This isn’t an unusual thing, cars break when you run them and our Santa Fe has had more than a few problems, in it's 200,000 miles. But I’ve been more stressed since it broke Wednesday, so productivity went from “maybe I can make up for the high pain days Monday/Tuesday” to “Not a snowballs chance in Hell.”

New header has a damask background with the new logo in the middle and fiery wings to either side.
In the foreground are the books, Currently released to the Left and coming soon on the right!

Author's Life:

     I feel like I’ve not done a lot this week in terms of leaps and bounds of productivity, BUT I did get 2 sales of book bundles this week. One of ALL the books and a second of all the Kalista books Yesterday (thank you so much, Charlotte and Ben, if you’re reading this). Besides that, I’ve done some editing in both Dangerous Game and Death, Desires, & Inner Demons, which I've also been posting snippets off on my BSKY account. I’ve not really written more than editing. I’ve worked on some art projects and commissions to get to the goal of $400 for the Health Insurance this month (which we did, more about that later), and Played a lot of Star Wars the Old Republic…

     What I was supposed to do this week was run over to my parents house Mon-Fri to let their dog, Chewy, out and feed their cat, Penny, her wet food. Well, I nearly forgot Monday, due to my hip being painful and making me forget.

      Tuesday, Dad took the day off to help with a funeral so he took care of them. It was also the Day Dolly Parton and Tim Curry died 🪦... The world will never be the same. *moment of silence*

     Wednesday, the car broke on my way to their house.

     The short version: The front driver’s side (left) tire has been feeling off, for a couple weeks, and well, I found out it was the strut...

     The Long version: I’d been meaning to call the mechanic to get it checked out, but it wasn’t a high priority. Pain, bills, and so forth was. Well, Fe decided to make herself a priority, and Wednesday when I headed for Mom and Dad’s about ¾ mile from my house, the car started to sound like two squirrels or mice were fighting in the dash on my side.

     At first, I thought it was the mouse I had in the car. Yes, I caught a mouse inadvertently on Wednesday, I had him in the car to let him out at a field in between our houses. Not the point. I pulled over, let him out, and couldn’t hear the noise anymore. Started moving again, and they started again. So, I turned around and drove home.

     When I got home, I messaged Matt (Manager, Australian, editor, resident computer and car guy) and he thought it may be a bushing. I popped the hood to look under it, and never actually opened then. Instead, I called the mechanic to ask them if I should drive it down. NONE of the mechanics at the shop would ok me to drive it, so I called a tow (Thank you AAA). Before the tow truck arrive, I opened the hood and immediately saw the problem...

Picture of under the hood with a circle and arrow to show the "Problem"

      It wasn’t a bushing, but a strut. Apparently, on Hyundai Santa Fe’s there is a rubber cap at the top of the struts that is “designed” to keep out water, but actually keeps water in and then the struts rust out and pop through, like this one did. I was LUCKY that it wasn’t worse than this, and I’m grateful for it. But It’s going to be $780 to replace both front struts. This means, my goal for September is that much higher for sales and commissions, cause I had saved a bit because the tire sensor in the back, but not that much. 😖

     Thursday was spent worrying about it, and unable to focus on anything. Friday, I reorganized, cleaned our entry/living room area, and now my body hurts cause I overdid it... Such is the life of someone who suffers from chronic pain, chronic illness and possibly more. Undiagnosed so far. 

      BUT GOOD NEWS TO COME! 

August Sales/funds Goal:

    Goal for August was reached, AND surpassed by $69.85 to that’s going toward September where the goal is much higher. Due to the Struts needing replaced.

September Goal: $1180

Progress: 17.54% ($207)

This Goal is met by people:

📚 Buying books: ebooks from my website or anything (books or digital pictures) from my Ko-fi shop is the cheapest for you and best buy-to-bank for me as all other places take MONTHS to pay authors.

☕  Commissioning me via Ko-fi for Digital Art! I currently have sale listings for 16x9 character portraits (which can be used for Book Covers: 6 slots available) for only $50, and Chibi profile Pics for $20 (4 slots available).

🖼️ Or donating on Ko-fi (though, I'd rather you just buy art or something in the shop🥺I feel like a burden and indebted if people just donate.)

Note: Pre orders do not count toward the goal for the month… due to most of that money going to the book, the goodies, and the shipping.

The Books:

Writing:

      All the writing I have done this week has been for editing and it honestly is pathetic. I need to make up for this before the 31^st, in order to hit my goal for the month. Next month I’ll not post a goal cause I need to be editing more, and this number honestly depresses me because it’s the least I’ve written all year.

     Total word count for this week: 18,361

August Goal: 65,000 current progress 47,410 (73%)

Editing

       I’ve edited 6 more chapters of Death, Desires, & Inner Demons!and we’re now up to Chapter 15 of A Dangerous Game! Only 8 more to go! Woohoo!

      The new copy of The Fated Angel is still with my Dad. I'm unsure if he's done any reading this week. Haven't touched base with him other than to take care of their pets.

Publishing:

𓆩⚝𓆪 64 days to Halloween! 𓆩⚝𓆪

If you don't see your usual eBook marketplace on the list, check back later.
Except for Amazon due to AI scraping reasons my ebooks are no longer available there, complain to Bezos about it. If you want the book for your kindle you can buy it from my shop (starting August 15th)
and I can send it to your email so you can add it to your device. 

Beta Reading Sign Ups!

CLOSING SOON!

Art Feature

      A "Wistful Wondering" picture of Kalista this week. This was a random art piece I did last week and decided to save for later. I don’t know the story here, but it’s just a good piece.

Feel free to leave me a comment at the bottom of the page about what you thought or if you had a question. I'll answer them when I can.

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Thanks for reading!

~Jenn (aka Born Angel Author)

Mark Your 2026 Calendar: 4 books!

~ August 1st: AN ANGEL ENRAGED Arc Signups open AND THE FATED ANGEL beta reading sign ups.

 ~ August 15th: Preorder for AN ANGEL ENRAGED begins!

 ~ September 4th: AN ANGEL ENRAGED ARCS go out!

 ~ September 11th - October 23rd: Beta Reading THE FATED ANGEL!

 ~ October 31st: AN ANGEL ENRAGED Release Day!

 ~ December 31st: Cover Reveal DEATH, DESIRES, & INNER DEMONS

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