True winter has finally arrived at Bury Manor in Ottawa. This is good news, because I always find fresh, white snow inspires me to write.

Hence this blog post? No—as you saw on my last post, I have resolved to post regularly,.

That’s right, you can expect to see more of this on this page, and if you subscribe to the blog by email, in your Inbox. Just fill out the form on the right.

And as I also promised, you can expect to see more giveaways. Want to hang onto the Christmas feeling just a little longer? Download the seasonal Hawaiian Storm novella, Palm Trees & Snowflakes, for free by clicking here.

More arrivals

While winter officially started on December 21, and we had a big snowfall before that, Ottawa also experienced more than one warm spell and all the snow melted. The snow that has so far stayed only began falling a few days ago. 

The snow joined some other arrivals:

• another strict COVID-19 lockdown in Ontario that has closed all non-essential businesses
• the Pfizer-Biotech vaccines for COVID-19. As essential care-givers, both my lovely wife and I have received our first shots. I just hope that the province doesn’t cancel the second shot, as the provincial government did in Quebec. 

So now, I am vaccinated for shingles, this year’s strain of influenza, and halfway for COVID-19. 

Things are looking up!

The proof arrives

Two other items arrived in the mail today: a Christmas gift ordered online more than a month ago, AND the print proof of The Children of the Seventh Son. Finally!

I ordered the proof in early December, after publishing the e-book version on November 13. 

Friday, November 13 in 2020. Could there be a less lucky date?

Anyway, the proof arrived a month after I ordered it. I guess I could chalk that up to the Christmas mailing rush as well as COVID lockdowns and slowdowns, but it’s still hard to bear that kind of anticipation.

The good news is that, on first glance at least, it looks good. The cover fits, or rather the wrap-around image fits the cover very nicely. The interior design is eye-pleasing and the margins work. 

At this point, I have to give another shout-out to the talented professionals responsible for the visual presentation of my novel: 

• cover image by Marc Laisne
• cover design by David C. Cassidy
• interior design by Samreen Ahsan.

Milestone achieved

Dead Man Lying

I completed rewriting the third Hawaiian Storm mystery last summer. Despite my best intentions,  I spent most of my writing time since then on finishing and publishing the second Dark Age novel, The Children of the Seventh Son as an e-book and a paperback. Now that that’s done, I was able to do a a final read-through of the manuscripts and hand it off to the editor.

It always amazes me to find yet more little errors after having been through the book so many times. For instance, the software auto-corrected “huli hull chicken” to “hulk hulk chicken.” It also corrected “the other” to “lot her.” I think the software is messing with my mind.

Once the editor has finished with the manuscript, it’s on to the proofreader, and then to publishing. I am hoping to push it to e-book platforms by the end of January, but at this point, it may push into February.

Authors’ cooperative group

Another milestone achieved is renewing the authors’ cooperative group I belong to, BestSelling Reads. We have some new members now, including Elyse Salpeter and AJ Llewellyn. As a group, these authors are planning some exciting new ways to engage with readers and writers.

Their energy is inspiring! Check out their website, http://bestsellingreads.com and see for yourself. I’ll endeavour to keep you up to date through this blog and my social media streams.

That’s all for this week. Check your email, RSS feed or however you get notifications on this blog for some exciting new announcements!

As always, I welcome your comments, questions and ideas. Let me know what you’re thinking.