Happy New Year 2022

I'm not the only one who had high hopes for 2021 but came out of the year fairly disappointed. Without going into too much detail, parenting has been an incredible struggle this past year. The pandemic has been really difficult for my kids as well, and they've needed much more support from me, their school, and the community this past year. They are a huge priority to me, so I had to put a lot of things on the back burner this past year, and unfortunately, that included writing and publishing.

As always, I'm starting the new year with lots of goals and aspirations. I have a couple projects started that I'm really excited about and hope to share with you soon. I'm planning to attend more events this year and am looking for more opportunities to connect with you all. 

I'll leave this brief update with my toast for 2022: May it be slightly better than the previous two.

Upcoming Events and Appearances

To say that I'm excited that things are opening back up is a complete understatement. It has been such a relief this past month being able to take my family places, go shopping and to the park without wearing a mask, and not constantly worry about the health and safety of all the people I love.

I had the pleasure of attending Galaxy Con in June and Fredricksburg Comic & Toy Show earlier this month. Interacting with people and meeting fans helped me feel like a 'real' author again. I enjoyed meeting other authors, artists, and creators and admiring their work. I also had a first at the Fredricksburg Comic & Toy Show: I sold every single book I brought with me.

Currently, I'm impatiently waiting for more books to ship so that I'll be ready for all my upcoming conventions. Here's a list of my upcoming events:

Big Lick Comic-Con

August 7-8, 2021
Roanoke, VA

Big Lick Entertainment’s mission is to create events with a message and meaning is unmatched in Virginia. Big Lick Entertainment boasts a roster of signature events including southwest Virginia’s largest New Year’s Eve event, the Big Lick Downtown Countdown, the largest Oktoberfest, the Big Lick Oktoberfest, biggest kid-centric festival, the Big Lick Kid Fest, the record-breaking concert series, Flat Pickin’ Fridays, the areas biggest barbecue celebration, the BOCO BBQ & Country Music Fest, Virginia’s only cocktail festival the Big Lick Cocktail Classic and more!

Harrisburg Comic and Pop Con

September 18-19, 2021
Harrisburg Mall, Harrisburg, PA

This two-day event offers over 100,000 sq feet of celebrity guests, comics, cosplay, contests, panels, guest artists, and many vendors including comics, anime, and pop culture goods!

I also keep a list of my upcoming appearances on my Events page, so make sure to check it out to see updated info on my new shows and events!

EDIT: I also planned on attending the Fairfax Comic-Con in late August, but it has been postponed to spring 2022.

Novel Rereleases and New Puzzling Escapes Adventure

The pandemic has not been great for my productivity. Supervising two kids 24/7 and facilitating virtual school for an entire year has been a huge struggle. The school has finally invited students to attend in person--for two days a week--and it feels like I can finally breathe a little.

I haven't had the time or energy to write very much. I've slowly worked on a couple Puzzling Escapes books and helped format a number of other writers' books, but the focus required to write an entire novel has escaped me. There are a number of stories I want to write, and now that I have a bit of time to myself, I can dedicate myself to them.

Currently, I'm working on the next Puzzling Escapes installment. This one has the reader solve a mystery rather than escape a situation. The idea of a treasure hunt sparked my interest and after a little research, I fell in love with the Florentine Diamond. So far the book has lots of puzzles and some narrative, which means there's still a lot of work to be done before it releases.

There are a couple of novels I've written that I failed to market. After the debacle around the release of Quality DNA, I was pretty burnt by Amazon and unwilling to market my work at all. My next two novels launched with little fanfare. Only when I released In the Lurch did I feel ready to tackle advertising again. To keep things simple, I only brought a few titles to events, and since the two forgotten novels never sold well online, I decided not to bring them to events, further sealing the books as commercial failures.

I'm excited to bring these novels back as new editions with fresh covers. I even gave At Fault a new title: The Earthquake Anomaly, which better represents what the story is about.

Both of these books will release on May 1st. If you'd like a reminder on release day, you can sign up for my newsletter.

I'm looking forward to tackling all the stories zipping around in my head. And of course, I especially look forward to sharing them with you.

Two New Escape Room Games: My Reviews

I've been fairly quiet here and on social media while the pandemic raged on and my sanity waned. Recently, my kids have returned to in-person school—at least part-time—which has been good for everyone in my family. I finally have the mental energy to do some things I enjoy, so naturally, I had to pick up a couple escape room games. And to share the puzzling love, here are my reviews for Trapped: The Bank Job and Extraordinary Investigations.

Trapped: The Bank Job

By Solid Roots

The Trapped series promises to turn any room into an escape room. The small packet contains components that need to be taped to the walls, placed on surfaces, strewn on the floor, or hidden from the players, turning a room in your home into an escape room.

In The Bank Job, your group is a team of robbers. You need to solve all the puzzles inside the bank in order to open the vault. Once you've retrieved your loot, try to leave the bank without setting off the silent alarms. Although I prefer to be one of the 'good guys' for escape games, the fictional heist in this game was fairly light-hearted.

I thought the physicality of Trapped was kind of corny (can't we just lay all the components on a table and sit to play?) until I actually did it. It really does add to the escape room experience to be poking around a single room (the kitchen in my case) discovering all the objects and realizing how they go together. Even though the puzzles were mostly pretty easy, they did a great job at facilitating teamwork.

Trapped: The Bank Job would be perfect for a family game night. The setup is surprisingly easy for such an immersive experience, and the puzzles are at a good level for all ages. 

Extraordinary Investigations

A Puzzle Novel by Rod Gilles

I almost feel bad about reviewing this book since it's in the same niche as my Puzzling Escapes books. I actually found this book advertised on the Amazon sales page for one of my puzzle books, and I really wanted to love this book.

In Extraordinary Investigations, you are the investigator working to solve a cold case. You're tasked with figuring out what happened to Lois Morgan, a researcher who was investigating a secret treasure.

The mechanics of this book are very different than other puzzle books and games I've played. The separate chapters, or evidence files, are simply that: collections of evidence. The game itself is fully online. You have to create an account using an email address before receiving the questions you need to solve. In order to solve puzzles, you'll need to pull up websites mentioned in the book, find your own resources for things like maps, search for answers on Google, and know German. (In reading the description, I somehow missed that the theme of this book was Nazis in WWII. But even though it's not my favorite subject matter, a puzzle book is a puzzle book...right?) When one of the hints instructed me to look up a certain subject on Wikipedia, I gave up. I just wanted to solve cool puzzles, not do a deep delve into the history of notable Nazis.

I'm not sure who this book is meant for. If you want to try your hand at being an investigator, I recommend the Unsolved Case Files series. If you want to learn more about historical persons and events, then I'd stick to Wikipedia.