Harley Q. Turner (Author)

My oldest two children, age 11 and 13, attend school at Cunningham Intermediate School in Beloit, Wisconsin. We live less than three blocks away from the school, so obviously, they walk to and from school. Unless there is an activity that I am told about beforehand, they are always home around 3:55 pm after being dismissed at 3:43. At 4:10 today, I started calling their cell phones because they weren't home yet. I called the school and received no answer. With my 3 year old napping, I wasn't able to leave the house to check on them. I sat around the house constantly calling them. Finally at 4:27, my daughter answered her phone. Her and her brother were almost home, but they had some bad news. They were not dismissed on time because of a lockdown at their school. A former student, an 8th grader, set foot on school grounds near the end of the day and showed a gun to students that were outside for gym class. The school went in to a hard lockdown at 3:41 pm, just mi

Another month is almost over and I still haven't been able to go back to writing. I can justify it with every excuse in the book, but it doesn't change the fact that I just haven't wanted to write lately. I just can't do it. Even without writing, my days are crazy busy. Tax classes are starting back up again. I am making all five of my children blankets for Christmas. I have a craft show coming up in a couple of weeks that I need to get ready for, and there is always my daughter's hockey. We leave for our first tournament of the year in a couple of weeks. We will be headed to Appleton, Wisconsin, so maybe we will get the chance to see some family that lives in that area. We will also be celebrating Hayleigh's birthday that weekend. I definitely plan to return to writing, I'm just not sure when. Tax season is just around the corner, and my sister's wedding is coming up. I need to snap out of this funk that I have buried myself in, but I just can'

Ever since I lost my grandma, I have been struggling to write. Lately, I haven't even bothered trying. I know that one day I will return to it, because it's something I have always wanted to do, but without her here, I just can't seem to concentrate on anything any more. My blog posts and facebook pages are suffering as well. I'm not a quitter. I won't give up. I just can't right now. Thankfully, as the holiday season approaches (which is going to be a nightmare without her), my craft business keeps my busy. I have made three blankets in the last month and I have 2 more close to being done. I am making one as a Christmas gift for each of the kids as well as (hopefully) one for my husband. I also have a craft show coming up in a couple of weeks that I need to prepare for. Hockey season is in full swing. The girls won their game last Sunday and hoping to repeat this weekend! As much as she didn't want to join the girls' team, Hayleigh is loving

With the first week of the peewee hockey season behind us, my daughter has made a decision that I didn't think she would ever make. After spending the last two years playing on the boys' team and loving every minute of it, she has decided to switch to the girls' team. They have been asking since the day she set foot on the ice, but she never showed any interest in it. Over the weekend, the girls' coach explained that with only 8 girls on the team, Hayleigh would get much more ice time, and would only improve her game. After the conversation, she started thinking. Almost every day last week, she came off the ice in tears because of the way some of the boys were treating her just because she was a girl. At first, it just made her more determined to prove that she could be just as good as they were, but she realized that their comments were making her feel like hockey wasn't fun any more. She actually considered quitting. Yesterday, she came home from school sa

Okay, it's not secret that my daughter plays hockey. She loves it and wouldn't give it up for anything. Until last night. After practice, she left the ice in tears. She was worried enough with moving up to the PeeWee level this year, but now a group of boys are making it even worse. From what my daughter told me, a group of five or six boys targeted three girls at practice last night. They told them girls can't play hockey, or if they do, they have to play on the girls team. My daughter has always played on the boys team. She doesn't like the girls team. The schedule doesn't work for our family. She just gets along better with boys, which is why she played with the boys at the Squirt level. I'm really hoping that I can talk her into sticking it out, at least until tryouts are over next week. Once the teams are split into the A B and C level teams, I'm hoping she won't have to deal with those boys any more. Thankfully we have today off from ho

