Eat, Sleep… Work, I Guess
I don't have a podcast to share with you today, and I know I'm supposed to. Sorry!
My excuse is that I'm away from home from Thursday to Sunday this week, visiting with family so more of Calvin's relatives can meet him. On top of that, I had a deadline to meet with work today, so I've been hunched over the laptop all day and couldn't really have made time to record, edit, and upload a podcast.
Not when I'm spending my break time doing this, anyways:
This little guy has got it right. Eating and sleeping; that's the life. Not sure about the crying and pants-pooping parts, and it's probably hard for him to derive a stable income, but on balance it seems like a pretty intelligent lifestyle.
I'll make up for the missed podcast next week. I'm also planning to get back on the writing horse by writing some short stories and moving forward with the script for the Special People comic, now that I'm going to have a bit more writing time available.
As a closing tidbit, those of you who are fans of Loading Ready Run may be interested to know that Calvin will be making a cameo (as himself) in an upcoming LRR video. Intriguing, no?
Official Birth Announcement and Baby Pool Winner
Back on March 20, I set up a Baby Pool to see who could guess closest to my child's actual birth date. Well, that date has come and gone!
As of 10:14 PM on April 13, I became the father of a brand new little dinosaur named Calvin William Sevenhuysen.
He weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces, and is 21.25 inches long. Tall and skinny!
So, that means that the official winner of a free copy of DISCOVERY is... Sophie! She guessed April 10, which was the closest anyone got to predicting how far overdue the little guy was going to be.
Congratulations, Sophie!
Everyone else: I've got nothing for you. Nothing except the cute picture above. I hope that's enough. :)
Baby Watch 2012
Larissa and I are still waiting for Baby's arrival. We're three days past the due date now, which isn't too significant, but we're definitely starting to get a little antsy!
I've been quite busy this week. I had a new research contract come in, so I've been throwing myself into that, along with some publishing and book layout work for 1889 Labs. It's a good thing I've built up decent backlogs on some of my projects! I'm about six weeks ahead in the Year of Stories, and the current Special People story arc runs until close to the end of May. I'm really going to need those backlogs, especially once Baby shows up.
Even though I haven't had as much time as normal for writing this week (other than live-writing a short story this morning), I'm really grateful that I've had all this work to do. It takes pressure off the Grocery Fund, that's for sure! I'd much prefer to treat the Grocery Fund as a goal rather than a necessity.
One way or another, the next few weeks are going to be very interesting. Between my "day job" work and taking care of a newborn, I'll be finding out whether I can actually keep up with the creative workload that I've set myself, or whether I need to cut something back to maintain my sanity. I don't like to back out on anything, so I'm hoping I find ways to make it all work!
The good news is that even if it turns out that I have to take a bit of a step back creatively, it'll be because I'm earning more money to support my family, and I'd rather be writing from a position of financial stability than from a position of need.
God has a plan for how all of this will work out. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store!
Happy Easter, everyone.
Baby Pool – Win a Free Book!
Baby pools are fun, right? Especially when they have prizes! So let's do one.
Aren't they pretty together?
Larissa is now in Week 38 of her pregnancy. We're just 14 days away from the April 3 due date! But when exactly is our baby going to arrive?
Think you can predict the future? If you can, you could win a free copy of my new book of short stories, DISCOVERY!
RULES
To play, leave your guess in a comment on this post. Include the following information: Date of Birth, Weight (pounds and ounces), Sex.
The winner will be the person who guesses, or is closest to, the correct date. Weight will be the first tiebreaker and Sex will be the second tiebreaker. If there is still a tie after that, I'll use a random number generator to select the winner.
I will mail a copy of DISCOVERY to the winner.
Happy guessing!
All Moved In, With Three Weeks To Go
Life has been moving along at a pretty rapid pace over the past several weeks. I thought I'd take the opportunity to share a brief update.
Two weeks ago Larissa and I moved into a new two-bedroom suite in one of Victoria's suburbs. We have at least three times as much floor space here, and we love it!
In addition to going from a single bedroom to two bedrooms, we also now have a separate kitchen and living room, a small dining room, and an office for me to work in.
Getting out of downtown has been nice for a lot of different reasons. For one, there's no street noise outside when we're trying to go to sleep. Larissa used to wake up sometimes from all the cars streaming past after the bars closed. Another benefit is that it's so much nicer to go for walks in and around all the little suburbs and winding streets. We're only a 15-minute walk away from the beach, too.
We took advantage of all the extra space this weekend to have a bunch of friends over for a combined board game night and DISCOVERY prerelease party. (Sneaky little writing update: I sent in the order for the first print run of DISCOVERY on Saturday. I should be able to start sending out people's orders by the end of the month.)
Of course, the main reason we moved was so that we would have space for Baby. It's only three weeks until Larissa's due date! We went on a hospital tour last week and got to see the facilities where Baby will be welcomed into the world. It made a few things seem a lot more "real" for me. I'm getting so excited for that day to come.
I've been telling Larissa that one of the things I'm really looking forward to is sitting on the couch holding Baby while I'm watching playoff hockey later in April. Gotta get the kid started on the right foot, eh? Go Canucks go!
Special People
Special People is serialized superhero fiction with a fistful of twists.
Special people have special problems.
Losing Freight
Losing Freight is a serialized sci-fi novel where you get to vote on what happens next at the end of every page.
DISCOVERY
Prefer the feel of paper to the look of a screen? DISCOVERY is the first quarterly Year of Stories print book. You get nearly 200 pages of exciting fiction for only $11.99! Grab your copy now.
Flare Fiction: Volume 2
Galloway’s Hunt
Galloway's Hunt is a novelette set in the world of Galloway's Voyage, my work-in-progress novel based on the same title character. Buy it now for only 99¢!