Soggy Tuesdays

Autumn is truly and well here in our part of the Great White North.  It’s a gray, wet and mildly depressing Tuesday outside.  The dog keeps hoping for his walk, but I’m afraid it won’t happen today.

My editor is currently working on Without Mercy (Siobhan Dunmoore Book 5) and after the first pass, she says it’s looking good.  No major surgery required.  While she does her thing, I’m working on the nuts and bolts of publication – nailing down the cover, the description, getting the various sales channels set up, preparing the print issues, etc.  An early October date for its release is becoming more and more realistic, if my editor can finish by the end of the month, as she hopes to do.  If you haven’t seen the paperback version’s cover yet, you can see it on my Facebook page.

I’m also back to writing Hard Strike, the seventh Decker’s War adventure, which I hope to complete before Christmas.  If you haven’t yet read the interview with Zack Decker, don’t miss out.  He’s in fine form and as funny as ever.

Zack Decker Talks

Some days, I wonder who’s in charge.  Is it the writer or the main character in my books?  It looks like my friend Zachary T. Decker, of Decker’s War fame gave an unauthorized interview during which he spoke (or since this is direct from the 26th century – will speak) of himself, his life and his loves.  You can read the transcript on this fine 21st century website:

Major Zack Decker in conversation

Time’s Torrent

It seems like time is passing faster as I get older.  Summer is just about over, considering the official start of autumn is in one week – even if today is warm, almost sweltering.  Leaves are beginning to change color and the squirrels are hard at work squirreling away their winter’s supply of acorns.  Where did it go?  I already signed this coming winter’s snow-blowing contract with our usual service provider and my thoughts are turning to our next scuba diving escape.  I’m almost afraid to blink, lest I suddenly find facing an imminent Christmas and a season of Canadian cold.  Did I accomplish everything I wanted this summer?  Probably not, but at least the essentials are done.

If I’ve been less active blogging recently, it’s for a good reason.  I’m deep into revising Without Mercy (Siobhan Dunmoore Book 5), since I promised my editor she’d get the manuscript before the end of September – hopefully within a week.  But that confirms my earlier estimate it won’t hit the shelves until sometime in early October.  Such is life.

Idle Day Blues

Today is the day where Canada and other countries celebrate work through idleness.  Labour Day also marks the unofficial end of summer in our Land of Ice and Snow, even though its official end is almost three weeks away, and warm, wonderful weather has been known to linger well past Thanksgiving in some parts.  And by that, I mean the Canadian Thanksgiving, which falls on the second Monday in October – not the American version which is less than four weeks shy of Christmas!

However, I won’t be idle today, not after taking a break since finishing the first draft of Without Mercy (Siobhan Dunmoore Book 5).  I started revising it a few days ago, and have the first 10 chapters done so far, but my editor won’t be ready to receive the manuscript until much later in September.  That means publication might slip into the first or second week of October.  But published it will be.

And while I was taking a break from Dunmoore #5, I wrote the first three chapters of Hard Strike (Decker’s War Book 7) just to set the tone, since I’ll be jumping into it the moment Dunmoore #5 is with my editor.  Not to forget my forays into starship modelling.  If you’re following my Facebook page (and why wouldn’t you?)  you’ll know I recently completed a model of the Eagle 1 Transporter from the 1970s scifi series Space 1999.  Right now, I’m in the process of completing another starship model from the same series, a Hawk Mk IX, which appeared in only one episode of the first season. But it’s a lovely little space fighter.  I’ll post a picture on Facebook once it’s completed later this week.

But back to celebrating work by not doing anything!