Just in case you have been living under a rock the last few weeks, the conclusion to the Self Inflicted series, Reopening Old Wounds is only days away from being available. You can preoder on Amazon. Check out my facebook or website for details.  In the past, I have just released the books and sat back and watched to see what they did. Some did well without any actual work from me, some needed and extra push. I normally jump directly into some sort of free promotion (or at least a discounted one). This time, I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to do. The final book took me much longer to write than others in the series, mainly because I had grown so attached to the characters. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to Rory, Liam, and especially Gabe (who quickly became one of my favorite characters ever).  Another reason that it took me so long to write was that I knew once that book was done, I was embarking onto a new journey. Until recently, I have always written books

No, this post is not a rip-off of Nightmare Before Christmas (although the song is totally going through my head right now). I know I have mentioned before that Halloween is my favorite time of year. Maybe it's the Wiccan in me, or maybe it's just because Halloween is AWESOME! My twelve year old son doesn't know if he wants to dress up for Halloween this year. That's fine. It's his choice. However, when he told me he was too old to dress up, I freaked out. You are NEVER too old to dress up for Halloween. Too old for trick-or-treating maybe (although he could easily go with his younger siblings), but never too old to dress up. I am 32 years old, and I spend months working on my costumes every year. Two years ago, my (now) husband and I went as Joker and Harley Quinn, and that was the day that he jumped on stage to propose to me. Last year was Bride of Chucky and Chucky (Chucky actually won MULTIPLE costume contests that night). This year, I am keeping my Hallow

Okay, so I have spent the last two days stuck in bed beyond sick, so naturally, I haven't been able to get any work done. I don't have a genius idea for a blog post today (not that I ever do), but instead of waiting to post when I feel better, I figured I would give you a sneak peak of the book I am working on now. When a friend of mine first suggested that I start writing fantasy, I kind of laughed it off. Once I started (which definitely took longer than usual to get a book started), I realized how much I really love the genre. Here is a few pages of the first chapter of book one in the Saving Avalon series, Finding Her Wings. Please let me know what you think. Chapter One present day… It was dark when Kieren reached his destination. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was, but he was certain he was in the right place. Kieren looked around and shivered. There had to be snow. Kieren hated being cold and his jeans and black wifebeater sure left him underdressed to be i

Yesterday, I was sitting in front of my computer and read about a shooting that happened about a mile from my house. This occurred a block from our high school, during lunch time, so it was safe to assume that students were involved. A 16 year old shot a 14 year old, yet the school district says that no one from the school was involved. Even now, a day after the incident, there isn't much information known. Apparently the only detail of the case is that it was part of a fight over a girl. Is that really worth throwing your life away? I realize that at sixteen years old, a child thinks they know what love really is. I know I thought I did. I was wrong. When I was sixteen, I was in a relationship with my now ex-husband. Where is he now? Prison. Where he belongs. Where is this sixteen year old headed? Prison. I look at my children and am insanely thankful that they all have other interests to worry about. My oldest son is all about school and drama. He is the nerd in the f

I know I've posted about this before, but it can't be said enough. Music is everything to me. There are a couple songs out there that have literally saved my life. It's no secret that I was part of a majorly abusive relationship. Thankfully I got out of it when I did, because he is now sitting in prison for strangulation and false imprisonment on his most recent ex-girlfriend. Like many women in abusive relationships, I tried to justify it. "It won't happen if I stop making him mad," I told myself over and over again. Then I went to a concert. It was the first time I saw ANew Revolution. I had never heard of them, but they were opening for Tantric. I immediately fell in love with ANR. The lyrics to their song "Let Go" really hit home for me. I was even lucky enough to meet them after the show. Once Tantric hit the stage, I really listened to their lyrics, especially "Mourning." I knew I had to get out of the relationship. Life wen

With the lovely holiday season coming up (and sadly, I don't mean Halloween), I have to find more time for my craft projects. I am a part of several vendor events in the fall/winter months, and since I have been writing non-stop since January, there hasn't been much time for crafting. I have to change that. This blanket is the ONLY craft project I have done all year, and it's not even finished yet! I have a couple of people wanting blankets by Christmas, so I have to change my priorities a little bit. Don't worry, I will still be writing! I have about 3 chapters done for my fantasy novel so far. I think I will have an every other day schedule. One day will be writing. The next will be crafting. I still have to get Reopening Old Wounds completely edited before its release next month. Taking a week off of everything last week really put me behind schedule.

