Hi folks! Long time no chat! I know it isn’t a surprise to any of you out there that real life gets in the way of things! It has been a while since I’ve done one of my 31^st of the month author posts because I always leave them to the last minute and then don’t get them done…leading to frowny faces from Dani. 😊

Life just seems to have gotten so darned busy! I’m still stuck at just over 57,000 words on my newest book and honestly, I haven’t added one word for the last 33 days. If I had stuck to the 1,000 words a day thing that I was sure I could handle, I’d be at 90,000 words, or most likely finished with the first draft. Instead, I’m sitting here with a whole lot more writing to do.

My biggest hold back has been real life. Whether it is my promotion to a position at work that requires a minimum of 50 hours a week, or the sometimes ninety-minute commute sitting in gridlocked ‘snowbird’ traffic to get to that job on that island in the background of my picture above, or the family health issues in far off lands with white stuff on the ground, it always seems to be something. Many times, it is as simple as that darned husband of mine complaining that I don’t spend enough time sitting in the living room with him while he is watching television. I’m sure some of you can relate on that one! Regardless, they are all excuses. I need to make time, and I know it.

The other thing I’ve been struggling with is that feeling of being an imposter. Those of you who write might know what I’m talking about because I’ve talked to others who feel the same way. When can you say comfortably that you’re an author, or a writer? I’ve got three books published and I’m working on the fourth. Does that count? Or do I need to get to 10…or 20…or more? I’ve been having serious second thoughts about the Supporting Author level that I signed up for at the upcoming GRL in Portsmouth. Will everyone look at me, point and call me out as a fraud? I’m sure not, but I’ll have to work on my courage to walk into that event. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a total introvert. In fact, I’m usually more of an extrovert…but this one scares me. 🙂 Luckily Dani and several of my author and reader friends are also attending, so I won’t be on my own. I recently read a post by an author commenting on how far they’ve come since they walked into their first GRL, so I know I’ll live through it. Probably.

But…life is good. I was supposed to be dead over four years ago, the doctors all told me that. I made plans for the Bios Urn and everything. I should be an eight-foot tall red maple by now…but no, I’m still here, alive and doing fantastic. Every day is a blessing. I’m much happier being this living breathing human who is whining about why he hasn’t gotten book four written yet. LOL. The maple will have to wait.

For those of you stuck in those snowy distant lands…here is a view from my garden a couple days ago. Another thing that keeps me from writing…

Look at that, I’ve written over 500 words. I should have been working on the book! Have a great day all!

Daniel Mitton is not a statistic. When the doctors broke the news to him that he would be dead by the end of 2013 from brain cancer, he scoffed at them. He has proven them incorrect, and continues to prove them more incorrect every day.

He is now pursuing his lifelong dream of telling other people his stories in writing. His overactive imagination used to get him in trouble, it will be interesting to see if that continues to be true. Daniel tends to write what he knows, but any resemblance to his own life is purely circumstantial, and he will admit to nothing. He really did live in the barracks next to that creepy old haunted looking prison in New Hampshire, and might have made forays into its dark depths…but since that might be considered unlawful…we won’t talk about that.

The idea for the Wizard Shifter series came to him while he was riding through the Pine Mountain Tunnel in North Carolina and a ‘what if’ moment hit him. In real life he has a husband of nearly twenty-nine years named Stephen…who might get just a little upset if Daniel ran off into some foreign world with a bear shifter named Rafe.

Daniel was born and raised in northern New Hampshire, but now lives in sunny Southwest Florida with that husband of nearly twenty-nine years and their pain in the butt cat, Cooper. He totally doesn’t get why some people complain it is too hot in Florida!