I’ve been running quite a while between posts this summer. A lot of it has been immersion in readying the next book. I think I have said before that there will be a princess and castles, but no magic and no dragons. That is how the story will go, and the princess should make her appearance before the end of the year. It now looks like the cover art will come at the end of October, and that should be the last key piece. One of the things about self-publishing is that I am, essentially, assembling the production team that a traditional publisher would supply to an author. This means the editor(s), the cover artist, the person to format the files and so on. I realize it is possible – at least in theory – for the author to handle all of this themselves, but those aren’t my skill sets. And it all needs to mesh. So, the thickness of the spine is determined by the thickness of paper and the number of pages, which means the cover for the paperback can’t be done until there is a final page count – or really close approximation – and, hello Gantt chart! All of which is a long-winded way of saying that, between this work and drafting Leif’s next adventure, I haven’t been keeping up with posting. I should do better as we get into the fall and I will comment on what I have been reading when I do. That has also taken something of a back seat, but I have read some interesting books and will have some comments down the road.