Gratitude

Indulge me, friends, if you please.

Today, I'm sitting on my bed in yoga pants (which I totally bought for sitting around the house instead of doing yoga) and binging on Firefly on Netflix while drinking dark roast coffee with sugar-free Smores syrup. Now tell me that's not the lap of luxury!

It's an afternoon in stark contrast to Saturday when I watched lights flicker on and off as rain and wind from Hurricane Matthew battered the state where I live (South Carolina). My area was very fortunate. Downed trees and some minor flooding - not like last year's 1000-year-flood. By the way, I get that people call it that because it was the worst flooding South Carolina has seen in a thousand years, but every time I hear the term, I think they mean it's been flooding for a thousand years.

Anyway... The point I'm working up to is how grateful and blessed I feel today. And to say how broken my heart is for areas not so lucky. It's on us now to find ways to help. I can't get on a plane and fly to Haiti and help rebuild homes, but I can support organizations that do. That's what I'm doing. Sometimes I can volunteer. Sometimes I can't. But I can almost always support aid in one way or another.

What can you do?

What's Happening With That Bethanie Chick?

Some updates:

The Seodrassian Chronicles - I have not abandoned them. I got Book Two back from beta readers with some great feedback. Back into edits, she goes! I want each book in this series to be the absolute best I can make it for my readers, so please bear with me.

Sweet Romances - Yes. I write sweet romances as well. I'm working on a series of related, yet standalone sweet contemporary romance novels, but those will be published under a different pen name. Why? It's not a secret, but I don't want fans of The Seodrassian Chronicles to buy a sweet romance expecting a fantasy and be upset when they realize the difference. Or vice versa. Book One of that series is about ready to go to the editor this week.

Private life - That's private. Mind your own business. Kidding. There are some things I can share. I'm having wrist surgery later this month so that will hamper my writing plans. I normally participate in National Novel Writing Month, but won't be able to this year because of the recovery. Bummer. I am still, however, going to be participating in my 24-hour charity gaming marathon through Extra Life for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. The official date was supposed to be 11/5, but with my surgery, I've decided to do it early. I'll post details as they come.

Also... Evidently, people love these things called podcasts. That being said, I might have joined a podcast group. Want to hear the crazy writer chick talk? Follow us! I've included the link to the first podcast I participated in, but I'll be joining others. There's another from this awesome group about Pokeman Go. Fun stuff!

http://thedragonrocketship.libsyn.com/suicide-squad-deadpool-marvel-vs-dc-movies 

So as you can see, I got a lot of irons in the fire. Hang on to your butts.