I meant to post a ‘yay, so many days until Revenants is released’ blog last week. I also meant to follow that up with a ‘yay, Revenants is now out’ post. Obviously neither of those happened due to a very nasty bout of anxiety and panic attacks brought on by this whole mouse invasion mess. Basically we thought we got rid of the mice only to discover that we hadn’t (THEY GOT INTO MY STOVE!) and then we promptly discovered that these weren’t just ordinary house mice – they’re actually deer mice. Which means they could be carriers of Hantavirus – which is a very very nasty thing. Really freaking rare, but nasty.

So even though there hasn’t been an outbreak of Hantavirus in our county in many many many years, and even though we have finally plugged all the damn holes in this house, and cleaned everything with bleach – I couldn’t stop thinking about HPS, and the damn mice… and things just kind of spiraled from there.

I’m doing better at the moment, but it’s been rough. Needless to say, I haven’t been doing much in the way of writing while I work through this. I also haven’t been promoting Revenants very much. I did sign up for an ad campaign on Facebook though – which has been interesting – but that’s about it.

Since things have been so screwy, and this isn’t the book launch I envisioned, I’m going to take the rest of this week to get back to some semblance of normal. Then I’ll continue with the giveaways next week, followed up by a possible blog tour if anyone is interested (if you’d like to host, shoot me an email), ending with a launch party on September 30th (if we haven’t sold the house by then, that is).

Does that sound like a plan?

Good.

Anywho, Revenants is out! If you would like to buy a copy, please go here – http://mybook.to/Revenants. Both the ebook and the paperback versions are currently available. And I should have signed copies in a couple of more weeks!

If you do buy a copy – please leave a review, either on Amazon or Goodreads. It would be greatly appreciated!

As I haven’t done much writing the past couple of weeks, I’m going to go back and visit one of my fanfics again. We’re going to dip into The Broken Man – actually, this is the next installment, The Lost Girl – and hang out with Cressida and Graves again this week.

To set up this scene, Cressida finds herself in New York City. Her family has left the circus, and rather than join them in London, she had decided to strike out on her own in the hopes of finding Graves again. She gets her wish, but she isn’t quite sure how to reconnect with him since the American Wizarding World is unaware of her existence.

Here’s six paragraphs because it’s September sixth. Plus one, because there was just no other way to end it.

After working at the diner, Cressida would visit the Woolworth building. She never dared to step inside. She had no wand to show that she was actually a witch, and no coins to buy one. So she would perch on a stool at an automat across the street, sip on a soda, and watch as the people went in and out of the front doors.

Sometimes she tried to guess which were wizards, and which were no-majs, but it was useless. Unlike Pandora’s tales of England and their wizards, North American Wizards were disappointingly dull. They had worked hard on blending in, unlike their European counterparts. And those who didn’t, probably apparated straight to their front doors anyways.

She set her focus on trying to pick out Graves from among the masses of minds inside the building. It proved to be easier said than done, but then, the magical side of the building was probably charmed in some way so that legilimens like her couldn’t see inside. She sighed and drummed her fingers on the countertop, so much for that idea.

Perhaps, maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea after all. Sure she had a good job. A stable legitimate job. And she had her own room with four solid walls, but she missed her family. Heck, she even missed Tinker and Vesta. She missed having someone to talk to. To joke with. Someone who knew her and understood her like they did. Here, she was all alone, lost in the hustle and bustle of the city.

Sure, she could probably befriend her neighbors at the boarding house. She was fairly certain that they were witches too. In fact, she was positive that the one girl was a legilimens like herself, based on the one sided conversations she over heard through the buildings thin walls. But it wasn’t as if she could go knocking on their door and ask for a cup of coffee – the girls were just as standoffish as she was. Probably even more so since they had been raised up under MACUSA’s rules. Plus, there was the dark haired sister to consider. Cressida had only seen her once or twice, but she was fairly certain the girl was the same one from Graves’s memories. Which meant she was an Auror like he was. And if that was the case, she wouldn’t put it past her to go looking for Cressida’s family. They were supposed to be safe and settled in England by now, but what if they had missed the boat? Not to mention, she had no idea what excuse Graves had given when he had returned to the Wizarding fold. She didn’t want to screw up his cover either.

Speaking of the dark haired sister, Cressida was fairly certain that that was her, stepping through the spinning glass doors of the Woolworth building. The girl turned her head to say something to the man exiting on her heel, and Cressida gasped as she recognized the cut of his cloak from her dreams.

Graves.

To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.