Of change and things to come

2026 has been nothing short of dynamic. My whole workspace was temporarily inaccessible in the midst of some truly needed improvements to the basement. But here is the fruit of our labor! First, the paint. The horrible, dirty yellow with fake painted cracks has at last been brought to inexistence by the vanquishing strokes of many brushes soaked in a paint of such supposed quality it warranted a cost of $300 per bucket. But the walls look great and our wallets are unburdened by abundance. It was a quick project, thanks to my wife's recruiting efforts. At one point, the basement was filled with nearly a dozen paint-slinging friends.

With the reintroduction of the furniture there came a great rearranging of the furniture, a pastime of my wife. And from this rearrangement was born my new reading corner

The walls bear bareness and the bookshelf bears my wife’s arrangement (rearranging books is another pastime of hers), but both will change soon.

And my new writing corner

Here, too, impending changes can be felt.

And from this new arrangement I hope to finish the production of my debut novel, currently titled Game. I'm shooting for a late fall/early winter release, and I'm quite excited to share it with the world … after heavy rounds of edits, of course. I won't share too much just yet, but it will be a tale of survival in the mountain wilderness. Expect some thrills and chills, for as vast as the wilderness is, you should expect to never find yourself alone …

For this work, I really want to echo the naturalism and storytelling styles of Jack London and Jim Kjelgaard, and I hope to have something really special for you. The wonderful Zoe Conner of Awkward Opossum Art is working on illustrations, and Spill the Paint Creative is tackling the design from cover to cover and everything between. 

I'm planning a more thorough, though unfortunately higher budgeted, ARC campaign for this, my debut novel. I'll keep you posted.

Now go, book in hand, and enjoy the warming of the days as you turn the pages.

-CCR