The bad news is my two works in progress, ‘Red Rock Island’ and ‘Willow Glen Heist’ will not be published by the end of the year, but I’m hoping for a January launch date for both.
Yesterday, I finished my marathon landscape project. I converted over 1,000 square feet of thirsty lawn to about 200 drought tolerant plants and a vegetable garden. I also converted twenty-five sprinkler heads to drip irrigation or water saver heads. The pictures attached to this post show the vegetable garden and almost half of the converted space. Many of the water-wise plants are small at the moment - some were planted as bare roots and I’ve continuously tried to protect them from my 74 pound puppy’s exuberant chase of squirrels through the area. He also buried a few dog cookies shortly after I planted some plants perhaps thinking they were fertilizer?
The vegetable garden has been a revelation. I have about 9 fruit trees that I enjoyed picking the fruit from in the summer. Now I get pleasure from picking vegetables out of my garden everyday knowing exactly what’s on them (water) and whose hands have touched them prior to my consumption (just mine). The power of farming for oneself brings such joy!
So now it’s back to the keyboard to complete the stories. It helped that yesterday, I finished listening to Louise Penny’s ‘Bury Your Dead’. She wove the history of the early French explorer - Samuel de Champlain with some of the present day English-French friction in Quebec into a story of murder which is exactly what I’m trying to do with Castle Killing - weaving historical events from WWII into a story of murder. She’s one of my top 3 favorite writers because she has such a beautiful way with words.
Now with holidays approaching which are always very low key for me, I’ll be able to get some serious writing done. Hope everyone has a happy holiday, Merry Christmas, and a phenomenal New Year.
Thanks for following me,
Alec