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Cool Stuff Friday
Friday parle francais un peu.
- Prix De La Photographie Paris photos
- Awoo! Cute animal comic I hadn’t been aware of until today.
- Cats and their people beds
Cool Stuff Friday
Friday is back! In Pog form!
- Cat loafs
- Milky Way photographer of the year competition pics (from File770)
- Giant animal photoshops
Cool Stuff Friday
It’s over, week. Friday has the high ground.
- Malfunctioning cats
- Malfunctioning dogs
- More dogs in need of a hard reset
- Very Important animal pictures
Project Updates
Most of this went out in the last newsletter, but I figured I’d share here as well. As most of you know, it’s been a weird and messed-up few years. I lost about a year from writing while my wife was sick. Then COVID came along, and it sounds like my publisher has been dealing with some extra crap lately.
With all that said, here’s what I’ve been working on and what I know about future plans and releases…
TERMINAL PEACE: The third and final book in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series was turned in back in September. I’m waiting for revision notes from my editor. If things go as they have with all my previous books, I’ll do one more revision after that, and then the book will go into production.
I don’t have a confirmed publication date yet, but I’ve heard rumors that we’re looking at late summer 2022. I’ll let folks know when/if that changes, or whenever I get confirmation.
SILVER QUEENS: I’ve wanted to break into middle grade for a while now. I started last year with Tamora Carter: Goblin Queen. After talking to my agent, I spent the first part of 2021 writing Silver Queens, a standalone middle-grade fantasy. Like Tamora Carter, this one has goblins and a different take on portal fantasy, but it’s not connected to anything I’ve written before. My agent and I went back and forth on a couple of drafts, and as of this month, it’s on submission.
I have absolutely no idea how long the submission process will take. When and if the book sells, it will take a while before it’s published.
But as soon as I know more, I’ll share it with the world!
PROJECT K: (Not the actual title.) Yet another standalone fantasy. This is one I’d worked on as middle grade a while back, but it never quite worked. So I’ve started going back and reworking the book into an adult fantasy.
We sent a pitch to my publisher in February. I’m hoping to hear something on this sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I’m continuing to work on the book. I’m about 13,000 words into the current draft.
My goal would be to have this done before the end of 2021. But if the past few years have shown me anything, it’s that plans and goals can be disrupted on a moment’s notice…
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What this all means is that I’m unlikely to have anything new out in 2021. My last release from a big publisher was February 2019. I hate having such a big gap, even though I’m so grateful to my agent and my publisher for their patience while I dealt with things here at home.
I’d hoped to see Terminal Peace out this year, but with it being almost June, that’s not going to happen even if my editor got back to me today with revision notes.
So my new hope is that 2022 will get me back on track and putting out at least one new book per year. Maybe more, if this middle grade thing works out. (I’ve got ideas for another MG book, but I’m going to finish Project K first.)
Cool Stuff Friday
Friday has a baby cherry tree!
A month or so back, my son decided we should plant a tree. We discussed what kind, and he wanted a fruit tree. We narrowed it down to apple or cherry. When we got the tree, it was basically a sad-looking stick with a few roots. But we planted it, and I’ve been watering the thing every day.
It’ll probably be a few years before we get cherries, but our stick has leaves!
- Comedy Wildlife Photography
- 2 Cats are Better Than 1
- Turning Colored Pencils into a Wooden Globe. (I just find this sort of thing soothing and hypnotic.)
Fixed Time
Doctor and DeLorean, Wells and Bradbury.
We live to create magic and wonder.
So how can I not wonder and wish for second chances?
How can I not rewrite our story?
Thanksgiving, 2018.
“This isn’t your normal back pain.”
How to make you believe your panicked husband from the future?
“Why don’t I come with you to the doctor?”
Push him to look past chronic pain and degenerative disk disease.
Just one test.
Just one tube of blood, drowning in white.
Would one more month give the butterfly time to flap its wings?
December 2018
“The password is ‘Large B-cell Lymphoma of Germinal Center Cell Type, Non-Burkitt’s Type. Double Hit Type.'”
We have to be more aggressive than the enemy.
But who would believe me
as I sit by your bed and wait for you to return from your cursed sleep?
Test after test, every minute waiting, wasted.
The ER nurse said she’d never seen a WBC so high.
You were always the overachiever.
Were we too late before we even started?
August 2019
“Let’s go for another walk in the wheelchair.”
“Why don’t we visit a little longer?”
“Can I read you one more story?”
Was the ending pre-written?
If I can’t fix the destination, can I rewrite the journey?
Work less.
Travel more.
Hawaiian beaches and Alaskan glaciers and faithful geysers and lands of imagination.
The Eiffel Tower and the Australian reefs.
Someday can be today.
Fight less. Forgive more.
Use the lessons of the future to rewrite each chapter.
October 2003...1995…1988…
All the while, knowing a real monster waits at the end of this book.
The end of your book.
Every night, rereading each scene.
Reliving each moment.
The blank emptiness of the final pages.
If I were a better writer…
A better husband…
A better friend…
I’ll carry your story in mine, in every chapter to come.
Cool Stuff Friday
Friday needs about four extra hours/day. Three of which will be used for sleeping.
- Cursed architecture. (Not exactly “cool,” but often entertaining!)
- Dog pics!
- Dog & cat tweets