I’m going to see how soon I can get this poor belated week’s chapter up.  We’re still half in boxes, but I can see some floor now.  I also picked up a really good reference book at a local bookshop that’s helping me push through on an upcoming villain. So that’s good work coming along. I will do my best to get the writing I need done and edited fast, hopefully by tomorrow night, but certainly by weeks end.  No word yet on the cat front, but I am calling the hotel and shelter daily, so they may go above and beyond just to stop hearing from me. 🙂

Gencon was great, other things not so much.  We lost a very loved cat, our Tortoiseshell Nuncie, in St. Clairsville Ohio.  She escaped the hotel room and ran away without her collar.  She was wearing a black harness, but she’s probably escaped that too.  If anyone comes by any information on a small female tortie with a half dark half orange face near St. Clairsville, let me know.  There is certainly a reward.  There is also no way I can get the chapter up this week.  We’ve been on the road since last Monday, and the two remaining cats do not like hotels and let us hear about it all night.

I am very tired and looking forward to seeing our new place tomorrow.  I miss sleep and I miss my favorite fuzzy distraction from writing more.

I’d hoped not to have to take another break, but it turns out that I can’t pack everything into the moving truck and properly finish and edit a chapter on the same day.  And then my internet was turned off in the night between Monday and Tuesday.

We’re on the way to Gencon now, and I have hope that next Tuesday will have an update, but that depends on what I was able to get written in the van and if our hotel has internet.  Once the move is over I’ll be able to rebuild my buffer. I’m very hopeful, I know.

Sorry for the delay, and I hope to see you in person at Gencon!

On account of my birthday and being away from my computer and taking my editor with me on a crazy adventure in LA, and also Anime Expo.  Today’s installment is written, and almost ready.  I just need a few more hours with it before releasing it into the wild to be free.

Okay guys, you’ve been awesome. With one more week of rest and work, I should be able to get back on track with the chapters.  We cancelled going to Origins this next weekend in Columbus Ohio.  While I’ll be sad to miss it, this will give me the chance to get better from the sick I’m fighting off, to finish the last freelance projects on my plate, and catch up on Dr. Who.  Also on all the writing I’ve been desperately wanting to do.

And now is as good a time as any to introduce a new product/promo thingie I got printed up.  We now have brand new shiny double sided bookmarks, one for each major character of the Blackfeather Chronicles.  Some of them are a little spoilery, as I wanted to say something about each character portrayed. 🙂

Okay, after six conventions in a row and with the everybody in the house down sick, with three more conventions in the next three weeks, I’m going to need a short break.

There will be more chapters soon.  I won’t stop writing, and hopefully the weekly schedule will resume in a week or two.  I’m aiming for sooner rather than later.  Ultimately though, there will be no chapter half this week.  Even if I can’t have the chapter I want up next week, there will be something here to help make the visit worthwhile.  For this week, here is the art collage that I made the Corin screen print hoodies from.

Its very unsettling writing about earthquake and tsunami plagued island nations in fiction, and then finding them suddenly all too real in the news.

I very much want to do something to help, as I’m sure many of you do.  So for every $25 Paypal donation made to any one of the reputable relief organizations found here, I will send a free copy of The Alarna Affair to whomever you want.

For every donation of $100 or more, I will mail a piece of original art from one of the three Blackfeather stories.

Just forward your e-receipt to rlampi(at)ruthlampi.com, along with the address you would like your book or art mailed to.

Let me know what illustration from any of the books you would like the original of, and I will let you know right away if I have it.

Ahem.

Know what’s embarassing?  Mis-naming a chapter.  I am changing the name of Chapter 7, Landfall, as Landfall does not occur until Chapter 8.

Oops.

So the Chapter formerly known as Landfall is now Chapter 7—The Queen’s Freaks, and Chapter 8, . . .  may or may not be named “Landfall.”  Incidentally “The Queen’s Freaks” was the original Chapter 7 title, which now I clearly should have kept.

You may suspect at this point that I may be working without a buffer any longer. Ha! I say to you. HAhHAHAHahahahAHAhAHHahahAAaaaaaa.  Yeah. You’re right.  You’re totally right.

But we both want to know what happens next, so I’ll be writing as fast and as well as I can so that there aren’t any awful cliff hanging delays to the story.

Woo!

I had a little vinyl  LP storybook set of Peter Pan when I was very small that contained the line “It’s not terrible, it’s a great adventure!”  I am afraid that Djaren and I live by something very like that credo.  But fear not, if I fall behind, Kara will break my shins.  Also, Jon will look sad.  This must not happen.

This weeks installment will arrive on time and will most likely have a lovely color illustration.  Which I should probably go start drawing right now.  Hah!

I should probably mention too that there will be new pages here soon, including a gallery of fan art and trades and commisions.  If you happen to have drawn anyone from the stories, feel free to send in pictures and I’ll add them to the gallery as soon as its ready.