Life of Pol

I just wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Thank you so much for your support!

People are always complimenting where we live, and they say how lucky we are. Well, while it is a great place, there are times when I don't feel so lucky. You see, Steve works down the mountain in Colorado Springs as the GM of a big restaurant, and he's gone most of the time. He hates it because the hours are long, and I hate it because the hours are long, and I'm alone up here for 12-14 hours a day. We live in one of the most beautiful places around, but it's just not the same without Steve. This is why I'm working so hard right now and pushing the marketing hard. I want to get my husband up on the mountain with me! I won't stop until I've succeeded!                         (To help the cause, please click here . Thank you.)

Pol's Life-The New Chapter: Review for Genie in a Bottle : So far so good! Here is another great review for Genie in a Bottle ! Thank you so much! Your perception of genies will forever be altered...

So far so good! Here is another great review for Genie in a Bottle ! Thank you so much! Your perception of genies will forever be altered after reading Genie In a Bottle: the First Wish "Set in modern times, a genie is released by the main character, Madison. Madison could use some luck, some joy, something new - her mother has passed away, her dad hasn't recovered financially, and neither have recovered emotionally. The entire story is woven around Madison's first wish, however, many adventurous stories unfold as she struggles to decide what the first precious wish should be. The building tension between Madison and Inas the Genie is just right for young adult readers and older. As a devoted fan of Pol McShane's Serpenteens series, I admire McShane's thought and research into his subject matter. Genie In a Bottle redefined my notions of genies - their origins, their captivity, their purpose, their turmoil involved with granting wishes, their wisdom, the...

Okay, so Genie in a Bottle has come out, and the paperback is all done! I'm so excited about this series, I can't even tell you. I have high hopes that this one will be the "one" that will do it for me. I know every author out there is hoping for the same thing, but I really feel strongly about it, and I am trying harder than ever to make my efforts pay off. There have been many times in the past when I just wanted to throw in the towel and give up on writing, but something just keeps me going. Perhaps Someone upstairs is pushing me to keep trying. And I don't even want success for myself (not entirely, anyway), but I want it for Steve. I want him to be able to quit working so damn hard and get up here on the mountain full time with me. But I can't do this without your help. If everyone who reads this would simply purchase an eBook for $2.99 or the paperback for $9.97, it would make such a difference. Together we can do this! I won't stop until I ha...

Here is the first review for my new book Genie in a Bottle . "Genie in a Bottle: The First Wish is the first book in Pol McShane’s exciting new series.   The main character is a sweet teenager named Madison Reed, who has always had a very tight bond with her father.   It’s just the two of them since her mother passed away and they’ve had a difficult time dealing with the loss.   Life gets turned upside down when Madison makes a grand discovery: a genie in a bottle! Inas, a three thousand year old genie, and Madison quickly form a close bond and Inas seems to be the savior by filling every void in Madison’s life: friendship, love, and adventure.   Most importantly, he brings hope to Madison’s life for a brighter future for her and her grieving father. However, everything is not so simple, there is a dark side to the world of genies and it feels as though the entire universe is conspiring against them. It was enjoy able to get lost in Madison and Inas’ magi...

I feel numb. I feel like crying at a moment's notice. I keep wanting to wake up, but I can't. How did this happen? How did enough Americans vote an evil tyrant of a man like Donald Trump into the highest office in the nation? I don't feel like I belong here anymore. I know there are thousands that are hurting just like me, but right now, at this moment, I feel so alone. I feel lost.

Pol's Life-The New Chapter: Preorder eBook now! : Great news! The eBook version of Genie in a Bottle is available for preorder! On Thanksgiving morning it'll be released to your reader....

Great news! The eBook version of Genie in a Bottle is available for preorder! On Thanksgiving morning it'll be released to your reader. How cool is that? When you get sick of your family, you'll have a book to go read. I hope everyone enjoys the book, and remember, it's only just begun. Thank you!                                                   Click here to order!

The cover is here!!!

