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Hey there friends of Mister Black!
I hope you're not in the northeast like I am because here in the Lowell area of Massachusetts -- and throughout the rest of the State -- we are SNOWED IN. It's a veritable blizzard. It was supposed to be a bad storm, what they call a Nor'Easter here, but I thought it was supposed to stop snowing around 11AM and it's still snowing HARD right now. We're lucky we still have electricity.
We had a Nor'Easter last week, which wasn't even as bad as this, and there are still people who haven't gotten their power back from after that storm. During the last storm, our power went out three times, but the longest was only 20 minutes. So, we were very, very lucky. We had relatives sleeping over here because their house had no heat without the power. To that end, we lose heat without the power, too.
Praying that we don't lose power. The reason it keeps happening to people is that most of the trees around here are getting to be old and they're not very stable. You put heavy, wet snow on all of their branches and down go the branches. Entire trees went down with the last storm, too. And when they fall, they tend to take power lines down with them. That's the big problem, trees knocking power lines down. Then the tree has to be removed from the lines before the electric company can even start to work. I give them a lot of credit. They have people working up to 16 hour shifts. Same with the people who plow for the town. My hat's off to them.
So, I've created a new Book of Shadows poll. It asks 8 simple questions and getting your responses to this poll is very important to me. It could be to you, too, as it could influence future plotlines. Book of Shadows 4 was written after taking what I learned from the previous poll into consideration and it influenced a few decisions I made. Suffice to say, your answers matter to me.
CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE POLL.
Currently, I'm still working on Book of Shadows 4. Ideas for improvements keep coming to me and I keep making them. Eventually, I'll know it's perfect (in my opinion) and I'll stop. At that point, I will ask if any of you would like to play editor and find the typos for me again. In exchange, you'll get to read the book ahead of everyone else, including ARC readers. And I'll give you a copy of the final version when the book comes out.
Speaking of ARC readers, I gave out 50 ARC copies of Book of Shadows 3. 11 of you were honest people and left me reviews. (And I loved them all!) But 39 of you said you'd post a review and yet here we are weeks and weeks after I gave you the ARC copies and you still haven't posted reviews. So, I have come up with a new policy for this, which is that people who want ARC copies must show me that they have already reviewed one of my books in the past. You can send me a link to your review or take a screenshot and send it to me. I hate to have to do this, but it's a policy that most authors have now so it's nothing unusual.
Remember how my leaf bug Larry died? He'd been injured and lost most of his legs and I tried to keep him alive but one morning I got up and he had passed. Fortunately, I now have TWO new friends. Leaf bugs like Larry. I've named them Donatello and Sammy. Donatello is considerably larger than Sammy, so I can actually tell them apart. Sammy likes to hang upside on my plant for hours and hours, but Donatello likes to climb my curtains and socialize with me. I swear, these bugs are social creatures. Donatello will just show up on my computer monitor or nearby wherever I'm sitting at the time. Yesterday, I was turned away from my computer for two seconds and when I turned around Donatello was on my wrist guard in front of my keyboard. He seems to like being around me. Sammy spends most of his time hiding or on Jessica, so I wouldn't say he's social, but Donatello is like Larry. And if they are stink bugs like many have said, I have never once even noticed the slightest scent coming from any of them. So, see, they must really like me!
I need to take photos of Sammy and Donatello, but in the meantime here's a photo of Jessica:
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