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June-uary. Utter freaking monsooneration all night, loud enough on the roof to wake me us several times. Would have slept in, but for that idiot woodpecker tapping three times then departing.
At least the woodpeckers and flickers have learned to be more polite this year. Instead of attacking the chimney pipe, I have one dork who lands up there and tags it exactly once, then waits. If I open a door and I thump the gutters, he’s off. If I don’t about five minutes later he does it again.
Because, honestly, they are a little bored and want to play. And smarter than most folks appreciate. Trainable. Like the hummingbirds who know which windows to hover outside of when they have complaints to management about the feeder. (Mine and hers, both)
Then there is “The Littlest Ninja.” (BTW, chipmunks make lousy ninjas, but don’t tell them. They seem to be having fun.)
Last Saturday, the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ was vending books at the Kent Nerd Walk and had the pavilion outside overnight, along with a bag holding the sides and top. When I went to load the truck, the littlest ninja was sitting inside the bag, just hanging out like he wanted to go with. Utterly terrified of us, too, because he jumped out and ran about five feet to climb up on top of a shovel and watch me load the pickup. And stayed there as I went back and forth.
Might be the same dork that comes over to my house occasionally, climbing up on the back porch and standing on hind legs to be able to look in the slider and see what’s going on.
Seriously. Dorks. But most of the critters around here have that same level of utterly terrified. Helps that I keep two big watering troughs in the yard for deer and elk. And have bricks in one so birds can land and drink safely.
June, so lots of critters around, as everything is green. Bird feeders are being emptied at least daily, maybe twice, depending, as there are little ones needing food too. Should start seeing fawns shortly, as I have two does that live on the property and they had three last year. Little zoomies running around when they get comfortable.
On the writing side, I took the weekend off and didn’t write. Edited some, instead. There will be three new character collections coming in the fall. Eva and Nik, Brother Jon. Laima Ghur. All right around 55k and ready to go. Even have covers, but need to do print wrap covers.
These are over and above the novels coming out, as Matt suggested that we treat the fall like a presidential election year. Those are the autumns where folks stop reading fiction, instead largely focused on the news instead. Summer is always something of a down time, as folks might go to the beach and read, but are usually busy doing things and not reading. Then in September, summer is over and sales recover.
Except in presidential years. Planning ahead and battening down the hatches a bit this summer and fall, just in case. And putting out some extra stuff to maybe score a few bucks here and there.
Corsac Fox 8 continues apace. Right around 35k at the moment, on the way to a target of around 80k, like the rest of them. Also working on Derlyth 4 in the background, so that I can drop a large swath of urban fantasy sometime next year, as well as maybe several thrillers.
I’m generally about a year ahead in my writing. Or more. Try to keep a long gap, so that I can write at my pace and not have to be rushed to finish something. Would like to nail down Scattered Tribes 4 & 5 this summer/fall, so I can drop them next fall/winter and maybe go on to the spin-off series that was actually the original idea, before I realized how much world-building was needed there.
Hope you folks enjoyed The Gardener. As noted, got more Mick coming. More darkness, but I might lean into longer pieces now, similar to how Ollie (Shadow of the Ancients) started as several shorts and turned into novels. Same as Scattered Tribes 1 that many of you read here.
Mostly puttering. It’s Tuesday and I can. Hope yours is a little drier.
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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