Hey ,

I took a little break from my newsletter and tried to get outside a bit more this June/July. I went from Kansas back to where I graduated with my bachelor's degree, in Oswego, New York.

The first picture shows the lighthouse and breakwall at Breitbeck Park.

The second image gives you a small taste of one of the great sunsets you can find there. It's definitely one perk of living there and something I find myself missing here in the flat dry lands of Southwest Kansas. The lake you're seeing is one of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario.

Each year Oswego does its Harbor Fest, which consists of a fair with music, food, rides and games for kids. But its steeple and what gets everyone to come out to is the fireworks! This year, a storm was brewing, and as you can see, the dark clouds contrasted against the explosions.

Fun fact, they had started the fireworks 20 minutes early because of the storm, and not even 1 minute after the grand finale the rain came pouring down, drenching everyone in the area, but I would definitely say it was worth it!

I also did a bit of hiking and visited the botanical garden, but I'll give you a bit more information about those (and more pictures) next time as I wanted to just save this one to reach out and update you on the writing.

Over the summer I went from about chapter 3/4 of The Dream Herald to now being at the start of Chapter 9. I'm not sure what the final length will be on this one. I'm at roughly 30,000 words; however, I think I have 3-4 main chapters left with the epilogue included. It's looking to be shorter than I originally expected, but it'll still be novel length. I could extend the story by adding a time skip because this one takes place in the late 90s and tells of Ayita's origins, but I'm not sure. I have a plan if I want to do that, but again at minimum we're going to hit 50-70k words.

For small teasers, I will say this: the book gives a bigger glimpse of what outside threats Ayita and the ensemble of characters face. It also further develops some of Nick's demons, especially those briefly touched on in Merlin's Crucible. Anyway, I'll catch you in a few weeks. I hadn't had a chance to coordinate with other authors this go-around after just coming back and, oh yeah, I also finished my Master's degree.

On a final note here, I pulled out of Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Unfortunately, I didn't see any movement on sales while in there, but I am still in store, wide, and you can check my books out on Kobo Plus and Everand, as they don't make author's do any exclusive deals to be included! You can also find the audiobooks in most libraries, though it may be harder to find the ebooks as, for whatever reason, libraries are less likely to stock "adult content" books in ebook format.

Until next time, stay posted, and here's a fun look at one photo of many to come!