Independence Day Weekend & General Updatery

Wow, I've been a blogging fool lately! Who knew? :-D

Lots of good stuff happened this past weekend, and I was sorry to see the holiday end.

1. We had Reno's folks over for the day on Saturday, July 2. I made Beer-Battered Cod (with made-from-scratch batter, not the lazy, cheater packaged stuff) and the most incredible homemade New England Clam Chowdah Chowder in the history of the civilized world. Steamed corn-on-the-cob and a garden salad completed the meal, with (not homemade because I hate baking) Boston Cream Pie (giggling on account of I'm twelve) for dessert.

Oh, and two gallons of sangria with a ton of fresh fruit added (orange slices, whole berries, bite-sized chunks of pear and apple), which we managed to decimate in one day, and all without producing a hangover on the next. Helpful Hint: Drink a tall glass of water between each alcoholic drink, and another glass of water before going to bed to eliminate or at least minimize day-after hangover symptoms, which are mostly a result of dehydration. Take it from an expert.  

While the clams were steaming for the chowder, I checked my email and found I had a flattering request from Wave at Reviews by Jessewave for me to become a member of her "author contributor" team. I'll be doing a regular blog post every 2 – 3 months on some random topic pertaining to M/M romance, gay fiction, or gayness in general, more often than not keeping to the lighter side of things, but don't hold me to that—I can be serious sometimes, honest! I hope Wave's readers will give me some ideas on what they'd like to see me address. Here's a link to Wave's welcome-aboard post, new on her blog today. http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/2011/07/06/announcement-jaye-valentine-3/

On Saturday evening, we were treated to a wonderful fireworks display on our community's private, lakeside beach (which is practically on our front doorstep). We initially thought this was our community's official celebration bumped up a day early due to a forecast of bad weather for Sunday night, but it wasn't. As we found out on Sunday night (the weather report was wrong, as usual around here—how do those guys keep their jobs?), the previous night's fireworks were attributed to "Oh, that was just Fred." Well, Fred did a damn good job, and I'm so happy that Reno's parents were able to experience first-hand the total awesomeness that is our new neighborhood. I think seeing what an amazing place this is to live helped make up for the fact that Reno's a little farther away from them now than they would prefer. "Deliriously happy kid" balances out that hour-and-a-quarter drive.

2. Sunday was another awesome day, though far less busy. I didn't have to cook due the presence of massive quantities of leftovers from the day before (I tend to cook for a small army when company is coming). We ventured up to the main road mid-morning to replenish our depleted sangria supply, and we were feeling no pain by the time a neighbor knocked on our front door around 9:00 p.m. to inform us the official fireworks were about to begin. So, we staggered skipped down to the beach and holy mackerel, the fireworks were fantastic, exploding directly over our heads and reflecting on the lake. I had one of my frequent "moving here was the best thing we ever did" moments, and became a little teary-eyed. I blame the sangria.

3. The 4^th of July turned out to be a relatively quiet day, although I did manage to finish a blog post I'd been working on, struggling over, and having internal angst-fests about for two weeks. If you want to hear about the historical novel Reno and I have been writing, and read a long excerpt (7,900 words) from the story, you can do so here. ===> http://www.macleodvalentine.com/3/post/2011/07/background-and-excerpt-of-our-forthcoming-historical-novel.html

4. Reno took Tuesday off from the day gig, and we managed to get some writing done. Unfortunately, I woke up in the morning with a painful stiff neck/shoulder, so I wasn't able to sit at the computer very long, and my focus was more on how bad my damn neck hurt and not on the writing. I blame the lack of sangria. Still, despite a very busy weekend, we managed to add another 2,000 words to the book, which makes me happy.

5. Now that I've caught up on some other things and with the big holiday weekend past, I'm getting back to work today on revising and re-editing StarCrossed 3: Objects in the Mirror. I've already completed the revision/re-edit on StarCrossed 2: Opposite Ends of the Spectrum. Boy, did they need it, and that's all I'm going say on that topic. Once I'm finished with StarCrossed 3 (which will be in the next few days), I'll be putting them both up for sale at all the usual places. I'm excited for our StarCrossed series to be available for the first time in all same places now that we are in control of distribution, rather than a title here, a title there.

The only online store that won't have any of the StarCrossed books is the Amazon Kindle store, due to the twincest element. Bad, Jace and Konnor, bad!  The Kindle formats of the StarCrossed books will be available at AllRomanceEbooks.com for the enjoyment of all you darling perverts. :-)

More news later. Have a nice Hump Day, everyone.

--Jaye