6/08/2017

What a difference a year makes ....

I'm a father, a husband, a brother, a son, a friend, a writer, and, as always ... I'm a 


It's been a year since my wife Gail accepted a position at Landmark College, and we kicked around the idea of me writing full-time. Since that miraculous set of life-changing talks for all of us our life has been busy and filled with change and adjustments and joy and love and smiles, and some stress.


I've written somewhere around a quarter of a million words, working on various projects. I'm working on a collection of shorts and novellas, a fantasy novel, and a cookbook, while keeping the rest of the plates in a busy life spinning atop their various poles.


The idea for the collection, "A Long Line of Doors" came to me almost exactly a year ago, when we'd decided to make the move away from the ADKs and towards our new life ... I knew that life would be too busy for contiguous blocks of writing days (or even times), so I started making a list of story ideas I'd had; once I got started, they just kept coming.

A number of the stories are standalones, but some of them are a glimpse into the world of a new potential series ... all of them were fun to write.

The project I'm perhaps most excited about is "Oasis", the first book in a fantasy trilogy that's been kicking around in my head for a couple of years. It's filled with magic and magical places, monsters and old secrets, powerful wizards, dark intrigue, and a strong princess unjustly banished to a penal colony filled with the worst criminals in the whole world.

One of the things that attracted to the house we ended up buying was the fact that because it had at one point been subdivided, with an apartment downstairs, there's a spare kitchen down by my office. I spend a part of every day cooking (it also keeps me close to the coffee). I've had fun experimenting with some esoteric forms of food and drink, and can't wait to share my love for food and cooking with readers through the cookbook that's in the works.

Besides Gail, perhaps my biggest supporter on a daily basis is Miles, a rescue Labrador who's lived with us for most of a decade. He loves coming to work in the SmartPig office, and his unflagging moral support gives me strength when the words are hard to find.

Even with all that's going on, I've managed to keep the romance fresh with the love of my life, Gail (as can be seen in the Valentine's Day card I made for her this year). We're excited to be taking a trip to Amsterdam and Iceland later this month to celebrate the coming of our 20th anniversary of being married. 

None of the stories would ever have escaped the confines of my brain without the support and love of my partner in crime and life and love.


Thanks for reading! - Jamie