Tumbler Ridge School Shooting
Before I drop the
update, I want to express my deepest love and sympathy for all affected by the
mass shooting at a junior high school in Tumbler
Ridge, British Columbia earlier this week.
I want to stress that
the focus should be on the victims – those who were in the school at the
time, their families and the community in general – nothing else. Those kids, their teachers and anyone else in
that area will probably need a lot of counseling, probably for the rest of their
lives, due to this tragic incident.
I will also stress
that my areas are not platforms for debating, promoting hate,
political stances or anything controversial in nature. Anyone who drops hate on
this blog’s comments or anywhere else, and tries to use my areas as
soapboxes or anything else that is not related to the victims and expressing
sadness over the shooting will be immediately ejected and if possible, blocked. I
have no tolerance for hate toward my fellow LGBT+ community members, and less
tolerance for any hate toward my trans siblings. I also will not tolerate anyone
mentioning the name of the shooter. It is disrespectful to the victims, their
families, the survivors and the community in general. Thank you.
Here’s some
information about Tumbler Ridge and the second largest school shooting in
Canadian history.
Source: CTV News.
Trivia: The
largest mass shooting ever in Canadian history happened between April 18 &
19, 2020, here in Portapique, Nova Scotia, with a total of 22 innocent lives
lost.
Nova Swoons
Anthology
It
is with great honor and excitement that I announce that the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia has
released its first romance anthology featuring Nova Scotian romance authors…
And an excerpt from one of my books is in it!
Nova Swoons came
to my attention when another Nova Scotian romance author and friend of mine
shared it in Facebook. I was intrigued and wanted to participate if they would
accept something from a little known author. I didn’t want to include part of a
story that’s not protected by a publisher or my own productions company as an
Indie work, so I debated which book to feature, from either Decadent
Publishing, or Extasy Books.
I
got permission from Extasy Books to share a short excerpt from one of my books
published with them. It wasn’t an easy choice, considering I have six books out
with them, and all of them have gotten high reviews. In the end I chose the one
story that stands out for me, as its writer.
I
chose a short excerpt from Chapter 7 of Stricken
(Feathered Tartan 1). This shows an interaction between the two main
characters, Ewan and Marti, and how they’re starting to reconnect even though
they’re not back together at this point in the story.
Nova Swoons is
free to download in PDF form, or in print for cost of shipping in Canada. (I am
not sure if they ship outside of Canada, but the digital version is available
no matter where you are).
It
is such a thrill to be a part of this amazing anthology! Thank you so much to
the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia for featuring Stricken in it, and thank
you so much to Tina at Extasy Books for allowing me to submit an excerpt from
my debut novel to the collection!
Featured Authors (all are from Nova Scotia, Canada):
V.J. Allison
Tina Capalbo
Grace Costa
Margaret
Hastings-James
Deanna Foster
Cathryn Fox
Sophia Lindfield
Lex Lynn
Erin MacKinnon
Kaarina Mikalson
Heidi Tattrie
Christina Isabel
Tellez
Chris Turner
Find
it here: https://writers.ns.ca/programs/micro-anthology-series/
Update!
Things
are slow going writing wise. I’ve been knocked flat due to various health
concerns. Although my glucose is almost back to normal range (thank you
insulin!), my iron stores have bottomed out, and I think at this point, I may
be anemic. Joy oh bliss.
Since
the iron supplements didn’t do anything other than make me feel icky, it’s been
decided that I’m going to get at least one iron infusion – via I.V. Fun, eh?
Not! It’s not as invasive as a blood transfusion, but still not as easy to deal
with as something like my occipital nerve injections (more on that later!). I’m
going in to Dartmouth next week for round one, and I have to get my blood
checked 6 weeks after that to see how things are progressing. If the levels are
still low, I’m going in for another one. Yay – not!!! I can’t drive afterwards
due to it being a bit hard on the system, so that will be fun, me walking
around Princess Auto afterwards and other spots, half out of my tree thanks to
being wonky from the infusion. Another round of fun…. Good grief.
Hopefully
all improves with this one infusion. I hate being even a little out of my faculties,
even for a few hours. The colonoscopy I had in November had me driven bonkers.
I was out for about an hour for it, and slept for almost an hour afterwards,
not really remembering much even after the sedation wore off. I didn’t sleep
the afternoon away but wasn’t fully “with it” either. Ugh! (I’m cancer free, by
the way, and asked for one – one of my best pals, my “adopted big bro” Glen
passed due to colon cancer in July 2025, and I miss him horribly).
