I haven’t blogged since the beginning of the month, but I have been working.

I completed the audio recording for An Anthology of Loss, Healing, and Resilience and it is currently undergoing a quality review by ACX. Fingers crossed, it will pass and I can publish the audiobook to Audible! 

I also dusted off two children’s books that I wrote back in 1998 and 1999 - Clara and Karen’s Big Adventure – A Guardian Angel Story and The ABCs of the Fairy Realm. Clara was penned when my niece Karen, at age five, mentioned that she thought that she would see angels at Aunt Leesa’s house in San Antonio. I decided to write her a story where she would meet her guardian angel. Karen is now grown with her own daughter, but better late than never. For The ABCs, I always had an affinity for fairies, and had fun trying to rhyme lines about fairies. I used a fairy’s reference book that I had at the time, but it has been so long ago I do not recall which one. 

I did find an agent many years ago who was willing to represent me for a fee, but with no success. The biggest hold up was the illustrations, and being retired with no income to speak of, I can’t afford to hire someone to illustrate two entire books. I ended up giving AI a try. I turned to Reve AI, an advanced AI image generation and editing platform. Reve was recommended to me by a neighbor, who works as a graphic designer, when I needed to design the cover for An Anthology of Loss, Healing, and Resilience. I first shared Clara with Reve, and the images that came out were exactly as I imagined them. I also uploaded an image of my niece when she was around five or six and Reve incorporated her outfit and gave the character Karen a similar appearance. I did the same for The ABCs of the Fairy Realm, and continued to give her direction until I had exactly was I imagined, 

You may be wondering why I refer to an AI program as “she” but that is how her communications appear to me. My husband laughs at me, but my response was, “If a car can be a “she” why can’t an AI tool?” Anyway, it worked and I’m satisfied with the finished product! 

I have also dusted off a third book that I started 13 years ago about an imaginary camp where kids go to learn about different cultures. I was going to call it Color Me Friend, but another author beat me to it and published a book in 2024 under the same name. I had a good amount of the book already sketched out, but it was originally geared to 10 – 13-year-olds. I am now reimagining the book to a picture book. Time is of the essence to keep someone from using my new title!

More to come!