I appear to have missed the month of March entirely >.<. When last I wrote, I had mentioned plumbing failure. Plumbing failure did, indeed, cause destruction of the basement from the back of the house to the front of the house. They have to jackhammer through the cement flooring and dig up a trench to get to the old pipes so they can remove those, and then replace them with new pipes. This was also required on the lawn, so lawn — which is a tiny city lawn to begin with — is less grassy as well. While the plumbers will put the dirt back and pour cement once they’ve finished, the cement takes a suggested three weeks minimum to dry enough that we could paint or glue. Which is fine. And … Continue reading
Category Archives: Cast
In 2023 I finished and published Hunter’s Redoubt, the first book in the final sequence of the West universe. In 2024, I intend to finish The Wild Road. Or at least finish the first draft of the book. It will still have to be revised, editing, copy-edited, proof-read. Having a publisher didn’t mean those things didn’t have to be done, but my part in the doing was much smaller. It was reactive, not active. But having done it once, I think I’m more aware of what can go wrong, and things should be much smoother. *** In 2023, I finished Cast in Atonement, but that’s author-finished; the book will be published in, I think, August 2024. 2023 also saw the publication of Shards of Glass. For me, “finishing” a book is done … Continue reading
I’m writing to you all from Australia, where I have come on my writing retreat, which used to be an annual thing until Covid. I have an unfortunately tight deadline, and I’m neck deep into Cast in Atonement, which is not yet done. I hope to be finished before I leave Brisbane. And when I say finished, I mean: finished first draft. After which I will revise for submission, and then submit. Shards of Glass is due out at the end of November, so I’m fielding a few questions about that — but my head is fully entangled in the Cast novel, so Shards feels like it was written years ago (it wasn’t). My toe has improved enough it doesn’t bother me much, but according to X‑rays taken a week before I left, … Continue reading
As those of you who follow my Patreon know, at the beginning of July, I had a drive-by argument with a chair in the living room, and lost. I managed to break not one, but two, toes. I have been off work at the bookstore, but in theory will return on the 10th of August, the day on which I can take off the boot on my foot. Previous toe breakage did not require a boot. But I could stand on the foot in both prior cases. By the end of the day of the 2‑toe breakage, I was reduced to crawling because I couldn’t actually put any weight on the foot at all. Which meant, when we went to the hospital, I went in bare feet; I couldn’t put even a sandal on. … Continue reading
Very early February, granted. I have finished Shards of Glass and have submitted it to my editor at Mira, which means it’s not technically finished until revisions have been requested and completed. This gives me a needed mental break from a book that was almost two weeks late, so I can return to it with a less panicked and more objective frame of mind. When I say “more objective” this is on the scale of writer neurosis, so keep that in mind :). While I wait on editorial input for two books, I have started the ramp up to writing two books; I have more of a head start on the West novel, but will take at least a week to reread all of Sun Sword and make notes. I tend, in real life, to forget … Continue reading
RSS - Posts