Glad I'm not a bank teller

The guide for new parents is almost done. I should be able to meet my self-imposed deadline and have it online by mid-February.
Life has just become so much work for me. I know I complain a lot. That's my charm.
Every night I try and squeak in an hour of writing. I don't always succeed. Right now my priority is the guide. Before it was the former Virus book. I don't have much more than three or four hours a week to write.
It makes me very frustrated that I don't have more time but I don't know where I'd get it. It's 8:30 p.m. and I've just sat down at the computer.
Now it's 8:35 p.m. and I've just returned from upstairs searching for the origins of a huge crash noise.  I was a little freaked after searching every room and finding nothing. My husband discovered a shampoo bottle fell off a shelf in the family bathroom. We must have a ghost because no one was in that room moving around.

So, I'm going to cut this short because I'm writing the guide.When I'm having a crisis of confidence I wonder if I'm wasting my time. I guess I'll know in a few months.
I hope that folks will take a chance on my stories and enjoy them.
That brings me to my assignment today. I don't talk much about work. That's another reason why I don't feel like writing because I do it every day for work.
Anyway, I covered a couple of Criminal Injuries Compensation Board hearings.
The first one was a guy who got stabbed. The second one was profound. It was a woman who had worked at a bank for 35 years. She - TWICE - was the teller on duty when the bank was robbed. The first robbery was violent with men in masks with guns.
The second one was a man with a knife.
The woman is now a mess. I almost cried during the hearing. She suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome, depression, anxiety and is really struggling to live a normal life. She hasn't been able to go back to being a teller because she's afraid of dealing with the public. Who can blame her?
I have covered several bank robberies in my career and I always wondered what happens to the tellers. Well, now I know.

Virus is almost done

Virus, the young adult book I've been working on for five years, is almost done.
I have some editing to do, some reader feedback to input before I send it off to copy editors. I hope to have it published by mid to late November 2012.
I plan to post the cover and a book blurb on Good Reads to start promoting the book. If you would like an advance copy, post a message here with contact info and I'll be in touch. I will send out 20 advanced copies. The only stipulation is that I need readers to write reviews and post them on e-retail web sites like Amazon and on Good Reads.
I'll be publishing the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other e-book web sites. A complete list will be posted once the book is set to go.
Virus is an end of world type story about a virus that is unleashed on the U.S. The survivors are mostly young adults who were either immune to the virus or got sick and survived and developed "special skills" when the virus altered their DNA. I think of the book as a cross between The Stand and the NBC television show Heroes. Book one is the story of survival and travel to Florida where most of the population is gathering to live out the winter.
There is a bigger broader story about a  "big bad" that will stretch out over the three-edition series called Remarkables.  Because I work full time, I won't be able to complete book two until late 2013 and book three until 2014. I have most of book two and three outlined and just need to fill in the blanks.
Here is a sample of the cover:

Before I start book two though, I plan to release the first book in my Fairy Tale series called Cursed. It's about a young woman who is cursed to die at 17 by her grandmother. The book is half written and I have a goal of publishing it in late February 2013.
I'm excited about this series. Unlike Remarkables, it's only been percolating in my brain since May. I have a seven-part story to tell. Each book is an independent story, although characters will bleed over from book to book. I think of it more in the vain of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld. She had characters make guest appearances in books, which all revolved around supernatural themes.
All of my young adult books have supernatural, science fiction type elements. I don't write about vampires or werewolves, but my characters have powers, much like in Harry Potter without reciting spells.
Chapters one and two of Virus will be posted here soon. Come back to check it out.