Happy Halloween!

Hello and Happy Autumn! I’ve been quite lazy with my blog posts lately, and to make up for that, there are a few things happening in today’s post.

First, in celebration of Halloween, there’s a brief excerpt from Sanctuary showing how Jack Darcy began his first Halloween in Maine.

After the excerpt, you’ll find my Sanctuary playlist, if you’re interested in checking out the music that inspired me as I wrote the story.

And then, beyond the music, you’ll see a poll of sorts. I’d love to know your thoughts—and would appreciate them greatly!—so please leave a comment on the blog post, or go to the contact page and reach out to me there.

But first things first! Here’s the excerpt from Volume 3 of Sanctuary, which takes place on Halloween morning.

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Standing in the kitchen that morning, Will released a great yawn. I should be wide awake. 

He’d never heard Jack get up and climb out of bed. Elizabeth hadn’t either, and so both of them had slept until Elizabeth’s alarm clock sounded and she’d slapped the snooze button. She was heading back to work today, as was Will, but neither was in a hurry to get there.

Elizabeth rolled toward him, spooning him and snuggling against his back, and both of them drifted off again until Jack bent over his father to wake him, shaking him lightly.

“Dad, it’s time to get up. Dad. Daaad. Dad. Are you gonna get up?”

Will slowly cracked open one eye and received the scare of his life. Staring back at him was the face of a menacing robot. He’d jumped and uttered what was probably a very unmanly sound, and because his first lucid thought had been to move as far away as possible from the thing looming next to his bed, he’d very nearly crushed Elizabeth.

“Ow! Hey!” she’d called out, her voice muffled due to Will nearly lying on top of her head.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, rolling off of her.

Jack thought the whole thing hysterical, of course, and burst out laughing. “Sorry Dad. I shoulda taked my mask off.”

“You planned that,” Will joked, his voice hoarse.

“Nope, I didn’t,” Jack answered, laughing again. “I just forgot about it.”

Elizabeth lifted her head to peer over Will’s body. “Good grief, Jack!” she said, laughing as well. “Are you trying to give your father a heart attack?”

“Nope, I was just comin’ to see if you guys are gettin’ up. I needa have breakfast.” He took his mask off. “Can I have cheesy eggs?”

Thinking back on the whole thing now, Will laughed again. Elizabeth had poked fun at him for a few minutes until he’d finally kissed her into silence.

He could hear the familiar sound of her shoes on the stairs before she appeared in the kitchen. She grinned at him, her eyes shining mischievously, but when she opened her mouth to speak he beat her to it.

“Not. Another. Word.”

She laughed. “I wasn’t going to say a thing, I swear. I was only going to remark on how handsome you look in your suit.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Liar. You’ll be teasing me for weeks.”

Still laughing, she put her arms around his waist. “I won’t tease you anymore about that big, scary robot monster, okay?”

He groaned and looked away from her until she pulled his face toward hers and kissed him soundly.

“You big baby,” she murmured against his lips.

He silenced her in the best way possible—by kissing her thoroughly.

***

I hope you enjoyed the excerpt! And now, moving on to the music… As I mentioned in a previous blog post (which you can find here), music really sparks my creativity. When I posted Sanctuary online at a couple of fan fiction sites, I included lyrics to some songs at certain points in the story. A lot of readers enjoyed the musical aspect and finding out which songs inspired certain chapters/scenes, or what song Elizabeth was playing or singing in a particular scene. Because of copyright issues, I had to remove the lyrics from the published version of the story; so I decided to put the playlist here, for your listening pleasure. If you click on the song title, it will take you to YouTube; I linked to videos that are just the audio of the song, they’re NOT the real music videos. I apologize if you have to sit through an ad or two! Happy listening!

“And So it Goes” by Billy Joel (inspiration for title)

“Just Give Me a Reason” by Pink f/Nate Ruess

 “Can’t Stop” by MoZella

“Belly Full” by Dave Matthews Band

“Amazing” by One eskimO

“Tonight I’m Loving You” by Enrique Iglesias

“Naked As We Came” by Iron & Wine

“Future Days” by Pearl Jam

“Crush” by Dave Matthews Band (long, epic love song with great lyrics)

“This Dance” by Five For Fighting

“The Way I Am” by Ingrid Michaelson

“Living in the Country” by George Winston (instrumental)

“Shakin’ All Over” by Eilen Jewell

“Make You Feel My Love” by Adele

“I Will Not Take My Love Away” by Matt Wertz

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What do you think?

If you’ve hung around long enough to reach this part of the post, I thank you! This is the “poll” I mentioned earlier, and I’d really appreciate your feedback.

I’ve been contemplating the launch of a monthly author newsletter, and have my first one just about mapped out and ready to launch in six weeks or so, but first I’d like to know how people—how you—feel about them. If you enjoy them, why do you enjoy them? What do you like to read about? What kind of content would you like to see—personal things about the author, mixed with a little bit of business, i.e. upcoming releases and work-in-progress updates? Or an ‘all business’ newsletter, with no personal anecdotes? If you don’t subscribe to any author newsletters, why is that? Do they clog your inbox? Do time constraints prevent you from reading them? Do you just want to read the author’s books, and nothing else? Would you rather get updates and news from authors via Facebook or other social media?

I value your opinion! Please leave a comment on this blog post, or reach out to me via the contact page if you’d like to keep your remarks private.

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Thank you! Stay safe and well.