey’s. Something to consider).
During breakfast, he got the remainder of his birthday presents. I say remainder because we are basically adult children, and as soon as midnight struck for his birthday, neither of us could hold back presents. So, I gave him half of his presents at midnight, and the rest the next day. Afterwards, he went off to study, I went off to work, and we reconvened at lunchtime where I made him taquitos (he LOVES taquitos). We broke again, he went off to study, I went off to work, and then I made him my homemade lasagna for dinner, as well as a funfetti (his choice) cake.
Not quite the best birthday ever considering he had to spend the entire day studying, but at least the food was good 🤷♀️ It’s cool, though. The next day, as soon as his exam was over, he came home and I took him for coffee at his favorite place (Piñon coffee house). Then we went off to the mountains (yes, the same ones we were at for my birthday. What can I say? We love outdoors). Honey requested we take books (swoon) to the top of the mountain, do a small hike and then find a little place to hang out and read. Of course, the rain apparently loves us this year. Halfway through our hike, I had to stash our books under my hoodie because it started raining. It never got so intense I was too concerned for damage of the books, and shortly after, honey found us shelter in a small alcove of a pine tree.
My darlings, if you’ve never taken a book out in nature, and sat under a tree to read, away from all distractions, no phone service, no noise of other people, you must. It was a truly blissful experience to just sit there with him and enjoy our books (well, MY books. I have a lot more than him and he’s just started reading one of my favorite series of all time- Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin). We sat there for around forty-five minutes, just cuddled under the tree, listening to the rain and reading.
After hiking back to the car, we drove back down the mountain and went to one of our favorite hang out spots for some hard cider and lunch. They also happen to have the BEST garlic knots. Fate was on our side, too, because our favorite server was working 🥰. Then, I have this thing I do with honey every year. I’ve no idea when or why it started, if I’m being honest. It just is tradition now. Every year on honey’s birthday, I tell him to pick a thing he wants me to do with him that I wouldn’t normally do because it’s just not a thing I’m interested in (get your mind out of the gutter😏 , I’m talking TV shows or video games or something like that. It’s typically something I’ve tried to enjoy with him but just can’t get into, but I want to share his interests with him so we do this). It’s entertaining because he spends the entire year looking forward to this one event, and continuously bounces ideas off me despite my response always being “it’s up to you, dude, it’s the thing YOU pick”.
This year, he wanted me to give MST3K another shot. For those of you who don’t know, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a silly show that takes place in space where (I’m probably going to get some of this wrong because despite it being my third time watching one of these, I’m very confused as to what the plot is) these evil villains kidnap this dude and a couple robots and force them to watch really terrible older B-movies in an effort to make said kidnappees go insane. Most of the show is just this dude and two robots riffing about the movie, making fun of the obvious plot holes and terrible costumes (among other things). Last year it was “Avalanche” (I try to be nice about everyone’s art because I know it’s all subjective but wow, that movie… Wow. Not a good wow). This year, I forget the name of it, but it was something Eagle Warrior and it was terrible. I mean, it’s supposed to be. The comedy of the show is the guys riffing on these bad movies, but holy crap, it was bad.
I can say I did enjoy this one more than the last one we watched. I really wish I could get into MST3K because not only does honey love it, but my brother loved it. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t land for me. I more get annoyed I can’t follow the movie (despite it being bad) because their commentary goes over it. I respect it’s some people’s cup of tea, but it’s not mine 🤷♀️, No offense to the creators. They clearly have something great going on here. To be fair, the likelihood any of them would enjoy my content is low 😂. It’s just different tastes.
So after that, the only thing honey wanted was video games. Hours and hours of blowing shit up and cuddling with the dogs (with dinner mixed in there). I ain’t complaining. I got a new rocket launcher so I had a great time blowing people up on Borderlands 2. So that was the rest of our night, enjoyed with some special bourbon I took him to pick out a couple days before. Damn good bourbon, for the record. We got drunk, did a lot of shooting, one particular instance being us in a car chasing down bandits in cars. I made a joke about trying to reach them regarding their car’s extended warranty, shortly after blowing them up from my gunner seat. Honey laughed so hard, he crashed and exploded our vehicle and we had to walk all the way back to base. All in all, it was a good night.
So there you have it. There’s the reasons for my absence. I am going to make killer progress on my manuscript over the next couple weeks and I’ll let you guys know here when I order the author proof 😬 and then check out instagram (and I intend to get a TikTok account up and running within the week, I’ll announce it as soon as I have it!) to see me unbox the first ever physical copy of “I Accidentally Summoned A Demon”. Who’s ready to see our favorite demon in hardback format? I know I am😈