So, ‘The Gray Man’s Journal’ was out to a publisher and the bad news is they are not buying it. The good news is that the editor wrote us personally to tell us that it was our strongest writing yet, he loved our slant on the genre. He went on to say that unfortunately they were already working with another book in the genre, have a limit to their production schedule and had to make hard decisions, so he would regretfully need to pass on it.
I never been thrilled by a rejection letter before, but I was very pleased with this one. Is that pathetic? Maybe.
We’re a little bit at loose ends at the moment what with Rear Guard off being edited. We’re using the time to take care of our badly neglected yard which had very much slipped into… uh… call it ‘White Trash Chic.’ Only without the ‘chic’ part. We disposed of an embarrassing amount of junk including two cars, cleared a lot of vegetation with the aid of a medieval farm tool, a little bribery and a seventeen year old’s inexhaustible energy. Today I removed and eight-foot section of fence and built a gate to replace it, of which I am inordinately proud.
Tomorrow morning bright and early we will swing wide that gate so a large truck can dump several tons of gravel into our front yard, which will be used to cover the open area in front of the house. This will keep the dogs from raising dust-storms every time they play. It will also keep the dogs from tracking in half the yard every time they go out in the coming Mud Season. For those of you unfamiliar with The Pacific Northwet ‘Mud Season’ is the name for the time of year known locally as ‘Not Summer.’
In between we are trying to catch up on ‘Lord of the North’ and contemplating cover art for ‘Rear Guard.’ I also have the Viking combat demo group to train, things to make in the shop…
Oh, and I almost forgot. The Foreword Saga Side-Quest Adventures 1 collection has come out, which features our novella ‘The Shield Maiden.’ Yay!