Hey everyone!
The Mass Market Paperback edition of Summer's End is now available on Amazon (and will soon be at bookstores if not already there!). The price is less than the trade paperback (obviously) but it also means that the Kindle / ebook price has dropped as well!
So if you'd been holding off before, because the price was out of your budget, or if you simply forgot, now's the time to go check it out!
https://www.amazon.com/Summers-End-John-Van-Stry/dp/1982193107
I guess home-ownership, especially out in the country. We have these things out here called 'septic-systems'. I grew up with cesspools myself and they lasted a good long time. Septic systems need to be pumped out like every three (?) years. Got it done when we bought the house. Guy told me that with only two people we could go four years easy. That was last year and I called 'em to come pump, they never did, I forgot to follow up, etc.
So the other day I was like 'I smell swamp gas'. But best I could tell it wasn't us (it was late at night). But yesterday I called for a pump out, they had an opening for that day and I took it. Yeah, five and a half years was just on the edge of too long. Both of the first two tanks were full and I do mean, to the top.
Now the tank (or 'vault' as I guess they call it) is about 12 years old now. These things last, I don't know 20 years? Maybe longer? Then you have to get them pulled out and replaced? What the hell? If making them out of concrete is bad, why not make them out of something else? I do understand that waste is corrosive and all that. But still. A good cesspool in the right soil can last 40 to 50 years easy. Something that's getting pumped out every 3 or so years, you'd expect to last at least as long.
The drain cover on the shower broke. So far, no body makes that size anymore. This house was built in '11 and I can't get parts? WTH? I can only guess that all of the plumbing people have switched over to china since then and that, as with everything else, the Chinese make shit. We've probably spent over $50 at this point on stuff that's 'supposed to fit' but doesn't even come close.
Bark scorpions. Been killing about one of them a week now, INSIDE the house. No idea how the little buggers are getting in, but this is obviously the year of the Scorpion. First year here it was Ants. Then Crickets. Then millipedes, then wolf spiders, now we're on scorpions. It looks like next year is shaping up to be the year of the gecko.
I'm holding out for the year of hot housemaids, or good cooks.
The rainy season is upon us in Texas after 3 years of drought. (2.5 really, but this is a round up kinda thing). Almost all of the cracks are gone. Some of these I could stick my arm in up to my shoulder. They were wide, deep, and long. They'd go away in the winter, just barely, but we were getting so little rain that they kept coming back worse and worse. The first storm of the season this year dumped 5 inches. We got over 10 inches that week. But now I need to get the driveways repaired. That ain't gonna be cheap either. Sadly this house was laid out with two instead of one. No, I have no idea why.
The new heat and AC we had put in early in the year has been working like a champ. So that makes me happy. The solar power system, while expensive, has made a significant dent in the electric bill, and they just raised the price by twenty percent on everyone. So, definitely picked the right time.
I still haven't replaced the Ford Flex that got destroyed in June when I got hit. Still waiting for used car prices to regain some semblance of sanity. Then again, with the way our economy is going, that's probably not going to happen unit we get somebody who doesn't hate us and this country running things. I probably should raise my prices, but I really don't like doing that to people. I know a lot of others have and are charging a dollar or two more than me, but I just don't like doing that.
Stand Alone did very well and I've just started on the sequel. Ghost Warrior hasn't done as well. Which saddens me. But I promised Podium three books in that series, so it's gonna go at least that far. Hopefully it'll pick up.
I have another Valens Heritage book to write here soon, and I'll be doing another POI around February I think. I've honestly got too many simultaneous series going on suddenly, but part of that was I thought the Wolfhounds would go to a publisher and I'd only have to write a book every 4 months or so for them. Where now I need to write one probably every other month until it's done.
Yeah, screwed up my work schedule with that one!
The sequel to Summer's End goes out to my publisher at midnight. I finished it last week (a week late) and I'm waiting on feedback from my beta readers and such. I told them they had until the end of today to get it to me. Hopefully my publisher won't be mad at me for being late and hopefully they'll like it.
*fingers crossed*
