Libby Drew

Yeah, there's no excuse for what she did. Loss is universal. You could argue Micco's loss was far worse. Micco will indeed make a great medicine man. I'm very proud of him.

Thank you for reading and commenting! I have missed the back and forth of answering comments these past several chapters. I appreciate hearing your thoughts and opinions. Martina got what she deserved, in my opinion. I'm a big believer in karma.

It's been difficult to near impossible to hold off adding to the discourse that's been going on these past several chapters. But I feel that I am VERY BAD at being secretive and circumspect. In fact, I think I gave away more information that I wanted when I was answering comments on 40 Souls to Keep. HA! Martina seemed a decent person until grief and opportunity revealed her true colors. I'm with Chase and Calhoun. I think she got what was coming to her.

“Then,” Martina continues, “Charlotte came to me about her illness. About what she wanted to do with her estate when the cancer took her.” She inhales a shaky breath, but her tone takes a hard edge. “And that’s when I knew exactly what I had to do.” CHAPTER 21 Chase barks a laugh, though his gun doesn’t waver from where he has it pointed at the floor. There’s no telling what will come out of his mouth next, whether it will be the words of Special Agent Becker or the affronte

Several years ago, my sister called me up to ask how she could go about becoming a novelist. "Well," I said. "The first step is to write a novel. Have you done that yet?" "Oh. No. Not yet." Writers on this site, and in general, don't give themselves enough credit, in my opinion. Sticktoitiveness is the key when it comes to writing, and most people abandon their project before a single chapter is ever written.

Writing: New rule: don’t start posting a new book in the fall right before the busiest season for retail. Just don’t. There will be tears. Mine, specifically. New rule #2: Listen to your heart when it tells you that a story you’ve written is best read in a single go. Or, at least, that it should be available in its entirety from day one for those to wish to absorb it that way. Keeper of the Rituals was never meant to be posted a chapter at a time. I think I mentioned that at the beginning? I can’t remember now. I’m old and that was months ago. I know many people enjoy serialized fiction, and in fact, some stories lend themselves to it. In retrospect, though, I don’t feel this was one of them. I should’ve just dumped the whole book as quickly as GA rules allowed. That’s the kind of story it is. I kind of hope those who have followed along these past several months may someday go back and read Keeper again in one giant bite, and then reflect on the differences between bingeing and snacking. Three chapters left to post. I’m excited, not gonna lie. Life: Check out this little angel. Some asshole person threw her out of a car window. She landed on her face, had to have surgery to reattach her lip, and lost part of her tongue. She also lost her left back leg. We named her Daisy.

Thank you for reading!

“I’m coming with you,” Chase tells me. “No. I need you to stay with Burke.” “I’ll be all right, Micco,” Burke says. “No,” I say forcefully. “Please, Chase.” Chase knows how I feel about the man. As well as my history of loss. But he’s not on board with my plan, not in the slightest. “What did I tell you earlier?” Chase growls. Well, he told me lots of things, both out loud and silently, and I’ll be holding onto all of them as I navigate the next dangerous fifteen min

Thank you! So glad you are enjoying it!

“It wasn’t his plan,” Danny says. “He just agreed to it.” Then he adds, reluctantly and more quietly, “I wasn’t supposed to know that. Nobody was. But he told me.” He seems perversely pleased with this breach of trust on his behalf, which is pathetic, but I’m too wrapped up in the newest twist to this dizzying mystery to call him on it. Chase vibrates with tension. “If it wasn’t Sam’s, then whose was it?” The renewed rain drives the crowd to converge on the doors and Danny and Billie a

Right? I know @Summerabbacat has been waiting for this to come to light!

My next statement dies in a primal rush of fear. It’s the fear of a ten-year-old boy who’s lied to his aunt, or stolen a pack of gum from the grocery store, or cheated on his math test by copying his best friend’s answers. It’s my fear, plucked out of time and memory and shoved right to the forefront of my brain and heart like it never left. I’m without words, and it takes me several seconds to realize the car has stopped. Chase is staring straight ahead, but there’s nothing in our path, j

HURRICANE ARLENE: NOAA SPECIAL DISCUSSION 500 AM WED JUN 21 2023 AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFTS REPORTED 700-MB FLIGHT-LEVEL WINDS OF 128 KT IN THE NORTHEASTERN EYEWALL. IN ADDITION, THE CENTRAL PRESSURE HAS FALLEN TO 928 MB. BASED ON THIS DATA, ARLENE HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE. THE TIGHTLY-CLUSTERED TRACK GUIDANCE HAS CHANGED LITTLE. THE EYE SHOULD MAKE LANDFALL ALONG THE FLORIDA GULF COAST IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS. ARLENE IS EXPECTED TO BRING INTENSE WI

