Things are not going well.

Hi Everyone,

I know I haven’t written anything here in a long while. This is the second attempt at this post. I’d written a 2700 word entry earlier with a full narrative of what’s happened to me in the past few days, but I’m scrapping it because I feel it may be over sharing.

Here is the tl:dr- My cat Caper died four days ago. I dedicated Scamming Death to her last year because she went through a major health scare and I was grateful to still have her. A new health scare occurred five days ago without warning and after some tests and consultations with vets, I chose to euthanize her. I don’t want to explain all of the ins and outs of that extremely difficult decision because it reduces me to tears and I still question if I made the right choice, but this ordeal has made it very clear to me that I need counseling. I need grief counseling for sure and probably some general counseling.

Geez, I think I still may be over sharing. But the bottom line is that I am on hiatus basically for a bit. I am very close to finishing the rough draft of Mr. Conjure, the sixth Scary Mary. The cover is even done - Karri Klawiter did another excellent job. Even though the novel is well on its way, Caper’s death has ground me to a halt. For the past eight months, a large chunk of my life was consumed with taking care of her for an ongoing condition and to suddenly lose her to something totally unexpected has blindsided me hard. She was 16 years old. I know that’s pretty old for a cat, but I was hoping to get to 20 with her.

And I know a lot of people will not understand how this can effect me so powerfully. (I’m also struggling with the shame of being effected so powerfully.) But she lived with me for 16 years. That’s a long fucking time. I also have to admit that I’ve had mild depression for a long time and this has just cranked it to eleven. I am going to seek professional help and hopefully begin healing.

So, I know I mentioned the book may be out in May, but I highly doubt that will happen. I can’t focus on anything at the moment and don’t know when I’ll be able to. I still have a full-time job that I need to do, and though they’ve been very understanding, I only get so much leave.

Thanks for reading this.

(I may remove this post at some point. I'm not sure if it's something that I want archived. I'm still not sure about even posting it to begin with.)

My Demon Volume 1 Now FREE!

My Demon Volume 1 is now FREE at all retailers. If you've never picked it up, why not give it a try now? If you have purchased it in the past, thank you so much! Why not tell your friends how great it is and that it's free to read? It could be like a gift you don't have to spend any money on!

Sorry, I don't mean to shill so hard, but it feels like you gotta in this crazy book world now. I do have a bit of news for those interested in the Noble Academy family--I will be writing another story set in this world. The title will be The Girlfriend Shield. It will be released as a single volume. The tentative release date is January 15, 2017. More details on that later!

But if you haven't met Sarah, Damien, Angela and the rest of crazy Noble crew, why not say hello by picking up volume 1?

Volume 1 is FREE at the following retailers:
Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Google Play / iTunes / Kobo

Scamming Death

It's finally HEEEERRRREEE! After far too long a wait, Scamming Death has finally arrived. Mary's back with a whole new adventure. I hope everyone enjoys this new book.

Here's the blurb:

Gran is the most important person in Mary’s life. Mary would do anything for her. So when Eddie, a freshman at her school, asks Mary for help with his grandma, she can’t say no.

But what he wants is an exorcism.

Mary goes to meet his grandma with misgivings. She’s not sure how she’ll break the truth to Eddie. Elderly people can change. They can stop recognizing their loved ones. They can act like completely different people. Alzheimer’s can do that. Dementia can do that. But a ghost can do that as well.

Eddie’s grandma is possessed. But the ghost swears that she’s protecting the elderly woman because there’s something scarier than ghosts at the nursing home. An angel of death stalks the building.

With Eddie and her friends, Mary must find the angel of death and stop them, but how do you stop an angel? Mary will have to figure that out before the angel strikes again.

I say this in the author note at the end of the book, but I'll repeat it here: I hope to be more consistent with my publishing schedule from now on. I want to publish two books a year. I plan to release the next Scary Mary book in May 2017. I'm announcing that now so I can't let myself slide. 2016 has been a bad year for me as a writer. I couldn't get my act together. I could give you a list of reasons why, but in the end, it was just procrastination. I let myself just veg far too much, but I am back in the game now. I'm very excited by a number projects and I hope to share them with you all soon. Thank you for hanging in there. I hope you find Scamming Death was worth the wait.

Where to get the book:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Google Play

iTunes

Kobo

Great Writers, Right Here

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be one of the authors in attendance at the Fauquier County Public Library's local author fair - Great Writers, Right Here.

Here's a Press Release they provided:

S.A. Hunter To Participate in Local Author Fair

(Warrenton, VA) August 30, 2016 — S.A. Hunter, author of The Scary Mary Series will be appearing at the 2016 Great Writers, Right Here – a local authors fair, hosted by the Fauquier County Public Library on Friday, September 30 from 6 – 8 p.m.

Great Writers, Right Here will bring together local published authors, and readers who will have the opportunity to stroll from table to table and meet the authors. S.A. Hunter will share and discuss her work with the community and sign and sell her books.

Over 40 authors are participating in this celebration of local talent. In response to the increased interest, this year’s event will be held at the Family Life Center, First Baptist Church, 39 Alexandria Pike, Old Town Warrenton. This location, which enables more authors to participate in this event, is located across the street from the Warrenton central library.

To find out more, check out their website.

My Review of Annihilation

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Annihilation is a first person account of encountering the surreal. And I think it can only exist on paper. A movie adaptation could not do it justice unless they went full first-person POV with the filming which is not something done much at all. I fear some filmmaker would try to make this a found footage horror film which would most likely ruin the story because one thing they touch on in the book is the fact that what they see often does not appear on film so does that mean it does not exist?

The basic story is: A group of four women go into a strange place to explore it and this is what happens. The book is classified as "New Weird". Here's one definition straight from the author, "a type of urban, secondary-world fiction that subverts the romanticized ideas about place found in traditional fantasy, largely by choosing realistic, complex real-world models as the jumping off point for creation of settings that may combine elements of both science fiction and fantasy." (From the introduction from an anthology called The New Weird.) This fits Annihilation to a T. The main character is the The Biologist. She breaks everything down to biology. Even the most fantastic can be made palpable by considering the thing's existence and biology. She isn't concerned with why the thing exists, only that it can.

Between flashbacks to mundane life that develop the veneer of the surreal within the context of Area X, the biologist makes her way through the strange landscape with three other women. The story is in first person in a pseudo-journal format that allows the biologist to speak candidly to the reader, letting us in to her most private fears and guilts. Her perception of the other women in the group is interesting as well for the unreliableness of it. She often sees a glimmer of hidden emotion where there might be none.

And then there is Area X itself. It is rife with danger and dread. And it's the dread that makes the story for me. The question of what is real and what is illusion is fascinating. Unlike a show like Lost where I wanted some answers and never got them, I was actually hoping for none here. I wanted Area X to wash over me with no stopping to consider the waves of strange and that is what Vandermeer delivered. All in all, this was a poetic book with a Lovecraftian tone that I found very satisfying to experience.

I do want to read the next book Authority. I'm curious about the organization that sent the team of women to Area X and the organization they try to imprint on something that defies comprehension. I sort of hope none of the second book takes place in Area X. I want to know what it looks like from the outside.

View all my reviews