Greetings Packmates!

My sincere apologies for not updating sooner. Life has been beyond hectic for the past few years and what plans I had were shaken up by so many unexpected life events that I honestly don’t know where to start. Perhaps with good news is the best way?

I am working on my final draft of Awakened Moonlight and hope to get it to my editor by the beginning of September at the latest. I really want to release it this year (FINALLY) so my goal is to get things rolling out over the next few weeks and finally start breaking ground into the fifth book when I get the manuscript to my editor Erin’s desk. The cover is already done and it’s gorgeous so really it will be only a matter of time now to get things published. Yay!

I do have a prequel in the works that I hope to finish sometime soon as well, to help cover some of what happened in the five years before we open the story in Tainted Moonlight.

I have my first appearance in a long time (over a year and a half now!) at Barnes and Noble in Kenwood, Ohio in October. I will update with more on that soon once I finalize the details.

That’s it for book updates for the moment, so if that’s where you’d like to leave the conversation feel free and see you in the next post! If you’re curious as to what life has thrown my way the past few years though, I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible (but oh, it has been about four years of chaos).

I lost my seven year old cat to a bad asthma attack while I was interviewing out of state. I moved to Cincinnati from New York after landing a full time art teaching position. I survived a bad diabetic infection and nearly lost my foot during the move, and lost about a month and a half at my new job. I moved from my apartment complex to a house for rent. I started therapy to process a lot of my trauma that I have endured throughout my life. My grandma on my mother’s side passed away. My foot infection returned with a vengeance. I lost my job as an art teacher and had to start searching for work. I was hired as a long term substitute for a private school, but that did not lead to more full time work. I started to drive for Uber to make ends meet when I ran out of unemployment. Then, before I could even process it all, my mother suddenly died in her sleep.

That was the thing that really threw me, and I am honestly still reeling from losing her so unexpectedly. This happened last June, right after Father’s Day. It put me in a limbo that I still struggle with. It hurt so much that when my doctor told me I was going to lose my toes I didn’t care. I didn’t even register that he had said toes, as in multiple, and did not realize how I was having my big toe and little toe removed from my right foot until I was sitting in the pre-op room and they clarified the procedure with me. That happened July 31st of last year.

I feel behind on rent as I took time to heal from my surgery. I am still struggling to get caught up again. Through that time I wasn’t feeling very creative. I wasn’t feeling much besides pain, especially depression. My Mom was always there for me, we talked almost every day and suddenly she was yanked away from my life and it left this wound that no surgery could fix.

This year started out with another kick to the teeth as my grandma on my father’s side passed away on January 2nd. It felt like the end of an era as she was my last remaining grandparent. Things looked a little more promising when I got a new day job as a teacher at a preschool in March. Then in May my sixteen and a half year old Westie stopped eating and was acting strange, and I knew it was time to say goodbye.

These past few years have been filled with a lot of hope and devastating loss. I won’t lie and tell you that everything is fine. It’s been a struggle most days to move forward. With all the chaos going on in the world right now, on top of the microcosm of my personal life, there have been days where it’s been difficult to get out of bed. One thing has consistently remained to help drive me through these dark times- this story, and you, my Packmates. My family, friends, and fans who have been there for me.

Thank you so much for all you do, I cannot thank you enough.

Sincerely yours,

Erin Kelly