I just got back last night from a trip to New Orleans.  This was primarily a research trip, but my husband and I had a good time while there.  I would have preferred going sooner than this since some parts of Darkness Clashes do take place there (no spoilers, not to worry), but that was the soonest my husband could take off work.  He didn’t want to miss it since he’d never been to Louisiana.  This meant sketching out those scenes and/or writing a tentative draft of them ahead of time due to the tight schedule, but now I’ve got everything I need to fill them in.

Facebook fans have seen a few of the trip pics I’ve posted, but I’ll post a couple here as well (see below).

I stayed at The Olivier House and loved it.  Our room had older style furnishings, which is what I wanted, but it also had modern amenities like a television and cable.  With the final World Cup games taking place while there, this was particularly important to the husband.  I’ll confess to not watching, but I do want to congratulate Germany for their win!

I’m also excited to let you all know my cover artist and typographer finished the cover for Darkness Clashes during the trip.  It looks amazing!  I’ll be revealing it exclusively with Bitten by Books on July 25th, but will post a link here as a reminder on that day so you can check it out as well as the official blurb.  For now you all will have to satisfy yourselves with the new website header (top of this page) that has a never-seen-before pose of Lucas and Melena.  No, it is not the one on the cover.  This shot was taken for promo purposes only.

That’s it for now on updates.  It’s back to the grindstone for me so I can have this book ready by the end of next month.  Hope all of you are having a great summer 🙂