Publishing, Co-writing, and Life

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

As you may have read in yesterday’s post, the book Jen and I wrote in winter 2021 has been accepted by a publisher. Renaissance Press is growing fast, lots of amazing authors, anthologies, and books. I wasn’t sure they’d have room for us.

This is going to be my 7th book (Book six Coffee Shop Between the ‘Verses comes out on September 15th.) and I’m always nervous about submitting. This is the first novel that I’ve submitted only to Renaissance, normally I go through the motions of sending them to agents, editors, and contests. I submitted Everdome to a dozen agents and twice as many companies. I received two nice rejections and a lot of silence. I realize that’s what it’s like to be an author. So glad Renaissance accepted this book and that we didn’t need to try to get it out to other, less open, publishers.

One of the joys of this book is the enthusiasm and excitement of my co-author. Her enthusiasm keeps me on track and excited while her excellent writing forces me to up my game. We each have strengths that compliment each other.

I assumed it would be very easy to tell who wrote what parts, but our styles must mesh well because most of our beta readers couldn’t tell which sections were mine and which were hers. I think that’s really cool and I look forward to writing more with her.

Now that this book has a contract we’re hoping to start work on the sequel soon. I’d like to get a little further into Elizabeth 4, which is taking me forever. So I’m hoping mid September or early October. Meanwhile, Jen has started a spin-off novel and we’ve written a short story collection.

Things are about to get really hectic here. Dragon and Jen have decided that it’s best for the kid to go to digital school full time in the Fall. That means a complete change in bedtime schedule for both kids. I foresee a lot of meltdowns and lack of sleep in late August and early September and that’s just for me.

Hopefully we’ll all be vaccinated by Christmas and Dragon can do her last semester of Kindergarten in person.

Stay Safe and be kind,

Éric

Life Moves Pretty Fast (Sometimes)

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Last Monday, I complained about not being able to get my appointment for a Covid vaccine. I managed to get an appointment for end of June on Tuesday and then Thursday, as I was grocery shopping, I got a notification from the PC Health app that I could get one on Saturday.

So I went from thinking I’d never get one to being worried about getting one to getting one in less than a week. So one shot out of two. I guess we’re 1/8th of the way there for the family. Hopefully by Christmas we’ll be 6/8th.

Book stuff

Great news. Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers, book one in The Gates of Westmeath series, has been submitted to my publisher. We should hear within 3 or so months if they’ll publish it. If they don’t, we’ll start submitting to agents and other publishers. We can worry about that later.

I’m slowly writing Elizabeth 4 and have re-written the outline and hopefully it’ll be finished this decade. Planning for book two of The Gates of Westmeath, Gangs! Incidental Wedding Guests, is well underway. Writing will start end of summer/early fall.

The short story collection is over 80,000 words and I still have 2-4 stories to write. Jen’s been prolific in her short story writing. The collection is called Stories! The Unexpected First Collection.

Like I mentioned on Friday, this coming Saturday is the cover reveal for my newest book, Stories Between the ‘Verses. Come check it out on Saturday! There will be prizes and readings.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Please, sir, I want some vaccine

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

The Ontario government said that this week (Week of May 17) the over 30 year olds would be able to book their vaccine.

Unlike most responsible people, I tried first thing at 7am after rolling out of bed. No coffee, no breakfast, not even my morning washroom usage.

Things went fantastically well. (I should have known it was too easy.) I booked an appointment for me and then I tried to book for my wife. She’s only 1.5 years younger so it should have been just as easy… right?

Nope.

She wasn’t eligible. So I tried my info again and I wasn’t eligible.

So now I had an appointment when I wasn’t supposed to and couldn’t get one for my wife.

What do I do? I called the provincial hotline. They were closed. I waited until they were supposed to be open. Sat through 5 minutes of information, pressed the buttons, was put on hold and the system hung up on me. It happened twice more and then I got to talk to a person.

The nice man at the call centre didn’t know how I got an appointment; we think I clicked something that I shouldn’t have. So he cancelled my appointment. I asked when I’d be eligible and he said he didn’t know.

Now I have no appointment and spent a stressful morning.

I’m sure this isn’t an indication of how the rest of the week will go. (Why do I hear boss music?)

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Ups and Downs

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I’m having a hard week. Winter feels interminable, we’re at the start of the third wave, vaccines are being distributed by a disorganized Flash (from Zootopia, not DC), and people are starting to discuss the possibility that maybe under 10 years of age kids don’t need a vaccine. Thankfully the medical community is pushing for it, but without public and government pushing, how long will it be?

I’m not comfortable exposing my children to Covid. Even though the chances are low that they get any serious side effects, I’m not willing to risk it.

Quarantine has its ups and downs; I’m currently experiencing a down. It’s been a hard week preceded by a hard weekend. Right now I want to curl into a ball and binge-watch Stargate SG1.

With time and patience it’ll get better, but right now I’m angry, frustrated, and just tired. I look forward to watching this thing (gestures around wildly at everything) from the future and being glad it’s over.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go make myself another coffee and hope it wakes me up and de-grumps me.

Enjoy this adorable picture of Pegasus stuck inside a chair.

Picture of the almost 20 month Pegasus stuck in a patio chair and giving me an annoyed look.
The chair is a metaphor…

Be safe and be kind,

Éric