If you’ve ever seen the cover of my first book, Message from a Blue Jay, you might have had the same reaction I had when my publisher showed it to me — wow, what a wonderful cover!

That is about to change.

All good things must pass, and the truth is, my first published book has been available for ten years now. As much as I love the original edition published by independent press Buddhapuss Ink, it’s time for the book to take off in a new direction. I recently signed a contract with my current publisher, Huntsville Independent Press (HIP), to publish a 10th anniversary edition. The new book will feature a new cover, a publisher’s note, a foreword from prolific award-winning novelist and memoirist Joan Schweighardt, and two additional essays. The essays we are adding were originally published in the wonderful journal Connotation Press: An Online Artifact. They complement the original book’s text because they are both about my father, who passed away just 12 days before I received my first copy of the original book. (This is one of my deepest regrets, and he had asked about it a number of times, concerned he wouldn’t live to see it.)

I’m excited Message from a Blue Jay will be given the opportunity to reach new readers and reconnect with those who loved it in the past. But there’s a bit more news — HIP will also publish what I like to call a “stocking stuffer” — a chapbook of four short stories I wrote and published in literary journals. One of the stories is “Who Let the Cats Out?” a story that won third place out of 200 entries in a mystery writing contest. The other stories are titled: “Capture the Moon,” “The Old Man,” and “The Varmint.”

The publication date for these books is December 1, 2024, right in time for the holidays. That’s a year from the date Soul to Soul: Tiny Stories of Hope and Resilience was set to come out, but there were a number of delays in the publication process, causing some holiday gifts to arrive late (another of my writing career regrets). The publisher promises that won’t happen this year!

I’ll share more information about these books as it becomes available, including the cover reveals. I hope you’ll enjoy them. Meanwhile, I’m focused on a new full-length short story. It’s nearly 8000 words, quite a difference from the 100-word drabbles I’ve been writing. This story is a foray into speculative fiction. Over the years, I’ve published poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and three children’s books…why not keep experimenting, right?