Khazirrek Ir Scapus glared at the leafy trees and rolling waves of the human beach outside his craft. He’d touched down in the farthest, most remote corner of the tiny island and already engaged the cloaking mechanism. The trip to this ridiculous stretch of land on a backwater planet might be an act of futility, but Khaz was of the Apex’ir.

And the Apex’ir were always ready for a hunt.

Always.

My entire urban fantasy series swings across the genre map like a drunk monkey that escaped from the circus but retained a love of dramatic entrances and funny hats. I craved epicness with vampires and werewolves and witches, adventure with characters who were people first and creatures second.

As the New Year approaches, I’m taking stock of all the good that came out of the past year. Not only did I get the next installment in my romantic urban fantasy series published (along with a short and a co-written academy book in a wholly different world), but I got to mail out prizes to some AMAZING reader.

This morning , while e-celebrating wrapping up the last major set of revisions on my co-written (and totally banana-pants) academy novel, a friend of mine asked me to sum up my approach to revision. Writing this book has been the best experience. It’s also been a revision adventure!

It's a truth universally acknowledged that I have been terrible at updating my blog and sending newsletters. But that is about to change… I've been lucky enough to stumble into a group of talented fantasy and UF writers, all working on stories connected through a shared world.

So we’ve reached 2019. Whoa. How in the heck… I had grand plans for writing all the things I’d meant to write in 2017, and then in 2018. It’s a long list. But to mark this new(ish) year, I want to talk about puppies. My puppy, to be precise. This is the story of how she got her name...