My normal schedule for blog posts has been altered lately to allow time for my grandma's funeral. I'm having a hard time moving on in my daily life. There are so many things that need to get done, I just don't want to do them. I try to write so I can escape this pain in my chest, but the words just don't seem right. All I kept hearing at the funeral is "I'll be okay if I can get through this funeral." I disagree. The funeral wasn't easy, but it is not the most difficult part. Moving on with day to day life as though nothing happened seems impossible at this point. I want nothing more than to disappear camping with my grandparents again. I was the constant fighting between family members to stop. I want everything to go back to the way it was before we got the cancer diagnosis. I know it's not possible, but that doesn't mean I can't want it that way. I keep trying to stay busy, but nothing holds my attention for long. I can't tackl

Okay the only thing worse than experiencing a death in the family is reading about it on facebook. My grandma passed away at 7 this morning. About 9:30, I read a post on facebook from my cousin. No one thought to call me. No, let's let everyone find out about it on facebook. Sounds like a great idea. Or not. Seriously, it's freaking bullshit. I'm pissed! This is the THIRD family member that I had to find out about the death ON FACEBOOK! Losing my grandma is bad enough. Finding out about it by reading words on a page that have already been read by hundreds of people BEFORE FAMILY WAS EVEN NOTIFIED is not the way to find out about it. I saw comments on numerous facebook pages saying "sorry for your loss" or along those lines before I finally got a hold of a cousin. This happened at 7! I found out at 9:30. It's almost 11 now and my own mother STILL hasn't said a word other than commenting on a picture asking if my kids were okay. Um. NO ONE IS OKAY. T

How do you say goodbye to the one person that has always been there for you? My grandmother is easily the best person I have ever met, and I'm not just saying that because she's my grandma. Anyone that knows her would say the same thing. Her cancer has been progressively getting worse over the last few weeks. Today, she was officially admitted to hospice. Less than eight hours later, we had to call 911. She's not expected to make it through the night. I can't imagine my life without her. Grandma has always been the only person I could count on. No matter what was going on in my life, she would always be there. I can't cope not having that. I haven't been able to write for a couple of weeks now. Not sure if the writer's block will ever really go away. I need to get passed it. I need to escape this hell that I'm living in. Writing was my escape when she received her diagnosis, and now I can't seem to do it. I can't cope without her.

Anyone who knows me or has seen my facebook in the last week or so knows that I am suffering from a major case of writer's block. I had tried everything, but in the last few days, I have thrown away well over 100 pages of work that I just didn't think was good enough. For the next week or so, I'm going to give up. No writing. (Other than the occasional blog post such as this.) Clearly my brain can't seem to work on the fantasy novel right now, so it is break time. I am going back to my other creative outlet: crafting. I have spent the last two days working on the first step of a blanket. I can't wait to see how it turns out! Follow my facebook to watch the progress!!

So today is the day. I have been talking about it for months. (Actually closer to a year because my e-cig was a birthday present last year) Today is the day that I am going to quit smoking. I already know it's going to be super difficult. I am already going a little crazy and it's only been less than 12 hours since my last cigarette, but I am going to do this. As I sit and type this, I want nothing more than a cigarette. I was going really good this morning until I started fighting with my son's father. Apparently it's not important to be on time for the first day of school. My 6 year was with his father last night. Well, his dad shipped him off to his sister's house and depended on her getting the kids to school on the first day. She has four kids of her own to get ready for school, what kind of person would add two more? My son as his younger brother showed up to school 15 minutes late. Of course I have a problem with this! It's his first day! So of

