June Update: When Life Happens

Hey everyone!

May brought us the usual mix of progress and surprises—successful markets despite challenging weather, steady work on "Wolfe's Blood" despite life throwing us some curveballs and the kind of schedule reshuffling that reminds us that writing doesn't happen in a vacuum.

What We're Doing

Festival Weather and Friendly Faces

The Cathedral Village Arts Festival was as successful as always, though Mother Nature decided to test our dedication. We spent most of the day shivering beside the cathedral while a cold wind whipped through our tent, fighting to keep our books, sign, and tent itself from taking flight. The irony? People ten feet away in the sunshine were getting sunburned while David tried to sign books with shaking hands!

Eventually, some of David's former students came to our rescue, helping us secure everything before we lost our entire display to the wind. Despite the weather drama, sales were excellent—our first book continues to outsell the others, and we had the usual delightful mix of loyal readers adding to their collections and new faces discovering Charlie and Tony for the first time.

We're always touched when people stop to tell us how much they enjoyed our books. Those moments make the cold wind and book-wrestling completely worth it. We also fielded the usual questions about Book 5—when's it coming out, where can we get it? We keep saying it's on its way, we're doing our best, but life has required some reprioritizing.

Writing Reality Check

We've maintained our morning meetings, making steady progress on "Wolfe's Blood" while juggling David's teaching prep and some significant personal responsibilities. Here's the truth: someone important to David has needed considerable time and attention. When that happens, you look at everything on your plate and make hard choices about what must be done versus what can wait.

Some deadlines are non-negotiable, others are softer. The book falls into the softer category, so we've focused where we're needed most. We're on part four of five, so we don't have much left. We still meet and discuss the story, and Angie continues reading through completed chapters, but our pace has slowed.

We often talk about someday writing a consistent 300 words a day—just one page. It sounds almost too modest, but it's manageable and would add up over time. We're not there yet with this book, but the goal persists.

Summer Shifts

Now that the books are at Angie's, she gets to do the counting and inventory for markets. She finds it pretty cool to organize and keep track, and it appeals to the teacher part of her. The other benefit is the mini workouts carrying the books from storage to the car—books are not a light product!

As June unfolds, we're preparing for David's daughter to graduate from McGill before heading off to explore the world. It's exciting and bittersweet—what a way to launch into post-education life! Meanwhile, Angie steps away from teaching for summer break, giving her more time to read and reflect on "Wolfe's Blood" while we figure out our path forward.

We hope everyone finds time this summer to rest, feel the heat on their skin, and embrace whatever life brings their way.

Until next time, happy reading!

Angie & David