First of all, I’d like to apologize for being MIA for a few days during the blog tour. Some personal things came up, which I’ll explain at the bottom of this blog if you’re interested. But in the meantime, the blog tour continues, and there’s been some great stuff coming out over the last several days. Remember that each of these tour stops links to a Rafflecopter giveaway for The Demon Within, open to U.S. residents.

I wrote a guest blog for I Smell Sheep about being felt up by a dead prostitute in Greensboro’s most haunted hotel.

I was interviewed over at Mythical Books about cover design, the best and worst of urban fantasy, and whether I believe in happily-ever-afters.

I was also interviewed at Authors’ Secrets Blog about what inspired me to write the Dale Highland series and what I would do with a time machine and a cloak of invisibility.

Embracing the Demon was also featured on Jazzy Book Reviews, Dark Treasury, and Teaser Addicts Book Blog.

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Okay, now on to what’s been going on.

My husband and I had to euthanize our eldest cat, Annabel. I mentioned last week that, after we got home from Kennywood Comic Con, Annabel was sick. Our cat sitter had taken her to the vet, but unfortunately she didn’t get better. She spent two days in the hospital. We got a call from the vet late Thursday afternoon saying that, in spite the fluids, antibiotics, and supplementation she was receiving, her blood work was getting worse, and the vet did not think she would make it. Thursday evening, we went into the hospital and held her as the vet put her down.

I will probably write more about this, and about Annabel, after the blog tour is over, but suffice it to say that this was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Annabel was my kitty long before I met my husband, and she had been there for me during the most difficult period in my life. I feel sad and heartbroken and irrationally guilty. Annabel was a 14-year-old cat with a myriad of health issues (kidney disease, diabetes, gall bladder issues, a heart murmur, high blood pressure, pancreatitis, and a history of urinary tract and ear infections–but who’s counting?) If she had shown any sign of improvement, I probably would have kept on fighting. But she didn’t. I know, logically, that we did the right thing. But when you take these creatures into your life, you promise to take care of them and protect them…and euthanasia feels like anathema to that–even though I know that’s not true.

At any rate, I’ve been a mess for the last several days, and I’m only beginning to emerge from the fog now. So again, I apologize for going MIA in the middle of the blog tour. But death, unfortunately, waits for no man, woman, cat…or blog tour.