Things that get in the way of keeping people up to date: lack of time; lack of news; lack of interest. In this instance, the second does not hold true.
So what has taken up most of my time, and why might that interest anyone? I can't speak to what holds your interest, but a lot lately has held mine. Where do I start?
I finished the first draft of The Forgotten Magic on May 1 (so close to my internal deadline of the end of April that I'll count it as a definite win). The book, sequel to The Forgotten King, currently resides in the editorial and beta reader phase. With any luck, I'll have enough reader input by the end of the month (a huge thanks already to Paul and to Mary Catherine for their fantastic insights) that, in combination with my own editing, I'll have a happily finished product very soon. And good thing too, as book 2 of The Forgotten is available for pre-order now, with a publishing date in mid-July for amazon, and the beginning of October for other digital outlets (a tale involving international contests and exclusive rights for 90 days that I won't bore you with). So that little project has kept me busy.
So what has taken up most of my time, and why might that interest anyone? I can't speak to what holds your interest, but a lot lately has held mine. Where do I start?
I finished the first draft of The Forgotten Magic on May 1 (so close to my internal deadline of the end of April that I'll count it as a definite win). The book, sequel to The Forgotten King, currently resides in the editorial and beta reader phase. With any luck, I'll have enough reader input by the end of the month (a huge thanks already to Paul and to Mary Catherine for their fantastic insights) that, in combination with my own editing, I'll have a happily finished product very soon. And good thing too, as book 2 of The Forgotten is available for pre-order now, with a publishing date in mid-July for amazon, and the beginning of October for other digital outlets (a tale involving international contests and exclusive rights for 90 days that I won't bore you with). So that little project has kept me busy.
With Mike's parents currently residing at The Resort (as we all call their lovely retirement residence in Bobcaygeon), the 3 siblings have decided to keep the house at the lake as a cottage for any of us interested in its use in the upcoming summer months. Dad and Mom are thrilled at this decision and fully encouraging in whatever projects we wish to take on to make the place more up-to-date. This has led to some renovations; from tearing out some of the mismatched carpeting and laying new flooring, to painting, to updating electrical (including identifying mystery switches), to full out bathroom renovations. Our current project has the upstairs bathroom fully gutted and in the process of receiving new drywall, a new vanity and light, a new fan, a lightly used tub to replace the old icky steel beast, and reusing the toilet (only a few years old). The lightly used tub has come from our bathroom here.
Why, you might ask, would we pull out our perfectly usable tub, toss it in a van (our first experience with Car Sharing), drive it up north of Peterborough, and drag it across the dubious decking and up some stairs at the cottage in the rain after pulling out the old steel tub? Why wouldn't we just arrange for a new tub, maybe have someone else install it?
Mostly because of our own renovations here at home.
What started as a kitchen renovation here has, as these things often do, grown into a monster project. Happily, the scale of the renovation has morphed by our choice and not because of some unfortunate 'thing' uncovered in the process (although the gaping hole in my basement concrete is a wee bit bigger than planned due to some questionable connections to the actual drain that theoretically leads to the street). Removing walls to make flow-through more accessible and open concept from kitchen to great room in the back led to relocating the guest room and widening that section for eating too. Which eventually led to staring at the existing bathroom and thinking, "Well, that's pretty much the only room up here we haven't touched. We should do something about that too!" So out comes the tub and in goes a shower (we have a tub in the ensuite; two seemed one too many), affording us an extra tub to use elsewhere (like the cottage).
Mostly because of our own renovations here at home.
What started as a kitchen renovation here has, as these things often do, grown into a monster project. Happily, the scale of the renovation has morphed by our choice and not because of some unfortunate 'thing' uncovered in the process (although the gaping hole in my basement concrete is a wee bit bigger than planned due to some questionable connections to the actual drain that theoretically leads to the street). Removing walls to make flow-through more accessible and open concept from kitchen to great room in the back led to relocating the guest room and widening that section for eating too. Which eventually led to staring at the existing bathroom and thinking, "Well, that's pretty much the only room up here we haven't touched. We should do something about that too!" So out comes the tub and in goes a shower (we have a tub in the ensuite; two seemed one too many), affording us an extra tub to use elsewhere (like the cottage).
Renovations continue as I type, with less banging and smashing at the moment than in previous days. Our place is very open at the moment, with a large flush-ceiling beam taking the place of a retaining wall, and the beginnings of other walls (the new bathroom dimensions and new closets) in place. You'd think, with contractors and professionals, we wouldn't have much to do in the process, but that neglects all the choices we have to make (from cabinets to plumbing, colours to lighting, and anything in between you might think of, plus lots we might not have yet). So we've kept quite busy in the last few months, and likely will until work ends sometime (hopefully) in August.
I'm just glad I got my book finished before the biggest of this chaos, and will, with any luck, have a decent product ready for publication in the next couple of weeks.
The official book launch party will take place around September, when we have a usable house again!
I'm just glad I got my book finished before the biggest of this chaos, and will, with any luck, have a decent product ready for publication in the next couple of weeks.
The official book launch party will take place around September, when we have a usable house again!
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