Remember those books from when you were young? The ones that had you searching for rainbow dragons or buried treasure? You’d read eagerly until you got to the decision point: Do you try to steal the opal? Or give it to the witch like she asks?

Well, do I have a surprise for you!!

I’m teaming up with eight other writers at my press to write stories on a brand new blog called Novel Concepts. Our tag line says it all: “where you’re heard until the final word.”

Novel Concepts is a tag-team, short story blog. Each Monday, one of us will post a portion of a short story. At the end of the segment, we’ll offer YOU, the reader, two options for what might happen next. You post a comment with your vote! The majority rules and the next writer will take that choice and move forward.

The other authors I’m working with are romance authors, so I’ll dabble my hand in this new-to-me genre and see how it goes.

If you go to website, you can follow our blog so you never miss a post! That way, your vote will always count! http://novelconcepts1.blogspot.com/p/what-is-novel-concepts.html And while you’re waiting, you can go to the “About Us” page to check out all the authors participating in this crazy endeavor.

Our first story starts TOMORROW!! Squee! Are you excited?? I am!

I’ve been quiet on my blog first because I was dealing with a family health emergency, then because we were on a long and wonderful vacation to northern California and southern Oregon.

And what does my family do on vacations? THAT’S RIGHT! We check out all the local game stores we can find. I thought I’d share something we found in one of the southern Oregon stores…

…this AMAZINGLY COOL table that lives at Castle Hill Games in Grants Pass, OR. This table was one of the coolest, geekiest things ever I’ve seen. The store owner said that it’s made from multiple layers of epoxy resin set around dice. The crafters used a blow torch and a needle to get every air bubble out! They made it in a dust-free “clean room” and it took months. The edges are d6s; there are dice of every shape, size, and type. The pictures do NOT do it justice.

Castle Hill Games had a great selection of games, a huge number of MTG cards, and a great miniature war gaming area. They also sell dice rings made by CritSuccess…which three members of my geeky family bought, including me.

The owner was super nice, so if you happen to live by Grants Pass, check out the store.

Southern Oregon also houses Astral Games in Medford and FunAgain Games in Ashland, which also seemed like great FLGSs. Among other things, Astral Games features a room with tall tables dedicated to miniature wargaming with a wide variety of scenery, terrain, and other bits & sundry that help your scenario. FunAgain Games has nifty seating including old booths and they have cute demo stations for some games–like the type you’d see at GenCon. Both stores have lots of regular seating for board gamers and MTGers.

We saw lots more on our trip, of course–not JUST game stores–but I really wanted to share that table with you!

Waxing Moon, book two of Calling the Moon, will be released on August 18th!

Julie Hall thinks she has the hang of mothering her Werewolf baby Carson, until the night she wakes to frantic barking and finds her house on fire. Arson. Paranormal fire creatures want to kill Carson—and an unknown Were may be helping them.

As if fire-spawning Salamanders and a mysterious Werewolf aren’t dangerous enough, Julie soon faces even closer threats. Her trusted friend Eliza harbors a secret and Julie’s new understanding of Werewolves threatens to tear apart her team. Meanwhile, her relentless enemies will burn everything in their path, if they can’t get to Carson.

Will Julie’s efforts to protect Carson do more harm than good?

If you haven’t yet read book one, Dark Moon Wolf, this is a perfect time to check it out and be ready for book two! 🙂 Here’s the Amazon link.

Be on the look out for more blog posts this week, as I catch you up on the last busy weeks!