The month started slow with home repairs and renovation. The dust hasn’t settled yet but the place looks pretty good.

Status

Shackleford House
I’m slowly unraveling the Gordian knot. I’ve written close to 150k words that never worked right. Just this past week, I think I’ve figured out why. Every story needs a focus. The focus I had – the cat – was the wrong one for the story I needed to write. Here’s hoping I’ve finally gotten the correct one.

Tanyth Fairport
As reported last month, the Tanyth Fairport audiobooks have been pulled from publication. Spotify hijinks made me flinch. I’m still looking to resolve this problem and get the books back out so you can get them.

What Am I Reading?

June was Melissa McShane month here. I worked through her Last Oracle series and then browsed a large collection of samples looking for something I could recommend. Must be something about oracles because I’ve just started T. J. Deschamps’s Westside Oracle, Book 1 of Midlife Olympians: The Oracle Chronicles. I’m a sucker for a wisecracking main character and the midlife magic stories always appeal to me – for obvious reasons.

Lydia Kourakos, aka Madame Francine, gets booted from her old, uncomfortable, but barely tolerable life into the political maelstrom of Olympus with all the Greek pantheon playing their roles. So far I’m loving this re-imagining of the mythology including a bad-ass Persephone and a scorching hot Hermes.

I’m settling in for the long haul with this series. Perhaps you might grab a sample to see if you might like it, too.

About the Newsletter
I’m still publishing them on the 15th of the month. They’re not all getting delivered but you don’t need to subscribe to get a mid-month update from me. You can find them archived on my ConvertKit public page.

Looking Ahead

It feels like I’m seeing more clearly lately. Maybe it’s just that things are beginning to settle out. I started getting more regular with my morning walks. They really do help but only if I take them. Funny how that works, eh?

In other news, I have hearing aids now. That’s not terribly newsworthy but I bring it up because they’re like magic. The world’s most expensive ear buds but they sync up with my phone and whatever computer I’m sitting in front of at the moment. It’s only been a couple of weeks but they’ve improved my quality of life in ways I never would have anticipated.

Getting the house in order. Getting my hearing improved. Just getting things straightened out seems to be helping me comb out the snarls in my writing and that feels pretty darn good.

Here’s hoping that trend continues.

Until next month, safe voyage.

N

Big doin’s around the household here on the cusp of the month. I’m afraid writing took a backseat.

Status

Shackleford House
Still on the word processor, in my notebooks, and on my mind. The Wizard’s Cat will, eventually, find a lap to sit in.

Everything Else
Nothing has changed in the last month. I still need to get the Tanyth audiobooks straightened out after the Spotify fiasco. I still want to get back to her universe and find out what’s been happening. I’m sure I can find stories about how two captains live in one ship. Eventually.

What Am I Reading?

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you know already. Melissa McShane. I’d just started that series after finishing up with Rex Burke last month and I’m finishing book nine now. I love the world building. The characters keep me coming back to find out what happens next. I think this is the last one so I’ll be released into the wild again, looking for a new author for next month.

So I had to back up to the end of April to find Melissa J. Kincaid’s Strings of Fate series. A bit of a darker tale than I’m usually interested in, but – as always – the characters drew me in. Honestly, this series ticks a lot of the “nope” boxes for me but the sample hooked me in.

I mean, what do you do if everything you thought you knew, everything you believed in, turned out to be – perhaps – untrue. What if Fate wasn’t certain?

Lots of romance in this one. Lots of fighting and violence. Gods, Fae, kings, assassins, and a deeply held secret of magic.

Not for everybody but I really liked this one.

Don’t take my word for it, though. Grab a sample and see what you think.

Speaking of Newsletters
As I said last month, delivery has become rather spotty.

I’m still publishing them on the 15th of the month but if you don’t want to subscribe but still get a mid-month update from me, you can find them archived on my ConvertKit public page.

Looking Ahead

The last couple of weeks have eaten me up as we prepare the house for a major facelift. It’s way past time that the place got painted and spiffed up. I thought it would be “call a company and let them deal with it.” Not quite but I think the end result will be worth the disruption and pain. It’s not over yet but should be in the next week or so. The place has been good to us and it’s past time we gave a little of that back.

I think that effort on the house has bled over into me. What have I been neglecting? Where is my siding loose or warped? What’s overgrown and needs pruning? It’s taking time and focus, but I think it’ll be worthwhile in the long run.

Until next month, safe voyage.

-N

The writing mo-jo seems to be sprouting again. My process has radically changed and I’m stumbling along but making progress. Slowly, but it’s progress.

Status

Shackleford House
The Wizard’s Cat is finally showing some promise. My days of throwing words against the page for hours appear to be behind me but the words that eventually make it feel better to me. Fingers crossed on this one.

Golden Age of the Solar Clipper
I expect I’ll get back here eventually. I’m not letting myself think too much about it until I get done with the Cat.

Tanyth Fairport Adventures
Her audiobooks got caught up in a fiasco when Spotify bought FindAaway Voices and placed onerous terms of service on those of us who use the service. I was unable to accept them so I’m having to find a new way to distribute the books. It’s in the works. A few people have asked about new stories for her and I haven’t forgotten. She seems out of reach at the moment but who knows what might come.

What Am I Reading?

I had a very space opera April with most of my reading being about adventures in space in one form or another.

At the moment I’m into book three of Rex Burkes’s Odyssey Earth. The series feels a bit like a cross between Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and perhaps some Terry Pratchett. Very British humor. Quite dry in places and often sarcastic. Very much fun.

As ever, it’s the characters that do drag me along. Jordan Booth, awakened ahead of schedule from his cryo-sleep, makes for a fun bumbler surrounded by a cast of wisecracking teens who would never have been onboard the ship at all had things gone as planned. That’s just the opener. After that it gets complicated.

Props to Burke who manages to take what might be a slapstick sketch and periodically tugs on heartstrings. Everything is not both hunky and dory aboard the Odyssey Earth. When they get to where their 17 year voyage takes them, things get a bit interesting. As they should.

But, also as ever, don’t take my word for it. Maybe grab a sample of Orphan Planet and start the voyage yourself.

Speaking of Newsletters
Delivery has become rather spotty. Between Google driven changes to what it accepts as valid email address, what some email providers are doing on their own, and just “the internet being the internet” some subscribers are not getting emails. They’re bouncing at the server level.

I’m still publishing them on the 15th of the month but if you don’t want to subscribe but still get a mid-month update from me, you can find them archived on my ConvertKit public page.

Looking Ahead

I still have work to do. Still trying to get back into walking after that whole thing derailed last fall. Still trying to nudge The Wizard’s Cat into shape. If I’m honest, still healing.

I haven’t given up. Haven’t retired. I still write every day, if only a little. I’m still baking bread. I’m still playing with fountain pens and eBay. Still trying to find a new process that I can trust to get the writing machine rumbling again. If, indeed, the new process is a machine instead of something more human.

One day at a time and tomorrow’s always another day.

Until next time, safe voyage.

-N