I’m a big fan of chickens and tend to not eat a lot of meat, but winner winner chicken dinner just rolls off the tongue, sorta. It’s a bit of a mouthful.

As indicated in earlier posts, I’m offering a free signed copy of the 5th book for the person that can get the closest to guessing the word count (without going over) of Burnt Mountain When Heroes Fall. Your range to choose from is 90,000 and 100,000 words. My friend, Joel, got the first guess in at 98765, so that number is taken.

I finished the rest of the little tweaky typo edits yesterday and have sent the stuff off for the cover art. A few weeks ago I entered the fourth book in the New England Book Festival, so I should hear something back about that in a month or so. Here’s hoping I get some good news from that soon. I could stand another trip down to Boston. 🙂

So get your word count guesses in through fb or the web site comments section. I’ll read ’em all. One guess per person, so if you have more than one person in your household, here’s your chance to get a few more guesses and a shot at a free book. I’ll announce the winner on Nov 26.

Image from sxc.hu

Firstly, if you know what Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em means, you’ve just dated yourself. Welcome to, at least, middle age! 🙂

Last week I turned another year older, which I don’t mind, because I can’t really keep up with my age anyway. I mean, it changes every year, so it is a bit difficult to keep track. This photo was taken from the Golden Rd in the Baxter State Park area. The peak looming in the background is Mount Katahdin.

Stellar fall colors up that way last week even with overcast skies, and they’re probably mostly gone by today. Fall is brilliantly spectacular in Maine, but it doesn’t last long. The Bangor area was peaking this week, so by the time I get home next  Thursday, there might not be much left. It’s all good. I moved to Maine in 2001, so this was my 15th fall. Only one year during that time we didn’t have any colors due to a major wind storm ripping all the leaves off before they could turn. So we did have a “fall” in the sense of everything being on the ground and left with brown sticks for trees, but the colors didn’t happen.

Only one dud in 15 years, yeah, I’m OK with that.

This weekend I’m in the Boston area hanging out with friends before heading to Maryland on Monday. The cat and dog have me trained to wake up at 0500, no later than 0530, so my 0130 bedtime last night hurt. But when you go to bed hoarse and coughing from laughing so hard for so long, it’s all worth it. Here’s to another day of the same, and I’m looking forward to it.

Wee book update – the draft print is in the hands of test readers. Once I get the feedback from them, I’ll tackle the final edits (hopefully nothing major), then rock and roll with the new cover artist. If all goes well and no curve balls, this thing should be out by late November. I’m still doing the final word count contest too, so more to come on that.

Enjoy the rest of October in the mean time. I will!

Meet the wee addition, Cobie. She and the hound are getting along well, and the insanity level in my house has risen exponentially. On my flight home Thursday, I was asleep before takeoff. I woke shortly before we landed, and the lady next to me said “You must have been really tired. You fell asleep and didn’t move!” I apologized for any twitching, drooling, or snoring that may have accompanied my coma. She said I didn’t do any of those things, but she may have just been being polite and glad to get the heck off the plane and away from her corpse-like seat neighbor. My opinion, it was a great flight, even if I don’t remember any of it.

After the flight I headed north toward home and stopped by to pick up the kitten on the way. Cuz if you’re going to do something crazy, might as well do it right after you wake from a stupor.

She traveled well, and the hound gladly received his newest sibling. By yesterday afternoon the pair started to play together. By this morning, she made him her pillow. She also likes to clear a wide path when settling down for a nap, such as knock everything off the window sill and stretch out. Or take the pens and other things on my desk and toss them on the floor because they’re better on the floor than on my desk, where I actually need them. And my legs are trees because she sure likes climbing those and launching from the floor, to me, to the desk. I did not know I could serve as a spring board for such olympic-worthy agility events. Cobie has shown me otherwise.

So this morning, and likely for many to come, I stop typing to retrieve my pen skittering across the floor or to pick up other things Cobie has chucked from their resting place before darting across the room with Brae in tow.

What? Adopt a kitten? Sure! That’s a brilliant idea! 🙂

After losing one of my dogs and the gecko last summer, I caved in the fall and acquired Finn the barn cat. Finn stayed through the winter in Maine indoors (smart cat) and opted to spend much of his time outside this early summer (smart cat) before eventually mozying along this summer to find other adventures. He might turn up once it gets colder (if he does we’ll really know how smart he is). Who knows? In the meantime I declared No More Animals! One horse. One dog. A cat somewhere hunting in the woods. That’s it. I’m done.

I made that resolution and stuck by it. For a whole month.

A kitten that was in need of a home is no longer in need of a home. She is coming to reside at Chez Campbell next weekend. The dog has no idea what’s coming. HaHaHaHaHaHaHa! Who am I kidding? I have no idea what is coming either. I hear she’s a sweetie with a tough streak despite her tiny physique. I, and the dog, will find out soon enough what she’s made of.

In the interim, I’m off to New Orleans for the weekend to see friends, family, and attend my cousin’s wedding. Yay x 3!

I’ve been on a crazy push to get the editing done of the 5th book. Still in progress, and I won’t be editing this weekend. So with the weekend coming up, have a great one. I know I will. See you on the flip side and post kitten adoption.

I asked if kitten adoption came with a head examination for the new owner. Apparently that costs extra.

In the last two weeks I have worked, traveled, wrote, and watched more Olympic games than I probably should have. This round of Olympics seemed to be a bit melodramatic and uninteresting. I enjoyed watching some of the sports, but I just couldn’t get into any (other than soccer) and really stick with them from start to finish.

My favorite thing about the Olympics is getting to watch so many different sports we typically don’t get on TV. Unless you’re an uber-competitive Badminton player going to tournaments or crushing your family members at play during the backyard BBQ, you’re just not going to see that sport played on TV outside of the Olympics (unless there’s a special Badminton channel I don’t know about).

Other than soccer, the next sport I watched the most was judo. I watched several other sports but none for very long, meaning anything from a few seconds to less than an hour. Back in my undergrad days I took judo classes and loved it. So I enjoyed the first few days of the Olympics and watching the later stages of men’s and women’s judo.

Ultimately I’m glad the Olympics are winding down, because as a sports fan they pull me away from other things I should be doing, like sleeping. I did still get some decent writing time in. As of yesterday morning, I finished the first draft of When Heroes Fall. As of this morning, I’ve completed 5% of the editing process. I have a long way to go with editing, but I’ll just keep chipping away at it. And without the Olympics to distract me, I will be able to get more done.

I’m totally doing the final word count guessing contest. That will happen later since editing will change the word count as things are added and removed. I’m still shooting for a late November/early December release. More to come.