Tonight is going to be a busy night. My family has exactly 90 minutes to take five children to two different school to meet the teachers of four different students. We will start the night in the kindergarten hallway with my step-daughter. I have no idea who her teacher is this year, but after having 3 other kids in school before her, I know several of the teachers. I know who I want her to have. I know who I don't want her to have. Now we just have to wait and see who she gets. Then we venture to the 1st grade hallway. My son has the same teacher that my oldest son had when he was in first grade, but I wasn't thrilled with her (although she was better than my daughter's first grade teacher, who informed the class that Santa Claus wasn't real). This teacher is real strict about children who talk during class, and with my Collin being the class clown, I already know this will be an issue. Hopefully we can get through the year. After this classroom, we get to pack a

First of all, I promise this post isn't as depressing as my blog posts were last week. I did not intend for both posts to be about suicide, but it happened. These last few weeks have been pretty busy leading up to the start of school. Saturday, Joker and I took three of the kids to our local fire department's corn boil. All three kids got mad. All three kids ended up spending the night at someone else's house, so we got to go have some fun. It isn't often that my husband and I go out just the two of us. Being the karaoke junkies that we are, we started out the night at our usual bar where Batman was running karaoke. The place got too busy too fast, so we moved on.  Our second stop of the night took us to the place where we met. Complete opposite of the first packed establishment that we were at, this one only had two other customers when we walked in. However the bartender (who was also the person running karaoke) was more worried about those other customers,

Since I started this blog back in April, I have generally been really good about posting at least twice a week, usually on Tuesday and Thursday. Until this week. Thursday was an emotional day for me. A very dear friend of mine committed suicide on August 20, 1998, just six days before I started my freshman year of high school. Does the story sound familiar? It is the person who inspired the First Love series. I have been hard at work on finishing my Self Inflicted saga, but I will never forget my first books. My heart and soul went in to Summer Love and Autumn Goodbye. I shed too many tears to count while writing them and even more during the editing process. Suicide is not a solution to any problem.  It may seem like an easy way out, but think of the people that are left behind. How many blame themselves for a loved ones early death? I know i spent many years blaming myself before I realized it wasn't my fault. Suicide seems to be the topic of all my posts this week, an

A few years ago, I lost a really good friend to suicide. Wade was one of those people who always cared more about the people around him than he did himself. He didn't care how bad of a mood he was in, if you were around him, you would have a great time. He was the drummer of my favorite local band. Since he death, I have had the opportunity to become good friends with the lead singer and bassist of his old band. The band had a benefit for him (two actually, but it's just the second one that I want to talk about today). A night of loud, angry music while we all mourned for Demon. Very few people knew, but I was actually considering not attending the benefit. In the eighteen days leading up to it, I had a bit of a crisis of faith. The problem is, my faith is music. Music heals. Music is what will always be there for you. Music had failed me, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I spent eighteen silent days. If I was in the car, the radio was off. If I was at home, ther

I was on facebook this morning (as I always am), and in one of my author groups, an author was asking if it was appropriate to write a book in which a 16 year old girl falls in love with a 19 year old counselor in summer camp. Many of the comments were against it, however, I don't see a problem with it. Especially when the author explains more of the story. The counselor is not interested, but the girl keeps trying. A 16 year old boy watches this transpire and in the end, he falls in love with the girl, but she only has eyes for the counselor. This happens every day! In the First Love series, Marissa is 13 years old when she falls in love with Chad (17). While most people would frown on the relationship (which is why they keep it hidden), this kind of thing happens. Marissa and Chad never have a sexual relationship. A year and a half later, Marissa is 14 years old, and faces her boyfriend's suicide just days before she starts high school. When I was younger, I personall

