Though things have been quiet over here on this blog, the Dark Creek Chronicles farm blog has been busy, busy, busy. I supposed part of that has to do with the fact that fall on the farm is crazy busy, so there's always stuff to write about. And, maybe it's easier to write about life on the farm than it is to come up with something new to say about the writing of books biz.
Razor's Edge is out (yay!) - and, despite the oddness of the cover colour when I upload the image, it matches
Venom very nicely in real life. There should have been a third book to round out the set, but you know me and trilogies - I can't seem to count to three. And by the way, for readers who send nasty letters suggesting ways they'd like to see me suffer for my crime of not yet having finished the third of the Estorian Chronicles series, your names have been duly noted. Watch for yourselves in a torture chamber in a future book. As for Jo in that other series without a conclusion, rest assured she is doing well up in Barkerville, making way more money than I am here.
As for the most recent missing third volume,
Broken, nothing about that book is proceeding as per the plan. And that includes the title, which is no longer
Broken but is now either
Awake Enough to Know or maybe
Unintended Consequences or perhaps
Some Kind of Normal or possibly
Lifting the Weight. Not only does the book no longer have a title, it has morphed from a short, upbeat, straightforward member of the
Orca Sports series for reluctant teen readers into a full length, stand-alone, terribly depressing novel that has been taken over by a character meant only to be peripheral to the plot... Sigh. How does this happen, I ask you? Is the author not supposed to have some kind of control over this process?
The good news is that the manuscript has not been tossed by Orca and, instead, has found a new place in a completely different section of the catalogue. I have the latest draft back and am about to launch into another rewrite. This, though, will wait until after I have feasted (tomorrow, we're doing our turkey dinner early) and gone sailing (on my brother's new sailboat on Sunday, hence the early turkey). After that, I should feel like I've had a bit of a holiday and should be able to return to work fortified.
The most interesting thing about working on this book is how utterly miserable it has been spending time inside the head of a severely depressed teenager. I will be so very glad when the project is finished and I can turn my attention back to something a little more ... chirpy.
To all you Canucks out there, have a great Thanksgiving weekend!
Life doesn't get much better... 
This wasn't where we were supposed to wind up yesterday! Poor Dani had an unfortunate landing when dismounting during a vaulting demonstration at Metchosin Days. After being tended to by several lovely firemen, including one on whom she unceremoniously threw up, we headed off to the Victoria General Hospital for an X-ray.
we spotted one, two, three deer trotting along Quadra Street! The third one was just behind these two fellows. Just after we passed, the three adventurers headed across the street, halting traffic in both directions. All crossed safely and we proceeded directly to Cafe Brio on Fort Street. Oh my, what a glorious meal that was! Should you ever have a chance - GO!
Last week we took delivery of 16,000 or so honey bees... Here's Jane playing 'spot the queen' with her new... swarm? Herd? Cluster? Bunch 'o bees...
First duck eggs (found another in the orchard!) and now Kashmir underfluff. I'm sure there is a more technical term for the super-fine undercoat the Kashmir goats are shedding. We've found the dog shedding blade-comb-thingy to be extremely effective in teasing out the loose undercoat. This year the harvest is much better than last. Next on the list of equipment to acquire is a spinning wheel... not long after that, socks!
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