Welcome to my crazy early winter break. Between Thursday Doors being on hiatus and the major holidays falling on Saturdays, I decided to skip rather than force a bunch of posts onto the page. Then I finished "Dead of Winter – Journey-11" – what can I say, I had to say something.

If you had told me a year ago that I would be impatiently awaiting the 12th volume in a serial publication of an epic novel, I would have told you, you were crazy. And yet…here I am. And I have to say that after completing "Journey-11 The Sumelazon" in Teagan R. Geneviene's "Dead of Winter" series, I can't wait to open the next Journey!

In Journey 11, Teagan leans heavily on her signature strength of description to bring the reader completely into the scene. We are in a world where messages are being received from people who are long dead – where images might be portals into another realm – where our young heroine, Emlym's otherworldly ability to move between the realms of the living and the dead continues to grow. Where Emlyn's friends encourage her, and she shows an inner strength that is well beyond her age. These seemingly incomprehensible aspects are all brought into living, palpable clarity by this author.

Scenes like finding a safe place to bed horses, discovering an ancient sword, playing on the memories and fears of others, facing people in authority, and finding support from unlikely players are all vividly brought to life in this Journey. Teagan is bringing a complex world together around us and I can feel the energy building as we near the end of this remarkable series of Journeys.

I have taken a peek at Journey-12 on my Kindle app, and the paperback (my preferred way to read) is on it's way. If you are ready for Journey-12, check out this post by Teagan. If you haven't been reading this series, you have been missing a lot. You can get the entire series on Amazon – click here to see how.

We had snow on Friday and ice on Saturday, so I haven't been taking many pictures, but I've included a few from my phone in the gallery. I hope you're enjoying an easy week.