As many of you know, our beloved Buster passed away late July. It sent my (our) world into turmoil, and a sadness I thought would never end. But with each passing day I feel a bit stronger and more like my old self. We have a new brat to care for, and he sees to it that we smile at least once every day, which has been very helpful in the healing process. I am very excited about the future, I  have a brand new series coming out. I've written nothing but Serpenteens for the past four years, it feels so fresh. Only a few more weeks until Genie in a Bottle-The First Wish!

For those of you who do not know, our Buster boy passed away. It happened very fast. One day we noticed he was walking strangely, and three weeks later, he is gone.  He had cerebral myopathy (that is probably spelled wrong), but his brain stopped telling his legs what to do. There were additional things going on with Buster that made it clear what the right thing to do would be. It was the most difficult thing we've ever had to do.  They say each day will get better, but that's not true. 

So, once again I wake up in a good mood, and within minutes of turning on the TV, I'm brought down to sadness by the news of another senseless shooting.  People are all pissing and moaning because they think their gun rights will be taken away. It's not so much about your right to have a gun, it's more about keeping the guns out of the hands of the fucking lunatics that carelessly take lives and leave so much heartache in their wake.

Well, at least we can now say that we've done it once.  To celebrate our 24th anniversary, Steve and I drove to the top of Pikes Peak. It took about an hour, and at times was pretty nerve racking. But there were some pretty spectacular views when it wasn't too scary to look down.  It was cool, too, because we were able to see our cabin from 14,000 feet!  And after we got back down and were home, it was the cherry on top to be able to look out our back door and see what we just drove up.

Thank you to all of those who gave their lives so that we may live a better life.

As the sun comes over the mountain on another beautiful morning, I am once again thankful for this new life. We still get snow showers every few days, but when the sun comes out, it melts away pretty quickly. It's just one of the things we deal with in order to live in this magical place.  I have been writing, writing, writing! I've finished the final installment of the Serpenteens  series. Steve read it and finished yesterday. He loved it!  It's going through two more edits and then will be published. We can't wait for everyone to experience it, too. 

We're finally done with the snow in the mountains. The last remnants melt away more and more each day, leaving nothing but an anthill of dirt and ice.  Projects around the cabin have been popping up. Projects that had to wait for warmer temperatures. Projects that, when completed, make us love our new home even more. Now the balancing act begins--getting all the things done around the place that need to be done, while still managing to write and do some wood burnings. Thankfully, I've completed the final installment of the Serpenteens series! Steve is currently reading through it, so I'm using this time to start a new book, and work on some of those projects.  There are times I wish I was like one of the Cullens from Twilight and never had to sleep. Imagine all that I could accomplish!  Alas, I am but a simple mortal, forced to shut down and recharge every seventeen hours or so.  But this is life, right? And right now, life is pretty good. 

I can't believe this! What a huge loss. We've lost too many over the last few years. So sad. RIP Prince.

I have finished the 1st draft of the final installment of the Serpenteens saga, Battle of the Gods. It turned out just as good as I had hoped it would, but was also not without its challenges. It was a bit hard to close the story. After four books, the teens and I have been through a lot. I hope I did them justice. Well, on to the 2nd draft! If you haven't yet met the Serpenteens, there's still plenty of time before Battle of the Gods comes out! Order here!

One year ago today, Steve, Buster, and I arrived in Colorado to begin our new life. There's been a few challenges, but nothing we couldn't handle. We got an apartment, and for the first nine months here, loved living there, and enjoyed settling in.  On February 1st we moved into our forever home!  We have been truly blessed with finding our Cabin Above the Clouds, it is 99% everything we had ever dreamed of. The past year has gone by so fast, but that's probably because we've been enjoying ourselves so much! Our first year in Colorado is complete, many, many more to look forward to!

Now that things are somewhat getting settled in the new house, I'm getting settled into a regular routine again. Work had been slow going on the final Serpenteens installment, but things have picked up quite nicely. I should have the first draft finished by next week. As far as my artwork, I've been working on that also. I'm doing a piece with two longhorn rams battling it out. I'll have it on the website as soon as it's done and ready to be purchased.

