The Long Lazy Summer That Isn't

My copies of Karda Adalta Vol I came for me to send to advance readers. And my grandsons came, to bicker. to eat endlessly, to strew very large shoes in my path, and to watch videos on their phones. 

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Actually, they’ve had a great time. Visits with other cousins, swimming, movies, a rafting trip with my daughter, Jeri, on the Illinois River on the edge of the Ozarks. Lots and lots of Coneys and pizza and hamburgers and fries and bickering. 

My car is pretty small—a convertible with a tiny back seat—and two of the boys are six feet and over and the other is not far behind. All of them have giant feet. If I live through this visit, next time I’m renting a real car so there will be room for their feet. They did enjoy the one day we could have the top down, hands in the air, yelling, laughing, except for the one who was embarrassed by his little brother and his older cousin. After that, they decided it was too hot.

So between driving the three of them around––everytime going through the “I call shotgun” “No, it’s my turn.” “No, I can’t fit back there” and so on and so on––trying to keep them fed, and attempting to convince them that chores were not cruel and unusual punishment, I worked.

I sent out my newsletter, worked on the list of people who wanted review copies––let me know if you want one. The edits to Hunter Adalta Vol II got done, and I rewrote the last three chapters. I managed to get Karda up on Amazon (that’s still not finished), got envelopes to mail the books––I didn’t get enough––addressed them, and as soon as my cards and things come from Vistaprint I can sign and mail them

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 I also went over edits to Chapter One of Falling, book three, and tried to work on Chapter Four. But I gave that up.

Before they came, I was reading Circe, the fantastic book by Madeline Miller, about the woman who turned Odysseus’ men into pigs when he was on his interminable way home to Penelope. Miller is a consummate wordsmith, no wonder the book hit #1 on the NYT bestseller list. If I could work words like she does—oh my, I wish I could. I’ll be glad when things get back to normal here, and I can get back to her book. Writers need to read writers, and she is one of the best.

But for now, Karda is available on Amazon, although there are still some issues to work out with them, and the official launch is not till July 28. 

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The writing life is exhausting. This is not a long, lazy, summer. But the boys got the GIANT BLACK WIDOW SPIDER out of the grill on the back porch, and I knocked off the GIANT WASP’S NEST which was empty and about an inch in diameter. Then they grilled hamburgers. It was quite the adventure.

Is it September yet?

Here’s Chapter 14 of Karda and a brief note about—well, stuff

This is the last chapter I will post. I am frantically working on getting the books up and running for publication next month.

It’s spring here, finally, and I’ve been working outside, planting all my pots with begonias, geraniums, petunias, sweet potato vine—did you know there are black sweet potato vines? 

My one small pot of herbs is doing great already. The sage plant is getting old and woody. The pot is slowly crumbling—I dare not move it. It's been in the same place on the porch there are violets growing out from under where it sits on the concrete. So next year I may have to plant a new sage. The chives, the thyme, the oregano I can repot, but the sage—not so much. Yesterday it was 95 degrees outside, and I had the top down on my car with the AC running. Today is cooler, but yes, summer heat approaches. We’ve had about three days of spring. It would be nice if summer could be cool, too. But—it’s Oklahoma. Probably not much chance of that. 

Enjoy this chapter and look for Karda and  Hunter—Vol II soon.

If you are not already signed up for my newsletters, please do so, because I want you to be the first to know when they are available. 

Here’s Chapter 14. Enjoy

Chapter 14

"Readen has assured me that there are no groups of marauders sheltering inside our borders." Roland looked to Readen. "Tell Altan what you found when you took the Mounted Patrol out there." He looked back at Altan. "He spent two tendays in the most deplorable conditions." His steward entered the room and stood behind him with a handful of papers. Roland flapped his hand at Readen in a come-on-tell-all motion and started going through the papers, carrying on a sotto-voce conversation with the steward.

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