The Spider and Other News

Every few months, a giant spider appears in our living room. Giant is a relative term, and in this case it’s about the size of a quarter, which isn’t exactly a tarantula, but it’s big enough compared to the teensy spiders we usually get.

This spider almost always appears in the same place, right in the middle of our wooden floor, and never, not once, have I ever caught it walking to or from that location. I have no idea where it comes from, how it gets in, or how it crosses five feet of open floor without me noticing.

I also have no idea why it always picks the same place to lie in wait.

I think I’m being hunted by a ninja spider and all of its descendants, bent on revenge.

And now I’ve typed spider enough times that it no longer looks like a real word, so enough of that. :)

In other news, I wrote a little blog post on science fiction romance for Fantasy Cafe’s Women in SF&F Month, so you can mosey over there if you want to read my ramble about why people should be reading cross-genre books.

I also did a back alley book trade with Kit Rocha, where I sent Bree Aurora Blazing and she sent me Deal With The Devil, their first Mercenary Librarians book.

Go to that link right now and sign up for information. Sadly, their preorder isn’t up yet because the book doesn’t come out until early next year, but the second it’s up, expect me to shout about it because you do not want to miss this book. Nina is everything I love in a heroine—smart and badass, but with a core of hope and kindness—and Knox is jaded, honorable, and so very conflicted. I loved it and want book two desperately.

I’m frantically working on the still untitled third book in the Consortium Rebellion series, which is due July 1. I’m not catastrophically behind, but I’m somewhat behind and it’s freaking me out. This is due to a series of unfortunate events, the most unfortunate of which is I thought the deadline was the end of August because that’s when book two was due last year.

Ha! Surprise! Goodbye two extra months of writing, hello nights and weekends.

Edits for TQA are due any day, and I still have another potential round of edits, copyedits, galley proofs, and probably some other things I’m forgetting for Aurora Blazing, so it’s going to be a busy few months.

If you want to keep up with me day to day, Twitter is the best option, as it’s where I’m most active.

12 thoughts on “The Spider and Other News”

  1. Thank you for the link to the blog post. I enjoyed reading it and thought it was well structured, well written, and very relatable, especially the parts about teasing and science fiction and fantasy being the foundation of your formative reading years.

  2. I have the same – mine appears mid-living room floor, just once, every year. No idea where it comes from, or where it’s planning on going. Twice it was scooped up and deposited waaaay down the garden, but another took its place… That or it somehow finds its way back. Apparently snails do that, come back when you chuck ’em over the neighbour’s wall – someone did a survey using nail varnish to paint each night’s haul a different colour. After about a week they started finding ones with nail varnish on… I’m not going to attempt to paint my arachnid visitor, that would require me to get far to close for comfort.

    1. You are far kinder than me. If it’s inside, it’s dead. I don’t need any more spiders than know how to find their way inside. 😂 Outside spiders get avoided or gently shooed away, but once they cross the threshold, it’s on.

    1. Yes. Our living room is open to our second floor so it’s a vast expanse of open air, but no webs, thankfully. And thanks for trying to put that new nightmare into my head. :)

  3. As a sci-fi-romance loving librarian, I am thrilled at the idea of mercenary librarian is space! I need this series soooo bad! And the rest of the consortium series as well – the first book hooked me from the first page and kept me reading way past my bedtime which is what a good book should do ;)

  4. I have a “magic snake” spot on the sidewalk in front of my house. Every now and then a snake appears on that spot. But last spring, I would come home once a week to find a small snake in the exact same spot. This was 4 or 5 weeks in a row. I know it wasn’t the same snake because of size differences and at least one of them was already dead when I saw it. My husband theorized that the nest was nearby but that didn’t explain why they only appeared a week apart. (I’m not a herpetologist so I don’t know.)

  5. Ha. I like the spiders in my house. They keep the other bugs at bay. They just can’t surprise me. If surprised, I might squash.

  6. Have you considered the possibility that the spiders are actually using a portal from another dimension that deposits them in your living room on a mission to…never mind, I’m sure you already thought of that.

    My daughter developed arachnophobia a few years ago and every once in awhile will come to me asking me to “deport” a spider from the premises.

    Thanks for the link to Mercenary Librarians, I’ll be sure to look out for it. And your deadline moving up 2 months sounds like a classic work nightmare, yikes! Good luck with the writing/editing/proofing. I eagerly await the results…

  7. Interesting. I thought I was the only one with a spider roommate. Mine is relatively small and stays FAR away from me. It also keeps the other, nastier spiders and bugs out of my apartment. Plus the web is located someplace I can’t see or come into contact with, so I let it do its business in my apartment. Any other spiders (especially aggressive ones or biters) get killed. No exceptions.

    Interestingly, most of my guests have been red/black or gold/black and gray/black ladybugs. They hang out near my plants and eat the bugs. Good luck getting rid of your spiders ;)

  8. Pingback: Happy Book Birthday to Deal with the Devil! – Jessie Mihalik

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