It's just about six in the morning. I've been up since five. We are in the beginning stages of winter storm Selene. But that's okay, Steve's off today, so we'll have a nice day. Got the fire going, the cabin should be warmed up nicely by the time he wakes up.  It's springtime in the mountains of Colorado. 

I don't think I'll ever get used to looking at America's Mountain.

We dreamed of the time when I would retire, and we would move to Colorado. The beauty of it, the hiking, the weather, the animals . . . We wanted it, we planned for it, we focused on it, we made sure it happened. Once we were here, we focused on our next big task: to find our forever home.  With a little help from upstairs (okay, maybe a lot), we accomplished that, too. Everything should be great now, right? It should be, but it isn't. Steve works extremely long hours, and he is hardly ever home. Including the drive down the mountain (he works in the Springs), there are days when he is gone for fourteen hours, leaving me here to do what needs to be done around the house and write and what have you, but all the while-alone. Wait a second, Steve working 12-14 hours a day, me up here alone for 12-14 hours a day . . . This is how our incredible new lives in Colorado were supposed to be? A resounding no! So, a new task is at hand: getting Steve up on the mountain so we can be together m...

As each day passes, Steve, Buster, and I feel more and more at home in our new home. There are still those moments when it doesn't feel real, I don't belong here, and someone is about to tell us to get the fuck out.  But, thankfully, those moments only live a few short seconds, and then the gratitude and joy take over again. We started getting snow yesterday around noon, and it hasn't stopped. We've gotten about ten inches  so far. But I got to use my new snow blower for the first time this morning when Steve had to go to work. It was fun. I won't be doing much today. We've been painting the inside of the house, so it's a good day to build a nice fire, and just chill inside. (But, of course, I can't wait to get outside and play in the snow.)

Finally, after eleven days, we are totally and completely moved in to our new home! This has been the most difficult move we've ever had, simply because of a snow storm that arrived a few days before we closed on Feb. 1st., causing the roads to our Cabin Above the Clouds to be pretty much useless for Uhauls. So, we waited until the weather improved (thankfully, we got a week of gorgeous weather), and we rented yet another Uhaul, and got the last of our stuff out of the garage at the apartments. I tell you what, it really feels differently knowing we're 100% moved in. There was a sense of calm and relief that set in almost instantly. Now it's time to get the office in order, get the gym in order (lots of catching up to do there), and get our lives back to some sort of semblance to normalcy. Which is one of the reasons I'm writing this post first thing. I told myself that I would be better with my blog, and I plan on doing just that. Another thing I need to get b...

It was a week yesterday that we moved into the Cabin Above the Clouds, and it still hasn't fully sank in that we're here. It's amazingly quiet, and at night it's darker than dark, which will take some getting used to, I suppose. We still haven't totally moved our stuff from the garage at the apartments due to the snow storm. The roads leading up to our new home are a bit tricky.  But Friday, we'll be getting another truck and finishing up. It will feel even better once we are fully moved in. We like the new neighbors so far. They come by and sit in the yard and watch us all day, but keep their distance. Hopefully they will learn that we aren't a threat, and will become more and more comfortable sharing this land. I haven't gotten back into writing as of yet, one main reason being that the top of my desk is one of the larger items we have yet to move from the garage. But little by little, all will fall into place, and this magical place on the mountain wi...

It's a good thing this house will be our forever home, because the approval process and all the finance bank crap has been one of the worst experiences we have ever encountered.  We close Monday morning at ten, and just this morning (Friday) got final approval. Seriously?  We knew we would get approved, but it was all the little hoops we had to jump through like circus dog that was making us crazy!  But it will all be over soon, and this will be our view for the rest of our lives!

As we anxiously wait to move into our new house we are struggling with the bank with one thing after another.  But it will all be worth it in the end, because the house is perfect. Steve and I went there yesterday and walked around, and I lost track of all the deer paths that were around. I stood in the woods and just listened to the absolute silence that enveloped me. I didn't want to leave, but knew we'd be back for good in a week.

This morning we learned of yet another huge loss. Alan Rickman passed away, after battling cancer.  RIP you wonderful man.