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...