Boy oh boy, when things change, they change fast.

Last week I got the incredible offer for a 36 month rotational stint in Iwakuni, Japan.  I took it.  Which means, in short, that I have to find homes for all the animals, sell the house, CLEAN OUT the house, get my surgery, recoup in the alloted time, and hop on a plane to Japan.  We plan to leave late November, early December.

So basically, everything else in my life is on hold.  We are still going out to Colorado early Sept., hope to sell some more books and see the property, but other than that, I am gung-ho on finding places for the horses and getting the house fixed up as best as I can before the surgery on the 23rd of September.  So any more book-writing, oil painting, what-have-you, is going to have to wait.

I'm scared and excited, but mostly excited.  It's a great opportunity.  We wanted to sell our house anyway and buy something else, and I kept saying I had no earthly right to have five horses when I barely rode even one, so now we have a chance to simplify our lives.  When we get to Japan, we plan to travel to as many countries as we have time for, and I plan to write a lot and paint.  It's gonna be cool.

Will write more later--right now I have some walls to paint!!

Fust wanted to give a quick shout out to our awesome caver buddies Allan Weberg and Meredith Hall Johnson (now Weberg, I guess!) who got married today.  What a wonderful wedding, and Allan's chorus was just amazing.  We had a great time! 

I decided to paint them a picture for their wedding with a cave in it, and have included a picture of it here.  Hopefully, they won't read this blog before they open it!!  But it has reinstilled the painting bug, and since I'm going to have surgery on my foot in September and will be laid up for a while, I figure now's a good time to start.  One of my goals before I die is to put some pictures in an art gallery, so I've gotta get a portfolio together.  And I think painting caves will be a challenge, and a nice little niche.  I hope to put a portfolio page on my website soon, but have to get cracking on some more pictures first!! :)

Anyway, a kind of blurry photo of the painting is above!!

Nikki

I am attending my first science fiction/fantasy writer's convention next weekend.   Of course, I'm more of a tagalong--Steve is the one that is actually invited as a guest since he's done all the artwork for Peter Prellwetz's ANGEL OF ST. THOMAS.  But, since he's a guest, that means he can promote the heck out of THE LOST KINGDOM while he's at it, and I can go sit at the table too.

We might not have the same amount of saleability here as Steve does at the anime conventions.  We sold out  of booksthe last two anime conventions.   Steve stuffs as many books as he can in his luggage and carry-on, and it doesn't seem to be enough!!  Which makes me feel good, although right now I think the book is getting bought mostly because Steve is an awesome sales person and he illustrated the book.  Hopefully, people will like the content of the book, and it'll start selling on the merit of the story as well as the awesome illustrations.

But we are very excited!!  It has been a fun endeavor so far.  I'm excited to attend this convention just to meet people and hopefully learn a thing or two.  Then, in September we're off to Colorado and I know the book will do well there too!

Had a really fun weekend with the BATS crew last weekend.  We went inner tubing down the Shennendoah, and it was an incredibly relaxing day, although now I'm sunburned like crazy!! :(  But it was well worth it.

Hot as Hades here in Virginia, so I haven't been doing much with the poor horses.  THey're all doing well though.  Stewie climbed up on the bridge on his own the other day (with just a little prompting from me, but I didn't have a halter or rope on him) and he walked all the way across it.  I was impressed.  I plan to start him in the halter soon.  He'll be three months old this Friday, I can't believe it!!

Nikki

Well, it's been a kind of lazy summer here.  Now that we're through with all the crazy contests and getting THE LOST KINGDOM in published form, I'm slowing down a bit.  We will be promoting the book at both Metrocon in Tampa Florida next weekend and in TrineC*con9, a sci-fi/fantasy writer's convention in Raleigh-Durham the following weekend.

On the home front, it is still HOT here! and my poor front lawn hasn't been mowed all year because our lawn tractor has been in the shop for ages.  Luckily, I live out in the country and don't feel too guilty on having a jungle for a front yard (I just tell everybody I'm saving on gas by not cutting it)  I'm hoping to fence the whole property in this year so the horses can be my natural mowers, but haven't had the funds or the time to do the front yet.

Stewie is doing awesome, he is such a great little colt.  I finally bought him a halter, but it's a little too big, although he doesn't need it right now anyway.  I have moved to a rope that goes over his back and between his front legs, and I can lead him in & out of the stall, over logs, and he'll put his front feet on the bridge.  He does all the Parelli  7 games--friendly, porcupine, driving, sideways, circling and squeeze with this rope, and I can pick up all 4 feet and throw ropes, saddle blankets, etc. over his back.  ANd he likes the fly spray too.  What a boy!!  So I'll switch to the halter in maybe a month or so.

That's about it for now!  We're going to see INDIANA JONES with the family, and I've got bread in the oven, so I'd better get off the computer and get going!

Hey folks!!

Well, the bookhabit competition is over.  We didn't win, but there were some really great books we were up against.  The novel that won was a historical biography.  I don't know if anybody had a chance to read any of the first chapters, but I was very impressed by them.  There was one other young adult fantasy in the top ten, everything else was either nonfiction (2 autobiography-type books, and the historical one that won) or adult fiction.

But if you've visited the website, you know we have the paperback ready for sale as well as the e-book!!  The paperback will soon hopefully be on sale at Amazon.com also, but right now it's just available at our e-store.

Hope you all enjoy!!  I'm almost done with the 2nd draft on the sequel, it's turning out really good (or so I think! :)  )

Talk to everybody later!!

Nikki