In other news

 I've been posting a lot lately about my new novel coming out. That's been exciting, and fun, and (like so many things) a steep learning curve. But the rest of life has not slowed down either!

We've enjoyed an amazing stretch of mild weather here in Minnesota. We have just a few more days, it sounds like, of high temperatures above freezing. That's good, because there are always lots of fall projects to do. Last night one of our horses got out of the pasture, so today we'll be checking fencelines. We've opened up a new section of pasture recently and I suspect she's finding a spot there to escape. 

A big task lately is getting ready for a new house. We bought a house late this summer and plan to move it here to the farm in the spring. There's a lot to do to get ready for that move. I took an afternoon off work this week to haul in some gravel and widen the approach where the house will be coming onto our property, and to trim some small trees that are in the way. We have a bit more of that work to do. We are still cleaning up from the late July windstorm that took down so many trees here. The biggest task will be putting in a basement. Planning for that occupies a lot of our conversation time lately.

Lisa and I were able to take a weekend to go up north for deer hunting. For the second year in a row, I failed to bring home venison during rifle season. Numbers of deer are way down up north due to a series of hard winters. We saw a few deer far away. It was good to be back on the farm where I grew up, and we were able to connect with a couple good friends while we were there. We continue to have deer on our farm, according to the trail cameras we have out, but the problem is they're all coming in at night. Hopefully that might change when the weather turns colder. I'm able to bowhunt through the end of December. So venison is still a possibility. 

I'm writing a little each morning, working on the second novel in a fantasy series. As we are learning about how best to release books and publicize them, we're able to apply some of that new knowledge to this project. And some of my spare minutes during the days are full of ideas for a sequel and / or a prequel to Disappointment Mountain. I'm also making plans with a couple good friends for a winter trip into the Boundary Waters. I'm very excited about that!

So in addition to releasing a novel, there is lots happening here!