Book Delays and Better Days

This week's blog post is not a ghost story, as was promised. Also, it's a day late in coming. The story is almost done, but a lot has happened to make writing a bit difficult, particularly in the last few days. Nothing major, just little annoyances that pile up. Long story short, the past week had a personal vendetta against me. First, there were stressful situations at work, topped off by my deftly carrying a coffee cup up two flights of stairs only to set it down, drop it, and watch it shatter on the floor. Then there was the day when I was going to pick up my brother, but my phone was dying so I turned it off for the day, and drove to the spot where we had arranged to meet, only to turn on my phone to find that he had texted me earlier saying he no longer needed a ride. On the way back, I hit every red light. To make matters worse, I took a trip for the weekend with my mother, leaving my car at home with the windows slightly down—it rained all weekend.

But what has been weighing on me the most is that there's been a kerfuffle with the cover of Miscast Spells, and some debate about the release date. The interior of the book is written, edited, and formatted (the headers alone cut my life shorter by several years, but it was worth it), but the cover is proving to be an unstickable situation. Thus, there's no possible way for the book to come out this fall. I worried about that for a while, which is why this week's short story isn't done, but then I came to the conclusion that this delay is all for the best. Months ago, I had misgivings about a fall release, since Miscast Spells is really more of a spring/summer book. These current delays further cement the idea in my head that a later date is better, so I am setting the official release as February 2016 (not technically spring, but it's still close enough without being unduly late.)

PS: As for that goblinical ghost story, I'll post it next Monday. :)