What the actual #%*¥.L Seriously, UPS? Seriously? Why is everything so hard right now? This past week has felt like a cosmic joke with terrible timing. My shipment of books for an upcoming book fair arrived soaked—UPS left the boxes sitting in a puddle on my porch. Half the inventory? Ruined.

July came in swinging. Two book fairs, rolling out my ARC for Book Four, and creating the book trailer for this deliciously dark installment in the Somewhere Aching universe. I’m running on caffeine, stubbornness and the faint hope that autumn will save me.

I spent the Fourth of July weekend at my mountain property, soaking in the quiet. We visited the Little Grand Canyon—Utah’s spectacular hidden gem—and I wasted hours lolling around, staring at the sky. It was supposed to be a decompression weekend. Did I decompress? Not really. Because I knew what waited for me when I got home: The final edit of Book Four.