Nerve block news: I have
a new doctor for the occipital nerve blocks. He’s from the United States and
knows his stuff. No offense to my previous doc for this, but Dr. F has light
years on what Dr. J could help me with.
I
first started seeing Dr. F in September at the Victoria General Hospital in
Halifax, after a long waiting time to get into any pain clinics that specialize
in nerve damage and nerve pain, notably neuralgias which are in the nerves
around the head and neck. After a long chat with him to get my history and what
meds didn’t work for me (99.9% of the meds on the market will or gave me
horrible side effects), we decided that I would get multiple blocks all over my
head, parts of my face where he could zap the trigeminal nerve, and a lot of
the branches of the occipital nerves (greater and lesser) and other nerves
around my skull. Heck he even gave me a few injections where the occipital
nerves exit the spine at C2 in my neck.
It
was the most relief I had had from the occipital neuralgia pain I’ve ever had.
I get 10 to 20 injections every six to seven weeks, and since the amount of
xylocaine I’m getting covers most of my scalp, the pain relief lasts much
longer. I’m able to function for those six weeks without a lot of pain, and
without that damn occipital migraine I used to get at the back of the skull. It
hurts like mother-effing hell but it’s worth being able to function.
I’m
also taking a new to me medication for the trigeminal neuralgia. It’s called Lamotrigine, and it’s the least invasive
medication Dr. F could find that wasn’t related to the carbamazepine/tegretol,
gabapentin or anything else that would produce wonky side effects. So far, the
worst I’m experiencing – 4 weeks into the regime – is a dry mouth. Although it’s
annoying, I am still in charge of my faculties and happy to say that even with
the damn iron deficiency, I’m as alert and snarky as ever. I don’t have a drop
in the pain levels but it does take a while to build up in the system, so it
could start working in a few months. As long as I don’t experience anything
like I did even after 3 days on the gabapentin, I’ll be happy. If I get on
something that messes with my brain and makes me loopy doopy, I’ll stop taking
it. I’d rather be in agony and be alert than be in pain and wonky as hell.
Writing
Thorns of the Rose is
still under production although I think I have surpassed the halfway point, and
hopefully I’ll see the light at the end of the draft one tunnel later this year
or early next year. I’m still planning to publish it sometime in 2028, either
via a trad house, or my own production company.
His Reasons to
Fight
is still on the back burner until I figure out if it’ll be an Indie book or
not.
Amethyst Rose
Productions
I
finally got around to settling on a permanent name for my design business,
which I hope to get registered with the province or federally sometime soon.
Maybe when we get the car paid off?
Amethyst Rose
Productions was soft launched last year, with the creation of a
book cover for L Higginson – The Eater of
Suffering. Its official launch was in January 2026, and I designed the logo
myself. It’s a purple wild rose, done in metallic acrylics on a piece of wood
that I scanned into the computer. All hand drawn and painted. No generative AI
shit used. (Generative AI is garbage – it wrecks the environment and steals
work by other creatives, I hate it!)
 |
| ©2025 V.J. Allison. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION. NO DOWNLOADING! |
The
cover for The Eater of Suffering was
painted in acrylics on canvas board, scanned into the computer, cleaned up and
had its lettering and leaves added in Affinity Photo V2 (the paid version, not
the free one that Canva owns). Take a gander at this. It’s my best work yet!
 |
| ©2025 Amethyst Rose Productions. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION. NO DOWNLOADING! |
You
can find The Eater of Suffering on Amazon
here: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0G3L3H1ZZ
I
read it, and it’s an amazing story. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes suspense
and psychological thrillers. I had to get a copy of it to support L’s writing,
especially since she commissioned me to do her cover.
I’ve
also been doing a lot of painting and drawing/doodling to improve my drawing
skills. In fact, I drew my own caricature on paper using colored pencils for
fun, and a lot of other things. No, I’m not comfy showing them here because
they stink, and honestly, there are several people out there who will download
my work without permission which is a copyright violation. Plus it will be “scraped”
for generative AI purposes and no way am I allowing that. (I haven’t figured
out how to use Nightshade yet, so I may have to switch to another format for
glazing/poisoning the work).
That’s
what’s been happening in my world.
To
wrap things up, here’s an oldie but a goodie… “Love Song” by Tesla.
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