I am elated at the recent completion of my other projects.  Cauldron Cards is now published, and I must say, is an extremely fun game to play! (Also a great Christmas present!) You can check it out through thegamecrafter.com, or shoot me an email and I have a few for sale.

I am honored, and love working for other authors in many respects, as editor, illustrator, and cover designers.  The only drawback that I have found recently, and only because my other projects are coming to a head, is that I have come to the realization that I tend to put my own projects on the back burner in order to complete my "real work" for others.  I think that this is a necessity, and if I were a client of mine, I would expect nothing less.  I aim to please.  But, it has been nice to finally get back to some of my own projects, and be able to work on them without feeling guilty that I'm not working on someone else's.  I think I'm going to give myself a whole week to concentrate on just that, and give myself some "me time".  I feel that it's healthy, and necessary at some point, like being able to just blow off some steam.  One of my projects, the Bonesie's Blog (bonesies.blogspot.com), has been something that I am sticking to, and I have been diligently writing for every day or every other day when life is really busy.  I have been lax in that this week with Hanukkah, my school's concert, and my son's birthday all falling in the same week, however, this is not a project I intend to let fall by the wayside.  Please check it out, it's a little bit of awesome.  For now, I will leave you with a little brain teaser from my third book in the Binding of the Almatraek series, Enchanted Page, which should be out in January.  This is a riddle, and I'll post the answer in my next blog.

“I move across the land,

But I don’t require air,

I dive through the water,

But I don’t get wet there.

Some say I’m part of a free flying fowl,

Though I never make a peep,

Nor hoot like an owl,”

Books are a great gift to give for the holidays, please check out my website; www.reillybooks.com for books for kids, teens, and adults alike! Also, if you are looking to publish, go to www.reillybooks.weebly.com, we might not have all the answers, but we do offer a lot of help!

Dec. 9, 2014
This weekend, the author of my illustrated book Santa Almost Missed our Town, put together a reading/book signing book launch.  He and his wife, who worked closely with me on the project, invited me to be a part of it, for which I felt really touched and grateful.  There wasn't a real big turn out, but I was introduced to a beautiful location that always has things on the go.  It was held at the Bay Roberts Information Pavilion, and walking into the place, it was instantly comforting.  The whole place was decorated with Christmas paraphernalia, and though I'm Jewish, it was very cozy and inviting.  Talking to the lady afterwards, I learned that it takes approximately three weeks to decorate the two room establishment, and they redo the decoration for every holiday normally celebrated in Newfoundland.  I have found a new avenue to help promote my books, as she has invited me to come back during tourist season to do a book reading of one of my own books, which I am really looking forward to.  As an added plus, the lady who keeps the Bay Roberts website up and running, was there to take our picture and will be posting on the town's information page.  That's it for now, I have been working on another blog, Bonesie.blogspot.com, and it has become a new project that I am really enjoying.  I am writing religiously there, every day, or every other day on the outside.  Come, check it out!

November 23, 2014
I worked that big craft fair close to the city today.  Things went differently than expected.  On the plus side, it was housed at a high school, and a LOT of the kids were there to help out.  I mean how thrilled was I to be told upon registering that if I drove around to the back, there would be minions...(I mean students), to help me unload my car!  I went in feeling like a rich lady who had personal valets.  I was inspired and moved by the amount of work the school body did to decorate (all the figureheads on the gym walls were dressed with x-mas hats and there were large presents everywhere).  It really felt like the holidays, and the piped in repeating holiday music was even on a cycle that didn't make me want to tear my hair out.  So all pluses. On the down side, the large crowds I was anticipating, the droves of people promised, the throngs of buyers...must have been out to lunch...but not at the craft fair's cafeteria, if you know what I mean.  There were much fewer buyers than I had prepared for, though the ones that did buy largely bought more than one of my books.  I tried something new this time with the contest, a raffle for a free book that anyone was entered into when they bought at least two books.  Unfortunately, this craft fair was three times the cost to rent a table as the past ones, so I basically broke even on my costs.  The good news is that I drummed up lots of interest, including drawing the eye of a representative from the local university, who informed me that they keep copies of books from all of Newfoundland's authors.  Therefore, she's going to mention me to her board, and possibly order a (or some) books.  I did meet some wonderful people, one of which was an inspiring young man (teen) who created his own business called "Stranded".  It has a wonderfully powerful message, and I encourage you all to check it out. The only real down side to my journey today was that the helpful teens at the end of the day had become too scarce to help carry all the stuff back OUT to the cars.  I guess life is never perfect, but today was fun on the whole.

