A Fantastic Feast!

The weather has been changing here in Ohio this past week. We had a couple of hot days, but now, it’s a wonderful mid-seventies and sunny. The sinus headaches due to the change have passed (I hope). Yesterday we had some friends over for a crab boil, much like we did last year. Unlike last year, everyone has mostly stayed healthy and uninjured. My husband calls these gatherings “Family, Friends, Food, and Fun!” And it definitely was all of the above. Isis’ “boyfriend” even came over. 😀

Isis and her buddy

Earlier this week, I’ve mostly been busy preparing for the release of my newest novel, Time’s Best Friend, which releases tomorrow, September 21. My publisher plans to raise the price from its preorder sale in a couple of days, so if you’re thinking about giving it a try, get it soon. Isis has, as usual, been preparing by practicing lots of ball catching. The other night, she even fell asleep with the ball in her mouth (and snored around it, LOL!). I still had a chance to read, too, but did not yet finish the novel I started a couple of weeks ago (and it’s fantastic, so that’s more a reflection on how much I’ve been doing than on the novel).

What I read this week: I didn’t finish the novel, but I did squeeze in a short story. “Donald Trump: Zombie Hunter” by Jon Davidson looked too funny to resist, so I gave it a look. It did not disappoint! Even better, with the level of absurdity therein, it’s funny no matter where you sit on the political spectrum, and well worth the $.99 it cost. All it lacked was a decent cover.

ROW80 Update: This past week went well, though I slacked off on the writing earlier this week so had to push it a bit yesterday. But I got 2500 words in before the gathering, so all good and goal met! Round Three ends this week, so this is also my quarterly wrapup. Here’s what I laid out as my goals back in July, and how I did:

• Work with my publisher to get Time’s Enemy made free for promotional purposes. DONE!
• Make changes suggested by my beta readers that I agree with on my upcoming release, and submit it to my publisher. DONE!
• Make changes suggested by my editor, and approve for publication! DONE!
• Dig back in to my next Saturn Society novel that’s about half finished, revise the outline, and complete the first draft. Not done/goal changed.
• Send out newsletter once a month (maybe twice if I have major news). DONE!

It was an ambitious plan, but I accomplished four out of the five items on the list. The last one changed due to some feedback from my beta readers on the current release. There was a bit of backstory in that book that they wanted to see more fully developed, but not in that book (which was already long enough, and the backstory would have just been a side trip). Instead, they suggested writing it in a tie-in novella. So that was the changed goal. While I would have liked to finish drafting the novella, edits and proofreading my galleys took longer than I thought. I did get it completely outlined and am about 1/4 of the way through it. So that’s what I call a successful fail!

What about you–how has the weather been in your area? Have you ever done or attended a crab boil? Read any good books lately? How are you doing on whatever goals you may have set for yourself? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.