Out of Ashes: Book One of the Grenamoya Island Saga, now available on Lulu! Go here to check it out:
E-Book: [link] £7.50
Paperback: [link] £13.64
Hardback: [link] £21.50
UK readers can contact me via e-mail (GrenamoyaIsland@yahoo.co.uk)for better value signed hardback copies! Because of high postage costs, US readers are better off buying from Lulu at the above links.

Hello everyone! It’s sad to say that I’ve become one of those people on DeviantArt who disappears for months at a time and makes everyone else fed up with her – sorry for the slowness! I have been ill for nearly a year now, and I continue to feel worse while I have a load of scans and tests and other things performed. In short I have two long-term conditions battling for supremacy over my little body, with another potentially pending that my doctors are preparing for, so I’ll survive, but I spend most of my time feeling dreadful.

I have been back and forth to the hospital for a number of treatments and consultations, and I’m there again next week – so that will be about four visits in three or so weeks, combined with everything I’m doing with my GP. My endoscopy that I mentioned ages ago when I was last online was a very traumatic experience, and much worse than all my leaflets and everything else promised. For periods of several seconds at a time, I couldn’t breathe, and I was promised that my breathing would not be interrupted. ¬.¬ It was apparently a combination of being young and having a very tiny throat. Which made me feel so much better, of course. >___<;; I’ll have to go back for another in a few months, as well as likely being investigated for my other health issues. I also have to travel to a further-away hospital for a more complicated body scan, which I’m scared of. XD One of my current conditions will affect me for the rest of my life, and the other will likely be very long term. It has interrupted my life and my creative work, and I apologise to everyone who has had to wait a little longer for commissions, or has been at all irked by my absence. My bad…

On the little news front, we have a new ratty, a black Berkshire boy called Schmendrick. He was neutered the other week and was found to have a little hernia, which the vet managed to fix as well (he’s a rat genius, our vet!); but now his tummy’s a bit swollen and he’s back at the doctor today, so I’m worried about him. I’ll try to post some new photos to show him off, he’s a gorgeous little lad. ^___^
And for everyone who’s been so supportive of me and Andrew, and wished us all the best for settling down together – it’s official now, he’s coming over to Wales to live with me! We’ve got our first home lined up, and as soon as everything’s finalised he’ll be hopping on the next plane to Liverpool. It’ll be me, him, and the ratties, living together for keeps at last! Until we get our puppies, of course…8D If we’re lucky I may have some doggie photos within the next year… And the first of September marked exactly one year until we get married, too. We’re starting to plan everything, from the church to the cake to the little ratty-themed cake-topper. We’re so sappy.

I hope everyone’s keeping well, and I’m sorry if anyone has been worried, or tried to contact me and didn’t get a reply. I’m still alive though very sick, and struggling on with work and other projects as fast as I can. Wish me luck, because I seem to need it.