September 5, 2026
What to say? What to tell? What to keep private?
It's been a strange year for me. I'm keeping company with a man I've known since 1971, the first day of ninth grade. I'm not sure how it's going. Something has shifted inside me. Maybe a breast cancer diagnosis caused the shift. Maybe something else.
I'm doing fine. Caught early, very small, clean margins, radiation, no chemo. It's all been positive. It feels like an inconvenient bump in the road and nothing more.
True confession - I no longer wish to write. Whatever it was that kept me writing is gone. I came upon that last crossroad and I turned back, unwilling to go forward. My incomplete manuscripts will remain just as they are - incomplete.
Earlier this year I pulled down all the Rayne Forrest books. Yesterday, I began the process of taking down all the KC books. The Southern Cross series was the first to go. I'm not setting a timeline to have another batch removed beyond saying it will be in time for 2026 to be the last year I receive any royalties.
I'm saddened by the loss of, shall we say, the Muse. Was it Ron's death? Was it retirement? Was it the death of my mother? Was it Paul? Was it the diagnosis? More likely it was the insidious creep of artificial intelligence into books and the marketplace. I refuse to use AI. I detest it. It's dangerous.
Sharing this information was not an easy decision. I doubt there is much interest in me, my writing, and the life of the author, but I thought a "until next time" was appropriate.
As for Between the Keys, Holly Tree Manor, and Deuce's Day, I have no plans. These blogs are the history of the last twenty years. I'll let them stand for now as I've kept an archive of all entries.
My thanks to all of you who supported me across the years since 2003 and that first book. I wish each and every one of you health and happiness.
The future is always unwritten, but I doubt very much I will pass this way again.
Rayne Forrest/KC Kendricks
