Status Report

Where have the last six months gone?

It’s been a whirlwind of activity here… both with the book and life. I’m happy to report that I sent the newest tale of Malcolm’s adventures to my editor… and it didn’t suck! I’ve had a very hard time judging if this book would work and I was thrilled to get objective feedback about the book. My editor assured me that the book was in pretty good shape, but needed some tightening up and to explore the world more fully, which was something I thought might need work. To that end, I spent a weekend in an RV at a local KOA for my annual writing retreat and concentrated on it for two and a half days. Here’s a picture of my home away from home:

I’m still making tweaks for the next two weeks, but I’ve decided that other than copy editing changes, I’m going to send it out to beta readers at the end of September. I hope to take the feedback and get the book ready for publication by the end of October, so that it be available in time for Christmas. I still need to decide on a title, but be on the lookout for future announcements!

Music, Music, Music

As if I didn’t have enough going on between working full time and working on the book, music consumed me summer. From May, I played in four concert bands and two Big Bands. This translated to something like four parades, twelve concert band concerts, 10 Big Band gigs, and playing in the orchestra for a musical (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)! That doesn’t count rehearsals, that’s just the actual performances. Things have settled down on the music front for the time being, but rehearsals start soon to prepare for the Holiday season!

Roam If You Want To

We also did some travelling this summer (besides the writing retreat). At the end of June, the whole family spent a week in Lake Placid, our last family trip together, as my daughter has now left for Nova Scotia. My wife and I spent a long weekend in Canandaigua – originally to see Pat Benatar in concert which was cancelled. Instead, we took a cooking class at NY Kitchen where we made our own dinner. After spending the morning wondering around downtown Canandaigua, we stopped at a distillery owned by a winner of the Discovery Channel show Moonshiners and at a farm stand where we picked up blueberries.

Our big trip will happen later this month when we travel to Nova Scotia for my daughter’s wedding. We’re taking our time getting there and we plan to spend a day in Bar Harbor, Maine on our way home.

That’s all for now. Expect radio silence until I return from our excursion to Nova Scotia!

Happy Journeys!

Mike

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