I was shopping the other day, and came across the seasonal aisle. It is already filled with Halloween candy. There was an older lady complaining that it was too early for Halloween. I had to walk away before I said something. It is never too early for Halloween! In a perfect world, I would start planning for Halloween on November 1 every year! It has always been my favorite day of the year, and just because I'm an adult, that doesn't have to change. It's not just October 31 either. It's everything to do with Halloween. I spend months picking out the perfect costume (although I am seriously torn between Jessica Rabbit and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas this year). I put a lot of work into my costumes. Last year, I made Elsa, Anna, and Olaf costumes for my youngest three children. I also put together an amazing Chucky costume for my husband and spent hours figuring out exactly how to do his makeup. His costume (which was seriously bought at Goodwill for under $

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday. I have been a bit on the busy side, and completely spaced out posting this! Just a reminder, you can get the entire novella of Before the Scars for free. All you have to do is sign up for my reader's group! There are several ways you can do this. There is a signup link on my website , on my Facebook , or you can email me at harleyturner.author@gmail.com I had to delete the ending to Aislynn's story because it included some major Scars Fade spoilers! Get the full book to see how it ends! Aislynn It was the first day of my freshman year. I didn’t mind school, but not being popular or even having friends made getting through the day difficult. Band was the last class of the day, and easily my favorite. I started playing the flute in third grade, and I was good at it. All through junior high, I was the best. I was the one with all the solos. It was the one thing I was proud of. Now I was in high school. I didn’t expect to b

I haven't been doing much work with Summer Love and Autumn Goodbye lately, but Marissa's story continues in the Self Inflicted Trilogy when she makes her initial appearance in Scars Fade. Every time I think of the titles of my first two novels, a song jumps into my head. Instantly I feel like I am fifteen years old again because that's when Britney Spears released "Autumn Goodbye." It was not a very well known song. It was not on any of her albums (I don't think). It was released solely as a bonus track on the Baby One More Time single, which I was lucky enough to get as a gift from a boy all those years ago (Thanks Mike!). Still to this day, lyrics from that song come flooding to my head whenever I think of the Summer Love series. Things have been a little busy around Arkham these last few weeks. Classes for work are starting up again, and I just can't seem to wrap my head around income taxes during the summer. The kids are getting ready to go back to

Okay, it's not secret that my grandma isn't doing well. I can't even wrap my head around the possibility of losing her. I already know that I will hide and shut the entire world out. I can't go on without my grandma. Being raised by a single mother, I spent a lot of time at my grandparent's house when my mom was either working or in school. Starting before I was even a year old, my grandma packed me up, put me in the truck, and took my camping with them every summer. Before I could even walk, I spent entire summers away from my mother. Once I started preschool, I primarily lived at my grandparent's so grandma could get me to school. I continued disappearing with them every summer. When they bought their new camper, I was mad because they didn't let me sign the ownership papers with them. It was my camper too! Yea, I was only four at the time, but it was mine! Once I got in to school full time, I still continued to spend most of my time with my grandpar

I spent a lot of time telling my fans what I am working on. Today, I have decided that instead of telling you, I am going to show you. My latest project is a small novella for the Self Inflicted Series. In this novella, you learn more about the past of some of the characters from the series, including Liam, Aislynn, Gabe, and Trent. If you don't know who Gabe and Trent are, don't worry. They don't appear until Scars Fade, which will be released on August 14. Today, I am enclosing Liam's story. Obviously I can't post his entire story, or there would be too many spoilers for Scars Fade. Eventually this book will be available to every member of my reader's group, but it is a work in progress at the moment. Let me know what you think! Liam “I’m so sick of being sick,” my big brother Gavin complained from his hospital bed. “Maybe some of these new tests will finally figure out what’s wrong so they can fix you,” I told him. I was barely thirteen years o

Every writer has his or her own way of doing things. Some sit in the front of their computers with either MS Word or Schrivener or another type of word processing software and type whatever comes to their mind. Some listen to certain types of music to keep the creative flow. Some need silence. Some need no interruptions, while others can multi task. I know some writers who can only get work done while sitting in a coffee shop all day. Personally, I can't seem to think when I am sitting in front of a computer. I hand write all of my books. I don't wait until they are done to start typing, but I do wait until there are at least a few chapters complete before I open Word and get to work. With five kids at home, I know I will never be able to work in uninterrupted silence, and I'm okay with that. I can't write with music playing, which is kind of surprising since music is such an important part of my life. At the moment of writing this blog post, I am doing everything c

