Shell Creek Publishing

Good Books for Rainy Days

The end of October is nearly here and we are quickly approaching my favorite day of the year. No, not Halloween, the day I’m waiting for is the end of Daylight Savings Time, yay! I look forward to the increase in natural light in the early morning which will aid me in getting up to face the day. I have enough problem getting out of bed in winter, aka the Sleeping Season, so anything that helps me get up in the morning is mostly welcome. At least until a hibernation season is declared so we can all catch up on our sleep in January.

Our weather is finally changing to fall like temperatures. Everyone is enjoying the break from the summer heat and daytime highs in the 70’s. For me, I am even happier with cooler nights so I can sleep more easily.  This month my thoughts are about harvest time, even though we don’t really live in farm country.

I thought I’d provide a quick update for those who are interested in our books. I have finally finished my review of the sequel to Doing the E.T. Tango, which is a good feeling. There is still a lot of work to be done, the book is two separate stories which need to be merged. I also estimate that the word count is between 90,000 and 100,000 words, which is a lot more than we had planned. The next step will be merging the story and cutting it down to size, than editing, etc.

Time continues to fly by and September is almost half over. For the first part of this week, like many others, I remembered where I was seventeen years ago when the world changed. I have not seen the memorials in New York but I have seen a piece of that history here in California.

With the end of August, it is time for a new year to start. While January is one starting place, even though it was a long time ago, I link September with a fresh start and beginning again. A school year is starting over in a new grade, with brand-new supplies, different teachers and unfamiliar lessons. I enjoyed summer vacation but there was a sense of expectation when a new school year started.

As I write this, it is the middle of August, close to the start of the school year and the end of summer. Yet it’s still hot, the heat baking up from the concrete and blacktop when I move outside. Shade provides some relief but not with cooler temperatures, just a break from the sun beating down in a clear blue sky. The air conditioning runs non-stop, blowing cool air through the house but also a sense of cabin fever in closed up buildings.

Normally I would publish the next installment of the “Year 2038 Bug” story this week. Unfortunately, I have not written that installment yet, although I have the outline in my head. The next chapter, about Brian, is waiting for me to sit down and type it up. Since I have been busy working on another book, which I would like to finish soon, I have not been focused on Year 2038. I plan to work on the next chapter next week, and I will post it once it’s ready.

Our summer has been quiet and the weather hasn’t been bad. We had one day of record breaking temperatures and a few more days of really hot weather but most of the summer has been pleasant. When my son and I walked the other evening, there was a slight breeze on the trail and a few clouds gliding by in the sky overhead. While we don’t usually get thunderstorms we do get monsoonal flow, which is why there were a lot of clouds. In the afternoon, they build up and tease us with possible thunderstorms, huge clouds building up over the mountains.

With the Fourth of July holiday and a heatwave, I’m running slower than usual on my updates for the blog. As I reviewed the latest chapter for Year 2038 bug, I thought about the next direction for the story. I also thought about the slowness of publishing these chapters once a month, it can be difficult to keep up with the characters and the story. I continue to make notes about parts that will need filling out for the final version.