Newsletter 2/1/26

February greetings from a snowy corner of Georgia. It’s been bitter, windy, ice-breaking weather here, but thankfully we avoided the snow and freezing rain that’s struck Tennessee two weeks in a row. I’ll take all the small favors I can get. Now that the Christmas season is well behind us, I’m ready to trade the midwinter blues for green grass, happy horses, and evenings that melt long and slow into night. Daylight savings can’t come fast enough.

As for today, there are a few news items of note:

• I broke ground on the seventh and final Drake Chronicles book this morning, as of yet untitled. Book six, Avarice of the Empire, released at the end of December and offered some wild twists, including a surprise ending that leads directly into the action of the big finale. I’m determined that book seven will be the last book, even if it winds up being a chunky installment. Before anyone asks, I have no idea when it might release. Sorry! There’s lots to juggle at the moment.

• Last week I started a new post series all about writing. Writing 101 focuses on the importance of reading for writers, and Writing 102, the next installment, will discuss journaling and practice writing. This is a deep dive look at craft, from concept to completion, and as of now, I’m planning to update it on a monthly basis, depending on the rest of my writing workload.

• The Alex-centered Dartmoor novel Inherent Violence is rolling along here on Substack. We’re up to Chapter Twenty-One as of last night, and in Chapter Twenty-Two, Miranda gets to meet the old ladies. For anyone asking if I’ll eventually turn this book into a Kindle/paperback release, the answer is that I haven’t decided. Low Lord Have Mercy sales lead me to believe that it wouldn’t sell very well, and in this format, I get to offer it as an exclusive to Substack supporters. So, we’ll see, but I’m not sure.

I have a bit of personal news as well. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen my stories a week or so ago when I talked about my health issues. I don’t want to say too much yet, but suffice to say that I felt terrible for most of 2025, especially in the back half of the year. At the beginning of January, I started seeing a new doctor, one who’s actually taking my pain and other symptoms seriously; she’s being proactive, and that’s been a tremendous relief. I had an ultrasound last Tuesday to check on one thing…and the radiologist wound up finding something unexpected. My doctor ordered an MRI, and I have that this coming Tuesday evening. We’ve been moving forward with the hypothesis that I have endometriosis, or ovarian cysts, or both, and now there’s another complication that needs examining. I’m nervous. Hopefully the MRI can shed light on everything that’s going on, and we can move forward with a clear surgical plan.

All that’s to say that I’m not sure what my schedule for the next few weeks or months is going to look like. I’m going to write as much as I can, with the idea that I’ll have scheduled posts set to drop in the early stages of any surgery recovery period. If I’m laid up for a while, I won’t be much use at the barn (ugh!) but should still be able to write. I’ll keep y’all posted!

Stay warm, everyone :)