Hello June! :)

Good morning book lovers! It’s been a while since I’ve updated everyone on my own work, and I apologize. Things have been crazy here during track season and the end of the school year insanity, plus I have been working a lot.

2019 Track and Field

My son did make it on to the team this year. He participated in 3 events – the Long Jump, the 100 m Dash, and his specialty, the Shot Put. He and his other Special Athletes teammates improved in *all* events this year, but unfortunately, my son didn’t make it past the Districts at my old high school.

He still made the team. That’s all I cared about. We’re already discussing next year, and how some students from other schools trained with the really heavy balls so they’d throw the lighter ones a lot further. His coaches and Mrs. M (Grade 6 & 7 TA) know about it, and we’re now gearing up for training come next winter.

 

Panoramic view of the track and field at my old high school.
Bridgewater, NS

National Skills Competition, 2019 – Halifax, NS

Grade 8 students from all over Nova Scotia attended the National Skills Competition in Halifax this year. It’s a competition that covers pretty much all trades you can learn and be apprenticed in at community colleges and universities across the country. We saw people in Computer Programming, Culinary Arts, Aerospace Engineering, Plumbing, Carpentry, and Surveying, among so many other categories. Son was extremely interested in wood working, and surveying, as well as the computers and robotics. The people demonstrating and letting the kids get hands on experience were so good with him too… Thank you everyone!

We had so much fun, even if we were worn out after 3 hours of walking around the Halifax Exhibition Centre. It is a huge complex, but not big enough to hold everyone. They had their stables filled to the brim, and there were tents of exhibits/competitions outdoors.

This covered *every* province and territory in Canada. I thought it was just the provincial or Atlantic Canadian regionals… Seeing so much talent in one spot was amazing. It was awesome!

“For Zia” and Other Projects

For Zia (Book 2 of The Feathered Tartan Series) is still being written as we speak, but it’s been on the back burner for the last few weeks. I’m hoping to get back into that once school gets back in session come September.

In the meantime, I’ve been revising another manuscript, one I wrote a while ago. I never thought I’d be blowing the dust off this one and prepping it for publication… Never say never! LOL I’ve cut out a lot of the passive areas, set it to Canadian English (which is what eXtasy Books uses for its Canadian stories), set it to our House Rules, and changed it all to the main characters’ point of view. I’ve also turned the focus more to the romance, instead of general fiction.

Its original draft was over 74 K, and now it’s under 54 K in length. There was a *lot* of garbage in it. Thanks to a few pointers from a dear friend of mine (who is another eX/DD author), I saw a number of problems that were repeated through the entire manuscript.

I made three passes of revisions, and now it’s in the hands of my capable best friend/Peapod, Heather. She’s tough, and will give me kicks as I need them. Thank heavens for jeans with padding in the butt…

I’m hoping to have it submitted by the end of summer vacation, if not long before that. I don’t announce when I submit any manuscripts, I’m scared I’ll jinx myself. Same goes for saying which one it is. If it gets accepted, I’ll make a formal announcement either here or via a friends’ blog.

Something About Alexis is still on the back burner too. I’m not sure if that one will ever come out, and if it does, it won’t be for some time yet. I’m working on two series at the moment, and I’d love to get the second book in each (For Zia and Unknown Book) finished before I go near that manuscript. It needs tons more work than the one I just cleaned up. In fact, it should be fully rewritten. That’s how bad it looks right now.

That’s the gist of what’s happening for now. Hopefully things will settle down once school gets out in four weeks. I’m looking forward to some sunshine too, it’s been such a wet, cold spring. We need some sunshine and warm temperatures!

Have a great weekend everyone! I leave you with Angel Eyes by the Jeff Healey Band.