CHAPTER 16 “Good thing he knocked,” I stage-whisper. “He’s not an idiot,” Chase mutters, squeezing my fingers one last time. Since our feelings for each other have been on blatant display, and Calhoun has demonstrated some tolerance of that, as well as some suspicion for how easily the evidence has unfolded against me, I agree. But I’m also assigning ‘possibly prejudiced’ and ‘probably non-objective’ to his personality profile, because up until now, the shoe fit. Sue me. Chas

I falter for a moment. “I don’t think you’re a fool,” I say. Calhoun sighs and rolls his head toward Chase. Whatever they communicate, Chase’s shoulders remain tight and high, though his jaw unlocks. He nods. “Michael,” he says to me, and I hear it as clearly as Calhoun does. The warmth, the worry, and the affection. Whatever pretense we’d been keeping about being strangers evaporates with that one word. Yet Calhoun doesn’t even twitch. “Yeah?” I answer softly. “I’m going

Of course, my view of Chase also fades as Jenette drives off. He becomes indistinct, though still an undisputable wall of dismay as he stares at the contents of my trunk. Just before Jenette makes the turn onto the road, I see two men join Calhoun and Chase at the rear bumper of my Neon. One holds a camera. The other, a plastic evidence bag... I wait for the inevitable: the racing heart and the dizziness. The screams. The smoke. Mary crying. I give myself permission, for once,

Yes. I am in retail hell. How anybody in this business can still be sane after December 25th is beyond me. I just got home. Will fortify with a glass of wine, then dig into my files for the next chapter. ❤️

Blood brothers didn’t lie to each other. Some did, I’m sure, but not me and Chase. At twelve, the idea of untruth between us felt evil. Which was how the secret of my tribal gift came out, dragged by its teeth into the light of day. Afterward, Chase called it divine intervention. He was more fatalistic than me at that age. I credit Harry Dresden and the price of tuna. I’d never talked about my gift before then, which wasn’t lying, I reasoned. My silence was simple self-preservation. If he

Sorry, Sorry, sorry guys. I'm finally home and formatting the next chapter now. Should be up shortly. Thanks for your patience. (But old San Juan was beautiful, and I could live there forever. Just sayin'...)

Had he? I don’t remember it like that. But I also won’t deny a cloud of pain has hovered over our parting for fifteen years. Maybe I owe myself, and Chase, an adult’s viewpoint of events. I take Burke’s advice, find a quiet, shady place under a tree near Billie’s kitchen garden and sink into a light meditation. I seek true memory, unfettered by heartbreak and bitterness. It’s never easy, leaving bias behind, but today it proves impossibly difficult. “What’s that?” I remember asking when Cha

“Michael!” Martina. I lean out of the gloom and back into the morning sun. She’s come around the bend of the perimeter path, and she’s not alone. Members of the Tribal Council walk with her. Three of them, to be exact. We know each other well and are friendly, my brief youthful flirtations with lawbreaking notwithstanding. I tagged my share of graffiti back in the day. “What are you doing?” she demands. I can’t reconcile her tone with my actions. I wander through the refuge ofte

HURRICANE ARLENE: NOAA SPECIAL DISCUSSION 400 AM MON JUN 19 2023 ARLENE HAS BECOME BETTER ORGANIZED ON SATELLITE IMAGES. TAFB AND SAB SUPPORT A CURRENT INTENSITY OF 85 KT. BASED ON THE SUBSTANTIAL DROP IN CENTRAL PRESSURE SINCE EARLIER TODAY AND THE FACT THAT HIGHER SURFACE WINDS ARE LIKELY OCCURRING IN THE NORTHEAST QUADRANT ARLENE IS BEING UPGRADED TO A CATEGORY 2 HURRICANE. VERTICAL SHEAR IS FORECAST TO REMAIN BELOW 10 KT FOR THE NEXT 24-48 HOURS SO THE HURRICANE SHOULD REMAIN IN AN EN

Please extend my thanks to your brother and cousin for their service. Dogs are amazing creatures, aren't they? I'm so glad your family was able to add service animals to their lives. Thank YOU for reading and sharing your own story.

Thank you for reading and commenting. To say combat is a life-altering experience doesn't do the horror of it enough justice. No second chapter, I'm afraid. Just imagine lots of sleepy Sunday mornings and cuddly puppies. 😉

TROPICAL STORM ARLENE: NOAA SPECIAL DISCUSSION 700 AM SUN JUN 18 2023 DATA FROM THE AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTERS INDICATE THAT ARLENE IS GRADUALLY STRENGTHENING. PEAK 925 MB FLIGHT-LEVEL WINDS WERE 68 KT. AIRCRAFT OBSERVATIONS ALSO SHOWED THAT THE MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE HAS DROPPED TO 985 MB. THE WESTERLY SHEAR THAT WAS AFFECTING ARLENE HAS ABATED AND THE SHIPS MODEL DIAGNOSES A FURTHER DECREASE IN SHEAR. GIVEN THE LATEST 36-HR FORECAST POINT AND THE EXTENT OF TROPICAL-STORM FORCE WIN