I snuck in another birthday - as a family, we drove down to Houston for my Mother-In-Law's birthday (and still have a couple more niece and nephew birthdays on the horizon). My Mother-In-Law is one of the most big-hearted people I've had the pleasure of knowing, and I wish her the best.

Then back to Austin for the wedding of a daughter of my close friend and running buddy of 20+ years. He and I have been through a lot together, and it was a joy to spend that time with his extended family. Among those experiences, he suffered a heart attack after one of our runs a year+ ago... but he can still beat me on a run (not that we push as hard as we used to). The only pics I captured of him at the wedding were pretty bad--that's him in the back with one of his three adopted kids. Yeah, yeah, you want a pic of the bride. Tough luck! The main character in this story is the friendship.

But not to get too, "#soblessed" on you, my great weekend followed on the heels of a grueling work-week. I had 15 hours of project and personnel reviews on top of my normal workload. And I do appreciate the irony of doing tons of reviews at work while I'm about to start begging for reviews of Book 3. “God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.” (Good Omens)

Writing Updates

I’ve finished pulling in edits of Book 3 (minus any feedback from one early reader). I’m short a couple of pictures that should be finished roughly Dec. 1st, and then there’s just some bits and pieces of formatting work before I kick it out the door for it to learn to live on its own. The Goodreads Giveaway for Book 3 starts on Thursday, and I’m doing a Black Friday discount of Book 1 on Amazon. I set all that up over the last few weeks, so there’s not a lot for me to do except watch my house of cards collapse, possibly igniting in great towers of flame, for ineffable reasons.

I updated the cover of Book 3 to reflect the same types of changes I'd recently made to Book 1. The before and after pics are below.

On the discouraging side, a short story I submitted last October did not get accepted for publication; on the bright side, you'll get it as a short story in a future newsletter. The story involves side characters introduced in Book 4 of the Guardian League series, so I don't want to throw it out there just yet.

o To-Do list for writing last week:

• Email updates
• Continued work with editor on Book 3.
• Review the audio of Book 1 (learn how to provide audio feedback).
• Request update of book 2 cover. Request made, but the price was a bit high—passing on the opportunity for now.
• Redo covers for Books 3, and then B2 (since B3 release is imminent).
• Create logo & business cards. (For B&N local signings)

o To-Do list for writing this week:

• Email updates
• Struggling with the audiobook - namely finding time that I can both listen AND jot down notes. I’ve listened to about 25 chapters, but will have to do it all over again at a time I can capture my thoughts. Or just punt and Believe.
• I think I’ll spend most of this week just fretting about the upcoming Goodreads Giveaway for Book 3 and Black Friday deal on Book 1… worrying about all of it amounting to nothing.
• Continue aforementioned fretting
• Mix some worry in with the fretting for good measure.
• Create logo and business cards.

Previous Newsletters

• ​Lights, digital recording device, action… - 11/16/2021
• ​Annnnd... cue Christmas! - 11/09/2021
• ​Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story - 10/26/2021 📜 Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story.pdf​
• ​New pics for Book 1 - 10/19/2021
• ​Happy Birthday, Middle Egg - 10/12/2021
• ​Age Before Duty -10/05/2021 📜​ Age-Before-Duty.pdf​
• ​Grundle's Hope - 9/28/2021 📜 Grundle's-Hope.pdf​

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