Well today I said goodbye to one of my cats, Norman. Last night Norman started to pant and couldn’t use his hind leg. I brought him to the veterinary hospital this morning and he was diagnosed with blood clots in his leg and fluid around his lungs. Upon discussing it with the vet the most humane thing was to euthanize him to ease his pain rather than putting him through a surgery that didn’t guarantee his survival and if he did survive a very short life expectancy after I brought him home.

Norman was honestly the sweetest cat I’ve ever met who always brought joy to the ones who were blessed to see him. He also shared my bed at night. His favorite treat was bacon and french fries. Some of the nicknames I gave him so often it’s a mystery he still remembered his real name haha were: nomnom, nomin, sweet boy, honey bunny, bunny, and bunny boy.

I’m also trying to hear back from my great aunts. Both are in the hospital. One might not make it through the night and one is in the ER for not eating the last few days and being super sick with a cold.

This week just started and it’s rocked my world. Thank you everyone who took the time to read my stories the last few weeks. I’m going to go offline for a few days and throw myself into something productive.

Edit 3/5: we found out my aunt is actually fine. They misdiagnosed her 🙄 I’m super happy that she’s going to be okay and she is in fact, not dying with hours left to live, but jeez how can they misdiagnose someone that badly??

I owe everyone a huge apology. This update and Thirst Trap were supposed to be out forever and a day ago, but my life, work, and mental health blew up as soon as I placed Thirst Trap on pre-order.

Since I put Thirst Trap on pre-order, my grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and went from 17 MMR results in July to 13 MMR in October. I live with her and became a full-time caretaker for her. She went from being able to take care of herself to needing 24/7 care practically overnight. Alongside all of this, I work a 40-hour-a-week day job, and my mental health imploded with unlocked memories of childhood trauma. Never mind already being diagnosed with ADHD, general anxiety, OCD tendencies, chronic depression, and panic attacks.

It was an insane and painful ride to get this book out to you guys, and I’m so sorry it took as long as it did. I hope finally getting it out to you guys makes up for it at least a little bit.

However, I’m here, present, and ready to write. I’ve decided I’m going to do monthly check-ins here on this blog with what I’m thinking about in regard to my stories and a brief check-in with what’s happening in my life (since my daily life is a significant influence on my writing). I’m going to treat this like my newsletter for now (I might change this later on), so no worries about missing anything. It will all be right here! I’m also having my boyfriend help with the accountability of this.

I’m determined to make this part of my life as stress-free as possible (for you and me). So, to start this stress-free relationship off, Thirst Trap can be downloaded for free on kofi, my shop, or even just read it chapter by chapter on my site itself.

It will be published as perma-free on every vendor I can put it on (including Amazon) in the coming weeks. Also, the print should be available as soon as the artist has time for it, and I’m trying to push for all black pages in the formatting, so fingers crossed the printers are okay with it!

Another change I’m making is I took down Drown Within Me from KU. It will also be perma-free on every vendor as soon as I can change it over.

I’ll talk to you guys again at the end of the month unless something significant happens. Enjoy Thirst Trap!