I also forgot to mention that I have started a blog called Bonesies Blog, a day in the life of our cat. Possibly humorous, cat lovers will get this, dog lovers should read it too, you know your dog thinks it's a cat ;)

October 15, 2014
I have mastered the art of multitasking to a fault. I find myself taking on a very heavy workload when it comes to my various writing projects, but as they are being completed, I feel the cloud lifting. I set deadlines for myself, and I find that because they are self-set, I am okay with not meeting them. Having said that, they give me a time frame to work towards, which keeps me on the job. I usually complete projects in order of importance: editing first for other authors, or cover work. Illustrations and kids' books next, because I find them both quicker than writing novels, and to be honest, the most enjoyable. Lastly, my own personal writing projects, my novel series. The only thing I find that disappoints me, although I think this is the most gainful way to spend my time, is that I lose the knack of daily writing. I find it harder to pick up the threads this way, and I let down my fans. One family in particular has come back to craft fair after craft fair seeking the next book in the series, and I feel like I am not doing enough. I have begun to recognize my own limitations, and I feel that it's helping to say "no" to some new projects, while excepting those that I will be able to manage. My last roadblock is in not having a set schedule due to work and staying home with the kids. I have two small children, and I find that life with them is pretty unpredictable at best, even when attempting to stick to a schedule for their learning. This means that I have to find time to work after they go to bed for the night, which for me, is my least productive time of day...perhaps I'll have to start drinking coffee in the evenings.

November 15, 2014
The workload grows lighter, as does the weight on my shoulders to get everything done. I have the pleasure of announcing to the world the end of and the birth of three long-lasting work projects that have all come to fruition. The Poetical Alphabetical Book, a colourful children's rhyming alphabet book both illustrated and written by me; Santa Almost Missed Our Town, written by Tom Christopher and David J. Fitzpatrick and illustrated by me (this is the book made from a song that I wrote about in my earlier posts), and the long awaited Cauldron Cards. Cauldron Cards is a card game based on my medieval fantasy novel series. I banded together with LilCon Games to create the graphics for this magical spin-off of their other popular game Cooking Cards. The game is now available, and has an expansion pack to allow for altered game play and more players at the table. I'm really quite proud of all of these projects, and to celebrate, I am doing the biggest craft fair yet in order to get the word out. I wanted to reach more readers, and this one is in a big town, close to the city, and promises to have a big crowd of all new readers who have yet to own any of my books. New exposure is great, so I have gotten pencils printed with my website, an all new set up for the (smaller) new table, and I have decided to do a draw for anyone who buys a set of books to encourage the purchase of more than one. I have taken on the square app to allow buyers to use credit cards to allow for bigger purchases, and my buyers will get to fill out a ballot for the chance to win a free book. Fingers crossed, I hope it goes well!

November 17, 2014
A quiet reprieve.  Now that most of my projects are done, I find I have a little more time for this.  I am on the fence though about my website, a sore topic for the last few months.  I have been begging my web creator to update my website for a while now, two books and a game ago, to be exact, and nothing is getting done.  My company has now published two other authors, that I want author pages for, and it should be updated with all of the merchandise I sell.  I am about to endeavor in a craft show this weekend, (Craft shows are where I sell the majority of my books), but this one promises to give new exposure and a LOT of people coming through.  I got swanky new affordable business cards from vistaprint, I paid an extra $25 for this raised ink bit and man, does it look swanky!  All my ducks are in a row, except the website.  It HAS to be updated before the weekend.  I am on the fence whether to create my own website on Weebly, which I have done for another author and another company, but the only downside is that I like the setup and look of my website, and weebly has set templates/flavours for you to choose from.  I put a lot of work into the graphics on my website, and I won't be able to use them on the new one.  Perhaps I will plug away at a new one and not activate it until it gets closer to the end of the week.

On an up side, I'm looking to start swapping blogs and have guest bloggers com on the site.  I've never done this, and am not really sure how it works, but I have found the wealth of information from my contacts on places such as Linked in to be invaluable, so perhaps some of that information will translate here.

Go check out Bonesies Blog, my new blog that's truly the cat's meow!