First, the official book stuff update:

The kickstarter fundraising campaign for book 4 “The Ember and the Knife” will launch next Monday. So clear off a little room on the ol’ credit card, stretch your retweeting/facebook sharing muscles, and get ready to cheer the project on. Go go go! I’ll post updates here as the thing rolls along, and hopefully we hit the goal well before the end date (beginning of October).

And now for something completely unrelated: my boy is growing up and I’m trying to handle that.

Yesterday was day one of Grade Three. Grade three is the point where my own childhood memories start to become cohesive. Instead of just flashes of random moments, I can recall full situations and the people within. Should I compare my experiences to my child’s? I’ll give that a complicated ‘yes’ as an answer, with a long list of provisos (provisos available upon request).

And to be honest, my sense of time passing and his growing older hit me the day before school started. I was out for a walk around Springbank Park, and as I passed Storybook Gardens, I realized it had been at least a year since Max and I went there. It used to be our weekly destination, back when he was wee. Now he’s too tall for a lot of the activities, and too old to enjoy others.

To top it all off, I let him walk to school on his own this morning. This is a trip that is exactly 2 and a half blocks in length, with one 3-way stop to cross, so we’re not talking about the world’s most dangerous excursion. But there’s still something scary about not confirming with my own eyes, for sure, that he has set foot on school property. I know the school would call me if he didn’t turn up. I know he’s a smart kid. And I know this is part of growing up. I have to get used to trusting him to handle the unknown world and all of the surprises and obstacles it throws at him. I can’t helicopter parent him forever (though lord knows I want to).

Hey, remember when I used to talk about writing and my current project, the “Spellbound Railway” series? Boy, that takes me back. It feels like it’s been a million years since I actually finished off the 4th book and started planning how and when to launch the thing. Then summer came along, bringing with it a host of distractions, challenges and detours that have kept me entirely occupied with everything that isn’t my writing. But enough with the excuses. Back to work!

Surprise! Not only did I finish book 4 (The Ember and The Knife), I also did a newly revised version of the previous 3 books. I am very excited to have these new versions ready to go.

Okay, I’ll be honest: they are almost ready to go. There are 2 more things that need to happen before the big book launch:

1. Raise the funds for an inventory of printed copies. That’s right, I’m going to do another Kickstarter. If you’re not sure what the heck a ‘Kickstarter’ is, check out this link.  It worked out really well last time, and my previous Kickstarter backers (the wonderful people that they are) made the whole project fun and productive. I would love to hear from you, dear readers, about what you’d like to see as rewards for Kickstarter backers. Just post your ideas, comments and concerns in the comments section below.
2. I need to know one specific thing from everyone who has read any of the first 3 books: what character do you want to read more about? It can be a main character, or a minor one that has more of their story to tell. (Spoiler: the character that most people want to read about will likely be the star of a new short story as a Kickstarter award).