These days I've been so busy editing other people's books that it's been difficult to find time to work on my own projects. So, like other authors I know who are in a similar situation, I took a look at my schedule in search of pockets of time that I could reclaim for my writing, and my thoughts led me to this place.

We are lucky enough to live in Kimberley, BC, a nice little town on the edge of the Rocky Mountains that just happens to have a ski hill right in town. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, I ski from about 9:00 - 11:00 (before the lineups get too long). During that time, I ski somewhere between 6-8 runs, which means I spend nearly half of that time on the chair lift. Seeing as I've mostly been riding alone due to COVID-19, I realized that gave me basically two hours each weekend to work on my books. 

So, that's exactly what I've been doing for the past couple of months. Each day I set a different task for myself to accomplish, and then I record my thoughts on my phone as I sit there taking in the beautiful mountain views.

As a result, not only have I been able to work out virtually all of the story kinks for Brooms, book 2 in the Uncanny Icons Series, I've also done the same for LARPers, book 7 in the Milligan Creek Series.

All that to say, many people dream of writing a book, but most of those people never do it because they say they can't find the time. However, if you're serious about it, you will find a way, and it may be in a place that you least expect!

I'm what you call an indie author, which means I don't publish my books through a traditional publisher. Instead, I publish them directly through Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark. Recently, Amazon, who owns Kindle Direct Publishing, posted a video showing how books like mine get made. At the 5:54 mark, they even show the cover to Epic Zero, which is written and published by a friend of mine. Check out the video and see what happens after you press the "purchase" button.

Just in case anyone's interested, here are a couple of pics of my office. 

What do these three things have in common? They're all part of book two in the Uncanny Icons series, Brooms, which I'm currently writing right now. As I was doing research for the book, I stumbled across a book that I read countless times when I was in elementary school, Canada's Monsters by Betty Sanders Garner. As a budding cryptozoologist, I read everything I could get my hands on regarding lake monsters, sea monsters, sasquatches, yetis, and the like. Who would have guessed that, decades later, all of that research would bear fruit? At any rate, I was so excited to find a copy of the online that I had to order it, just for old time's sake. In the meantime, here's an image of the cover, featuring a painting by James Simpkins, which should make it apparent why this book so captured my imagination.