Vacation!

_{Look at that lawn! (You can’t see the mud from this angle.)}

That’s our back patio in the picture. Doesn’t it look inviting on a sunny spring day like today? You’d think we would spend a lot of time out there. But you’d think wrong. A few minutes ago, a family walked by, and one of their little toddlers broke away from her mom and darted onto our patio. Mom quickly rushed over to collect her and apologize for the intrusion (we laughed and said it was okay). And that kid has now spent more time on our patio than we have this year. Sad but true.

Here at Unicorn HQ, we’re on vacation this week. S and I walked to a local restaurant for brunch a few hours ago, because it’s a beautiful day out there. After three straight days of rain, the sun finally came out yesterday, so I hurried up and mowed the lawn. And I nearly got the lawnmower stuck in the mud in our backyard, because that’s how much rain we’ve gotten this past week.

Right now, we’re down in our library, which is a lovely place to write. We’ve got the windows open and we’ve cranked up some Bach really loud to share with the neighbors. Later, we might make some lemonade and put whiskey in it. Yep, we’re living the dream here.

Today, S is planning to finish her revisions of Called to Account (the first book in our next series, Years of Exile). As we’ve mentioned before, she’s not simply revising the original book, but adding new chapters from the POV of fan favorite character Presley Kemp. I think adding Presley to the book is an excellent idea. The only reason he wasn’t in it to begin with is that he didn’t exist when I wrote the first draft. But Presley is an accountant, and this book is about (among other things) somebody founding a bank. (The original subtitle for the book is “A Novel of Epic Banking,” in fact.) So, obviously Presley has to be part of it.

Meanwhile, I’m doing yet another pass of revisions on our Reign of the Eagle books. I know you’re thinking, “But J, haven’t you released all the books in that series?” And my answer, astute reader, is, “Yes, but we try to do one more pass before putting them out in print.” Not that we don’t proofread carefully before releasing an ebook, but when it’s going to be in physical form, and we’re going to ask people to pay $17 or $18 for it, we want to make extra specially sure there aren’t any little typos or formatting errors.

Also, once each book comes out in paperback, we give a copy to my mom. And like me, she used to be an English teacher, so it would be kind-of embarrassing for her to find mistakes in them.

Speaking of our books in print, the first book in the Reign of the Eagle series, Black Eagle Rising, is coming soon in paperback! Isn’t that exciting? You’ll be able to display it proudly on your bookshelf right alongside our previous series, Of Duty and Silver. And you can buy extra copies and give them to your friends, because everyone loves the gift of epic fantasy. Or at least all the cool kids do.

J