Pexels Photo: by Rubenstein Rebello, Anonymous woman hiding in thick smoke
Hello My Happy People,
I hope you all had a great weekend. My weekend was so much better than my week, thanks to P.R.. I know I write this a lot, but I really did marry well! P.R. knew I was still hurting from events during the week (and I had been stressed for a few weeks because of book decisions I had to make) so on Saturday P.R. took me out to get a couples pedicure together and we brought dinner home Saturday and Sunday so no cooking! I really love that man!
He has also been riding my backside about getting this new book on the page. Thanks to his "loving" nagging, I have started my new book, The Touch, and have already written the first few pages. The only problem is, I worry that I am going TOO dark with this FBI profiler/serial killer/sexual predator story. It will definitely not appeal to the same market I had for the Into the West Saga Serial books. Where those books had no real violence, cursing, or sexual content whatsoever, this book starts out with a sexual assault and other violence.
As someone who has studied sex crimes and sexual predators for my forensic criminology degree, I can tell you that what I have written does not even come close to the actual details of the worst cases I have studied. However, it still may be a bit too much for some people, especially those who have been assaulted. It will have to come with a major trigger warning for sure.
The photo I used for this blog, is part of the cover of the new book. There is a lot more to the cover than this photo, but I thought it would be cool to give you hints like this leading up to the full cover art reveal.
So that is where I am right now, Working on building my TikTok following, writing the new book, I have more doctors visits coming up for all the "now that you are old you have to have all these tests" time in my life. Plus, we just got tickets for my birthday celebration this year. I will be turning 55 this year and normally on my landmark birthdays (like 25, 30, 40, 45 ... I have missed a few over the years) I go out and do some crazy stunt like bungee jumping, skydiving, flying a glider, you get the idea. This year P.R. and I were going to go ride a rail cart down a mountain in Switzerland for my birthday but Destination Star Trek has started having conventions again this year and they re-booked their Voyager celebration for this September.
I started collecting photos of meeting Star Trek captains a few years ago after I met William Shatner and Sir Patrick Stewart. Kate Mulgrew is going to be here in Germany at the convention so there was no way I could pass up this chance to meet and get a photo with her. The rail carts will have to wait! I would love to do the Voyager cast photo on the ship's bridge, but it is more than I want to spend and more than I would ask for a birthday gift, even from P.R. So I will settle for the photo with Kate Mulgrew and maybe one or two of the cast members from the Riddles episode.
In this episode, Tuvok has a brain injury and goes through unique struggles because of it. I love this episode! Everytime I watch it, it makes me feel like someone out there knows what I went through after my brain surgeries. Tim Russ did a fantastic job and I hope I get to tell him so in person at the con. I hope I also get to thank Ethan Phillips, who plays Neelix and did a great job playing the caregiver to Tuvok while he recovered. His challenges dealing with the "new" Tuvok are a great example of how people with brain injuries can change and affect the relationships of those around them as they all deal with the "new" personality. I also want to thank Roxann Dawson who plays Lt. Torres and also directed this episode. She did a wonderful job!
I am off to get back to writing the new book and secretly worrying about myself as I write this twisted bit of horror. I wonder if Stephen King ever thinks, "what is wrong with me that I think of this stuff" as he writes his books?
This week in the podcast, I think I will be talking about the new book and how dark is too dark for horror books. And seeing as how my birthday is coming up, this seems like a great time to share the top 10 best gifts to give the writer in your life, just in case you might one day need this information ... of course.
So that is the update for now, my happy people. Check out my TikTok page (@burckhardt_books) if you haven't yet and have a great day!
Enjoy,
Comments