In this newsletter:

Standing with Ukraine 🇺🇦
Flight 444 update - Stuck on the runway.
Expert advice needed - Know any skydivers?
Missing Chai - My dog, not the coffee.

Hi, ,

It's hard to ignore the humanitarian crisis developing in Ukraine as Russia continues its unprovoked attack on that country and its people.

While I don't normally touch on such heavy subjects in my newsletters, I wasn't comfortable turning a blind eye to this one, especially since many of my friends are of Ukrainian heritage. In fact, here in Canada, we have the largest Ukrainian population in the world outside of Russia and Ukraine itself.

For me, this sense of kinship was elevated even more when I discovered the design company I hired to revamp my TimeBlink cover is based in Ukraine. In the past week, Miblart has sent out several emails thanking their clients, providing updates on the situation, and apologizing (!) for any delays in their services.

If you live in Canada and want to support the people of Ukraine, you can donate to the Canadian Red Cross which is providing humanitarian aid to the estimated one million people who have been forced to flee their homes and their country. And, if you donate before March 18, 2022, the Government of Canada will match these donations dollar for dollar.

If you're American, check out this Washington Post article for a list of places you can donate.

For other countries, I urge you to seek out humanitarian organizations in your area. 

It seems almost insulting at this point to carry on with the rest of this froofy little newsletter, but from a mental health perspective, I think it's best to keep a normal routine.

So, let's do this.

Since my last update, I've had a series of setbacks (might as well go all-in with the gloom and doom theme). You might recall my unbridled joy last month when I reported how close I'd been to finishing the draft of my second novel, TimeBlink: Flight 444.

However, I missed the deadline and had to postpone sending it out to my beta reading service by two weeks. A minor setback in the big scheme of things, but a setback nonetheless.

I'd been so...damned...close.

How did this happen? Well, with one chapter to go and two possible endings in mind, I reread my manuscript from the beginning to see if it would help me decide which one to use. Instead, I stumbled across several plausibility issues, particularly in the following areas:

-Police procedure
-Commercial air travel
-Skydiving terminology

Fortunately, I found some great resources to help me fix these potential gaffes. One of them was a Facebook group called Cops and Writers, a forum where authors can ask current and former law enforcement personnel all manner of police-related questions. It's been a godsend.

The second was my cousin, Mike, a commercial airline pilot who was happy to lend his expert advice wherever he could.

But when it came to connecting with people in the skydiving industry, it wasn't so easy.

In a bid to learn more about the sport, I contacted several skydiving companies directly. While many of these experts were super gung-ho to help out, after receiving my first round of questions, they would invariably scurry into the woodwork, never to be heard from again.

To give them the benefit of the doubt (and a chance to bow out gracefully), I would send one last follow-up email saying, "Hey, if you've changed your mind, that's okay. Just let me know." 

Crickets.

I gave up trying after the fourth company left me dangling in the wind. 😉

Fortunately, in the world of indie publishing, it's never too late to make changes to your book–even after it has been released. So, if you happen to be a professional skydiver (or know someone who is) and are game to answer a few simple questions about the believability of these scenes in my story, I'd love to hear from you. I don't bite, honest!

In Memory of Chai

It's been a year since my husband and I had to say goodbye to our snuggly, spirited, mischievous 13-year-old Havanese pup, Chai, and I still think about him every single day.

He was also incredibly intelligent and I was sure he understood the concept of humor (if his toilet-paper-shredding antics were any indication), and I'm sure he would have approved of me using his photo in this meme. 

Here's the article I penned about him shortly after we made the heartbreaking decision to send him over the so-called Rainbow Bridge. You might want to grab some tissues.

🐾

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