Doing a little writing with my dogs this evening. The big one on the right is Murphy, who is sporting a rarely-seen dry coat of fur, and the small one with the XMas collar is Bella. She lost her collar, and that's the spare. Totally appropriate for Halloween--kind of a costume, I suppose. Usually, we only get time to write in the weee hours of the morning, or long after the sun has departed for the day, so I can't see them while I write. They also sit with me in the office while I work during the day, and I suppose that's writing of sorts... emails, meeting minutes, wiki cheatsheets, Non Disclosure Agreements... super-fun! 😬 Do you have reading companions?

And I've spent the last couple of weekend daylight hours (when not at kids' games or church) re-staining our pergola. I honestly don't think it turned out so great. Our shed turned out much better, and I think the difference was being more liberal with the wood cleaning chemicals before staining with the shed. With the pergola, I was worried about what the chemicals might do to the stone beneath. Anyone know better?

Age Before Duty - I'm attaching a short story this week (I hope). ​​Age Before Duty.pdf Please let me know if the attachment doesn't work... it's my first time to try it. I'm thinking of offering THAT as my freebie when folks sign up for my newsletter. I didn't like the whole automated email split-up of Book 1. A very successful book marketer suggested it, but I set myself up to receive it, and I didn't really like the way it hit me with too many emails early, and then stretched out toward the end. I'm learning other methods through podcasts and books, and want to try a short-story email instead. The story gives some insight into what was going on with Elliah (whom we meet in Book 2) during the timeframe of Book 1. Soooo, potentially huge spoiler alert, but I also think it works for a new reader as a good sample of how the Guardian League series flows, and it keeps enough secrets that I *think* it will be fun for new readers even if they read the books after. Please let me know! I don't want to spoil the discoveries that come from the existing book order. I'm hoping ya'll will give me some feedback on whether that will work, or if it reveals too much, too soon.

Writing Updates

I plugged dutifully away at editing of Book 3 over the last week, but decided to write the Age Before Duty story before fixing the auto-emails, since I would just have to rejigger the auto-emails anyway. I have no excuse for not submitting all the picture specs--just got stuck in the spec and bidding stage. The Calyx Sister email took a back seat to Age Before Duty.

o To-Do list for writing last week:

• Get this email out!
• Edit three chapters a day in Book 3. (thru chp52 of 94)
• Fix the auto-emails on signup for mailing list. (least likely to get done!)
• Submit specs for remaining pics. (1/6 done)
• Write the Calyx Sister email for next week.
• Write the Elliah in Bata short story.

o To-Do list for writing this week:

• Email updates.
• Edit three chapters a day in Book 3 (target chp73 of 94)
• Fix the auto-emails on signup for mailing list.
• Submit specs for remaining (5/6) pics.
• Write the Calyx Sister email for next week.