Remember me telling you about the Bluewater Bay universe? Yeah that. (I seem to be saying that a lot.)

When to Hold Them, my first Bluewater Bay story (and no.9 in the series) is now up for pre-order on the Riptide Publishing website. Release date is August 17th.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement, I recently signed a contract for another Bluewater Bay novel, scheduled for late 2016. This, since it has a deadline I really, really need to keep, is the book I’m mainly working on right now. Which isn’t to say the muse doesn’t occasionally feed me Tom/Matti tidbits, mind you. Or even pieces of the next Bengt/Alex story, which, damn, muse, stop trying to write all the books at once.
So, yeah, I’m slowly trying to let go of Xavier and Doran and getting to know Jack and Mark. Now you know what I’m up to these days.

In other news, I’m sorting ideas and cut scenes for the blog tour, I’m waiting for the print copies of TOSoW to arrive, and for some things to fall into place enough to be announced. Stay tuned.

Getting into the heads of new characters is like putting on new shoes. No matter how often you’ve seen them in the window or even handled them before, when you first slip in, they feel stiff and weird and alien. It takes a few miles of walking in them before they’re comfortable.

Same with characters. Even though these two have popped up in the previous book, writing them as POV characters is different. I have to consciously think about which way they would think/feel, and what they would do. It’s like a naggy tag in the neck of your shirt. Not actively painful, but ‘there’ in a way that’s distracting. It makes for slooow writing. Over the years I’ve learned to just write it anyway. That’s what rewrites are for; by which time the characters have become a second skin. Can’t wait for the feeling.

I’ve also gone over the beta edits for the Bluewater Bay novel and submitted that earlier this month (another tada).

So everything feels done, done.  I’m scribbling a sentence or paragraph here and there, but the muse has eaten too much chocolate and gingerbread (I also suspect she got into the rum we brought back from Cuba), and is idly twirling gift wrapping ribbons around her thumbs while I’m organizing files. I’ve long been planning to collect all the bits and pieces like plans, plot bunnies, orphaned scenes, half-written novels, and terrible first drafts into a private wiki, so I can find things back at a click when I’m looking for them. That is finally happening. It’s the classic year end clean-up that allows for a breather, sets a symbolic marker, and frees capacities for a fresh start.

In that spirit I’m toasting you with some rum-spiced eggnog and wish you all Happy Holidays and lots of cheer celebrating whatever you’re into.

The Bluewater Bay novel is out to betas. Which, since it’s due at the end of the year, is a huge weight off my chest.

And, while I’m waiting for the lines for Santuario II to come back, I started plotting another Santuario novel. It’s not, strictly speaking Santuario III yet, as it has a different main couple, and Alex and Bengt appear without carrying a POV. But it does deal with one of the open plot points of the first book. So, a spin-off? Tie-in? I’ll call it 2.5 aka Black Box for now. The muse couldn’t care less. She just really wants to write this one. One of the MCs is trans. We’re both pretty excited about that, since it touches ground close to home. I worked out a decent plot skeleton today, and will start a first research wave tomorrow. Wish me luck.

There’s this cabinet from probably somewhere around the turn of the last century. It’s no valuable antique by any means. My great-aunt had already used it as a paint cabinet in her (rather damp) cellar for 60+ years, and it’s sat in our carport as storage cum potting bench for another ten.

It’s a skeleton of a cabinet. A rotting skeleton at that with ample wood borer traces. But I’d kinda like to restore it. Or rather, make it into a usable kitchen cabinet that still retains some of it’s old-world charm. It’s too far gone for a proper restoration. It needs sundry parts replaced, and probably a sturdy re-enforcement of the back wall, if I don’t want it to collapse under whatever I put on top of it.

Anyway, today I cleaned it off and brought it inside, so I can keep working on it, even when the snow starts falling outside. So, that’s where I’ll be when I’m not writing. My man thinks I’m utterly demented, but he’s too much of a gentleman to say so. He even helped me bring it inside, which, I might add, means, middle of the living room. Yeah, he rocks. Hard.

When I’m writing, I’m currently re-writing. Bluewater Bay that is. Filling in holes, straightening plotlines, ironing out character motivations. Slowly, ever so slowly, it’s starting to turn from a first draft into a manuscript. Which is good, because I need to wrap it and get it out to betas, preferably before the line edits for Santuario II come back, which could be any day, now.

I’ve bashed my head against a suitable synopsis and blurb and all the other info that goes into the cover art request, ran it all by my most lovely dev editor last week, and the CAR for Santuario II went out on Saturday.  So, until I get the line edits back, I’m free again to do some work on the Bluewater Bay story.

Yeah. That.

I kinda stalled out on the first draft in the penultimate chapter, there. Not because I don’t know what’s going to happen, or how it ends, but because I have the uneasy feeling that underlying chara motivations changed somewhat, and that the whole build-up of that is a bit wonky. So, I’ve printed what I have so far and am doing rewrite notes early to regain a handle on things. Since the beginning of the week is supposed to be blessed with stunning weather, I’m planning extensive deck chair work. (Did I mention I love my job?)

Took a much needed day off yesterday in stunning weather. If you ever get a chance to hit any part of the Trans Canada Trail, whether on foot or by bike, do it.  So worth it. Glad we took lots of water, though. It was HOT. But it aired the brain out. I need that now and then.

So, diving back into chapter 18 with fresh vigour. I’m still not tired of the boys. Read: I’m not ready to let them go just yet. Glad I still have another book on the planning list for them. Don’t think these two will ever let me go completely.

Scrubbed one side and the stove, so we could at least make breakfast. We were meeting friends for an extended lunch/birthday thing and weren’t about to put that off to clean. We get a deer mouse or two every fall, when the weather turns cool, and it had been cool enough the week before to mimic fall. Set a trap that night, and it took less than an hour to catch a fat one. It was transported to the antipodes and told not to come back.

Now, I have an early warning system in the form of a single elbow mac, cleverly positioned between dishwasher and undersink cabinet, which is where the little buggers usually come up from the basement. The prognostic pasta had been carefully replaced Saturday night, but Sunday morning it was gone. Apparently the intruder had brought a friend.

After much cleaning of counters and everything on them during the day, we re-peanutbuttered and re-set the trap that night. We were engrossed in a movie (Snowpiercer – I recommend), when ka-clang, the second intruder got himself locked up. So, another eviction was set in motion

This time the monitory macaroni was gone before we’d even had time to scour the previous inmate’s prison cell (they’re filthy little buggers). But the seasoned mouse hunter is prepared. There was a second trap in the basement somewhere.

I was hunting for that when I found the snake droppings in the laundry room. I really don’t mind wildlife raiding the garden. But I was seriously getting fed up with the indoor zoo at this point. We’re reasonably sure it’s a garter snake, which is what we frequently see around the house. It prolly followed the mice inside, which is a good thing. That snake is working on oury side, here. But, man …

Monday morning we’d trapped the third mouse, but not before it had scouted out one of the counters, and left its little gifts there. Needless to say we’d both envisioned our long weekend to involve way less scrubbing. We’re apparently rid of the mice for now; the notable noodle was still present this morning. There might still be a garter snake in the basement, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s welcome to whatever it can catch down there.

So far, dev edits are going smoothly (I haven’t gotten to the hairier parts yet). I’m almost through chapter 7, just have to enlarge one scene for a tad more connective tissue. If this sounds like surgery, the analogy is not that far off.

There’s, of course, the possibility that I’m living in a fool’s paradise, and that I’m so happily gambolling along simply because I haven’t heard back from my editor yet. I choose to ignore that possibility. Onward ho!