Well, after a lot of thought, I have cancelled my vacation to Tennessee. It was not an easy decision, because this Harley Quinn really needs her Poison Ivy, but unfortunately, at this time it's just not going to work. Grandma is slowly starting to improve, but she starts radiation this week, and with her doctor schedule, I lose my babysitters that I had arranged for while I was gone. My biggest reason for not going, is that I know I would never forgive myself if she passed away while I was so far away. Grandma is basically my mother. I have spent all my childhood summers with her. I lived at her house when I was in preschool. I spent much more time with my grandparents than I did my own parents. I know I am letting my friends down. I know my Ivy was looking forward to having guests, and with me not going, my other friend is not going either. I feel bad for breaking the plans, but I feel I have no other choice.

My writing has been slacking lately. My grandmother's health took a turn for the worst last week, and we were afraid we were going to lose her. She seems to be getting better now, and I hope she continues to improve. Summer hockey is finally over, as of yesterday. I'm sure my daughter will miss it, but I am glad to see it end. I don't particularly enjoy dragging two or three small children to an ice arena for two hours two days a week. We have a break for a few weeks before we start fall skills and drills in August... I am back to work, and even though it is only two days each week, I'm not used to it. Those days used to be reserved for writing, and now I spend the day dealing with IRS audits and people who didn't get their tax returns filed on time for whatever reason. I have probably spent WAY too much time reading, and not enough time writing. Every night this week, I have been awake until 3, 4, or even 5 in the morning simply because I was reading a book

My daughter's summer hockey season is coming to a close, and I must admit I am not upset to see it end! I'm getting so sick of getting up earlier than I have to and dragging tired children to be bored out of their minds for 2 hours at an ice arena. Of course, my daughter is always asking when the next season starts. Unfortunately for me, it starts up again in the beginning of September, so I am looking at about a six week break before I am back to being a hockey mom. So far, I have written the first chapter of my children's book Girls Can Too! By writing just that first chapter, I was able to break through the writer's block that was preventing me from continuing with Scars Fade, so obviously Scars Fade has the priority. My only problem with Scars now is that I have absolutely no idea what I want the cover of this book to look like. Not a clue! When I started the book, I had an idea in mind, but as I wrote, the plot took a turn that I hadn't expected, so now t

One thing that has always bothered me is the belief that boys can do some things better than girls. I have never believed in that, and have taught my children that it is not true as well. My daughter plays hockey. Yes, she is constantly dealing with people telling her she shouldn't play a "boy's sport" and with boys on the team not thinking she is good enough. Most of the time, once the boys see her trying, they leave her alone, but there is always that one boy who cannot play well with a girl. On her squirt team last season, there was a boy named Zach. For whatever reason, Zach had a problem with Hayleigh. Every time she got the puck, he would push her down and steal it from her. They were on the same team!  There were times that Zach would do this to other players on the team as well (especially another boy named Alex), but Hayleigh always seemed to be his target. I had hoped that when she moved up to the peewee level that this would stop. Not the case. Ther

Yesterday felt strange. For the first time since we got together, my husband and I spent a holiday apart. I went with my mom to take my older two children to the beach (the younger two were with their father), while Joker took his daughter to a family cookout. Yes, I'll admit I was probably selfish at spending the day at the beach instead of with my husband's family, but I feel so out of place at their get togethers. First of all, I'm expected to know everyone. That's not going to happen. His family is just too big! He only really sees that side of his family once a year, so obviously I won't ever really get to know them enough to be comfortable around them.  I had already planned the beach day with my mom before he even mentioned the cookout. I didn't want to change my plans, especially since the kids were already looking forward to it, so we decided to do our own things this year. The beach was beyond relaxing. I have had a lot of things on my mind latel