Hello My Happy People,
I hope you have had a wonderful week. You will be thrilled to learn I have been quite productive and have gotten up to about 14,000 words written on Into the West: Family Ties. Things are finally clicking for me and I plan to do a good push this weekend and see how much I can get done. Cross your fingers that I can get a good chunk written. I have a feeling this book is going to be pushing actual novel size when it is finished. Even if it is, I am not going to break this one up into two books like I did with parts five and six. I'm just going to let it stand as a larger book.
I decided to go that way mainly because I want to move on to another genre and play with a few stand alone books. I do not want to take the time to do another book set up, cover design, etc. I think I can keep it to a reasonable length so it won't be too much bigger than normal. We will see. It is the story that is important so as long as it gets told, that is really all that matters.
The temperature has been climbing but surprisingly our house has not really heated up too much. We have been able to get by with just fans or open windows so far and have only used the air cooler just once when it was really humid. We don't have air conditioning here. The air cooler is basically a fan with a water tank that you put ice packs in.
I was pleasantly surprised how well the water cooler works. We only have one, but our place is small so it was enough last year. We turn the cooler on in the main hall then turn a fan on in each room to get things circulating. We managed to survive summer heat this way. Hopefully this summer will be the same.
We have been looking at things to do out in town since things are opening up more and more around here. There are food festivals, open air markets, loads of great movies coming out, and tomorrow we are trying out a Korean restaurant downtown. It looks so good online. I hope it is as good as it looks. P.R. and I both love Korean food. In fact, I just did my take on a Bibimbap bowl for dinner tonight. I made it only slightly spicy thought. I should have turned the heat up a bit more. Next time!
We will have the cover re-reveal for Into the West: Family Ties tomorrow in a blog "extra" because I did not have time to finish the reveal video today and we are getting ready to go out for date night ... and you know I can't be late for that!
What are your plans for the summer? Is there a vacation in your future? We have started making plans for a vacation this year. We haven't been out of the country since 2019. We really want to go somewhere again but we are considering any place just out of town. We've talked about visiting my parents, visiting P.R.'s dad (who we were supposed to go visit when CoVid hit the world and we still haven't been there), going on a cruise, going to Greece, going to Belgium, or going to any Disney park because P.R. has never been to one. We can't make up our minds. We might have to draw slips of paper from a hat.
Whatever ever you do to enjoy your summer I hope it is filled with fun, friends, family and of course ... FUNNIES! Because laughter lifts the spirit and makes life lighter.
To help you out with that, let's get on with the jokes!
Enjoy!
Stephen
Related Links:
Members Only Page (<-- Join and Listen to free audiobook and Book Banter Archive)
The Jokes!
Q: What is brown, hairy, and covered in sunscreen?
A: A coconut on vacation.
Q: Why do robots go on vacation?
A: To recharge their batteries.
Q: Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
A: Because if they flew over a bay, they would be baygulls.
Q: What animals can you always find at baseball games?
A: Bats
Q: How do we know an ocean is friendly?
A: It always waves!
Q: What do ghosts eat in summer to cool down?
A: I Scream.
Q: What kind of tree can you hold in your hand?
A: A palm tree!
Q: Where is a sheep's favorite place to go on vacation?
A: The Baaa-hamas.
Q: Where is a shark's favorite place to go on vacation?
A: Finland!
Q: Why do reporters like ice cream?
A: They always want to get the scoop!
Q: Why did the police raid the seafood restaurant?
A: They heard something fishy was going on.
And last but not least ...
Q: How does a mermaid stay in touch with her friends?
A: She calls them on her shell phone.