Sunday means... Housework!

I've noticed that most Sunday's seem to be the catch up day with housework for me. I rally the kids, and get them working on their chores, then balance the day between edits and housework. On top of that there's the traditional Sunday dinner - which means me digging in the freezer to see what I need to get ready!

By the end of the week I'll be able to send Esther her manuscript back, and Sam's prepping her proof copy of Terminal Hunter to send to her today. For those who don't know, we put interior art in our full length novels. Most of that artwork is provided by Sam, so he's kept very busy.

On top of that we had a distributor order to get out, which we managed to do on Friday! It's always all hands to the pump when we have a distributor order come in. Books have to be printed and bound. Games put together. Books and games shrink wrapped. Mini's packed. That's on top of any orders we have coming in from either our store or Amazon!

No wonder Sunday is catch up with housework day. Laundry, vacuuming, deep clean of bathrooms and kitchens (which we stay on top of during the week but a full bottom out once a week is a good idea). In between all of that, a few pages of edits when time permits.

So, time to dive into work!

Edits!

The title says it all. I'm knee deep in edits for another Under the Moon manuscript. This time from Esther Mitchell as part of her Underground series. The first two books, Tamia and Mindkiller are already on sale from Under the Moon (www.underthemoon.org) and the third, Terminal Hunter, will be released at the end of the month. Well, now I'm working on the fourth book, Hero's Hope.

I've never regretted the decision to launch Under the Moon, nor do I regret keeping the imprint small and personal. It allows me the time to work on each novel without being rushed. We are small and will remain small for a long time to come.

In between the edits, we've been working on Jack's reading. Jack is our youngest, 8 years old, and he has a form of high functioning autism. He loves reading, but he's a little behind on where he 'should' be. So, we spend time every day curled up with a book. He slowly tries to read the page and he's improving each day.

I'm also trying to find a little time to practice my artwork - as I'm trying to learn how to draw and paint. It's something I'm enjoying as it's a calm down time for me, and allows me to work on something creative even when I don't have time to work on a new story.

On top of all of this, the oven decided to play up! New one is now ordered but won't be here until next month. I can cope until then, as long as I don't try and do anything too fancy!

For those who don't know, I live in Minnesota, and normally this time of year means we've got several feet of snow out there. Not this time. There's barely a scrap of snow out there, though we've had a few small snow falls, and we've been hitting record high temperatures. I keep expecting to wake up one morning with ten foot of snow on the ground and Mother Nature laughing at everyone. It hit 52F a few days ago!

Back to edits!

New Year, New Beginnings

The last few years have been a little rough, in one way or another, but with 2012 a few things have changed. Some hard choices, some not so hard choices.

On the writing side, well right now I'm primarily focused on writing for the upcoming RPG's, as well as a few short stories. I'm hoping to find the time to write and submit a couple of novella's and at least one full length novel, but that is truly dependent on time!

There will, of course, always be edits and emails for the Under the Moon imprint, and I also work with my husband, Sam, in the physical creation of the books for Under the Moon, Mojocastle Press, and the game side of the company Final Sword Productions (including the imprint, Adastra).

With the licensed games for S.M. Stirling's Emberverse(Dies the Fire) and Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar also in the works, there are times I truly feel as if I need to find a cloning device.

On the difficult choices, well there have been some ups and downs with my eldest in the UK, and we were told, clearly, that he couldn't come and visit us (despite promises) unless my parents changed their entire plan, reduced the stay, and traveled during either the Independence Day weekend OR Labor Day weekend. Now, anyone with common sense knows those two weekends are taking your life in your hands, and increase the cost of the flights dramatically. In the case of my family, it would have meant an increase in cost of over 2000 pounds (close to $3000). When this was explained to the powers that be there was a 'so what' attitude.

I completely back my parents choice, and all being well I'll get to see my son in the coming years. But it won't be at the beck and call of the UK Social Work team, who truly appear to have lost all connection with reality.

Reading wise, well I finally joined Goodreads and my to be read list has jumped, dramatically.

Editing, I'm currently editing Remnant in the Stars by Cindy Keopp, and should have it back with her within the next few days. We're then gearing up to release Esther Mitchell's Terminal Hunter with Raven Bower's Rag's Beneath following a month later.

So, 2012 has started at full tilt for me, with no sign of slowing down!

Hope your 2012 is a good one!