A Light in the Window by Julie Lessman



I positively adore Julie Lessman and her O'Connor saga which began in the Daughters of Boston series and ended in the Winds of Change series.  So I was delighted when she announced she is self publishing her  latest story  A Light in the Window which is the prequel love story of Marceline and Patrick.  It will be released in Ebook format and available November 9th.  It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com.


Synopsis:  One Woman. Two Men.
One stirs her pulse and the other her faith.
But who will win her heart?

Marceline Murphy is a gentle beauty with a well-founded aversion to rogues. But when two of Boston's most notorious pursue her, she encounters a tug-of-war of the heart she isn’t expecting. Sam O’Rourke is the childhood hero she’s pined for, the brother of her best friend and a member of the large, boisterous family to which she longs to be a part. So when his best friend Patrick O’Connor joins in pursuit of her affections, the choice seems all too clear. Sam is from a family of faith and Patrick is not, two rogues whose wild ways clash head-on with Marcy’s—both in her faith and in her heart.

While overseeing the Christmas play fundraiser for the St. Mary’s parish soup kitchen—A Light in the Window—Marcy not only wrestles with her attraction to both men, but with her concern for their spiritual welfare. The play is based on the Irish custom of placing a candle in the window on Christmas Eve to welcome the Holy Family, and for Marcy, its message becomes deeply personal. Her grandmother Mima cautions her to guard her heart for the type of man who will respond to the "light in the window," meaning the message of Christ in her heart. But when disaster strikes during the play, Marcy is destined to discover the truth of the play’s message first-hand when it becomes clear that although two men have professed their undying love, only one has truly responded to “the light in the window.”
Even though I knew how the story was going to turn out, I was captured from the beginning, wondering how  she would  make the right choice. Lessman does an excellent job of painting a picture of faith and hope, love and loss, the challenge of friendships and relationships, being true and the power of change.  A Light in the The Window is an emotional story, faith filled without being preachy and passionate without being sexual.  I highly recommend it.   


Julie is having a Kindle Fire Contest which will run through December 31, 2012. Be sure to check it out.  Follow Julie on Facebook and check out her website for more information on all her books. 


Thank you to Julie for providing an advance copy of A Light in the Window and for writing Marceline's story.

Say hello to Hunter



“Hey Hunter, time to do the meet and greet thing.”

“Okay, come on down into the galley. Watch the hatch lid. Don’t want to hit your head again.”

“Yes sir. Something smells delicious and looks like you’ve made enough for an army. I didn’t know you even cooked.”

“Learned at the feet of Uncle Grey. Frittatta’s. Want any?”

“Yes, please. Who is Uncle Grey?”

“Grey Lee, owner of the Blue Steel. He’s not my real uncle. My grandmother lived in the neighborhood and took me in after my parents died. I was eight. His kids, Connor and Danny, we all hung together. He called us the 3 musketeers. Whenever we went into the grill, he’d put us to work. Cleaning, food prep, busing tables. If you wanted to eat, you had to work for it. He sort of adopted me or maybe I adopted them. We served together, Connor, Danny and I.”

“What branch of the military?”

“Marines. Special forces reconnaissance. I moved on to the FBI, Connor became a doctor and Danny just retired. He’s coming over in a bit with another buddy of ours. Jeremy Krause.”

“His name sounds familiar.”

“I told you about him before. He started a new company called Krause Solutions, based in Montana.”

“A security company, right?”

“Not just a security company. Troubleshooters in high tech electronics and security, protection, kidnap negotiations.”

“Ah yes, I remember now. Sort of a private black ops operation.”

“You didn’t hear that from me. Here, try the enchiladas. He wants me and Danny to come in as partners.”

“What about the FBI? I thought you were taking the attaché job in Africa.

“Since the accident, it has been taken off the table. Frank said since Schoebel is dead, the case is closed. My only option now is the desk job in Washington.”

“But wait. Schoebel had a partner, didn’t he? The woman, Dominique something?”

“Dominique Resparte, the Black Widow.”

“How can they do that? You were close to finding out who was behind both her and Schoebel and creating the nano devices. She liked you, didn’t she?”

“Too much. Every man she married or slept with died and she wanted me in her bed.

“How can you just let it go?”

“Jeremy has a client, works for the University of Montana. She’s a teacher in biochemistry. She has a sister, also a scientist whose specialty is nanotechnology. She’s disappeared, thinks she’s been kidnapped.”

“What does that have to do with you?”

“The woman who rescued me after the explosion, looks like her sister. She left me a calling card.”

“Who? The sister? When did you see her?”

“Don’t know if she’s the sister or not. I never really saw her whole face. But I saw her in Maputo.”

“Then she couldn’t have been kidnapped if you saw her. Did you talk to her”

“Right. And no. She disappeared but left something for me. A key and this picture.”

“Holy crap, she works for the Black Widow!”

Sunday Salon: So not ready.....




Ah life!  You would have thought with hubby out of town for three days doing the Audio Engineering Society  convention thing, I would have a lot of times on my hands and get a lot of things done.  Especially for Nanowrimo.  Don't know what happened to the time. Friday after lessons,  James and I went to the fabric store to pick up material for his Dr. Eggman costume, then we went to the shop to do payroll.  Saturday we went to Target for more things for his costume, then on to the grocery store.  Today I spent several hours working on his costume and I'm converting this (the jacket)




To this:


I'm 75% done with a whole lot of encouragement from my son to "keep going mom."  I'm done for the day, lessons have been planned for the week, dinner and cleanup is done and I'm ready to fade for the day.   Now ask me if I got any planning done for my nanowrimo story.   Kind of, sort of, not really.   I'm feeling ill prepared although I've gotten to know who my main character is, how I want the story to proceed (basically), but I just haven't had the time to write down the outline.  By evening time, I've just want to veg in front of the tv. 

I happened to catch the beginning of Brokeback Mountain on Friday, got caught up in the story and then wished I hadn't because it had such a sad ending.  Then Saturday night I watched the last two episodes of  Perception with Eric McCormack.  Again kind of sad to find out that his relationship with Natalie had never been real and had truly been a figment of his imagination the whole time.  Think I'll give up TV for the month of November.

Coming up on the last week of my F2K creative writing class.  This week's task was to write a 500 word piece which involved interviewing a character and the piece had to be solely dialogue.  I actually found it difficult to leave out all the other bits but managed it.  Will post it tomorrow.   Thanks to the Hurricane, the task for this Wednesday has been posted early in case folks on the east coast lose power.   The assignment  is to write a complete story between 500 and 1500 words, that includes the following elements:

1. An opening conflict
2. Complication 1
3. Complication 2
4. Complication 3 (optional)
5. Complication 4 (optional)
6. Crisis
7. Falling action (optional)
8. Resolution

Now you can see why I'm thankful for the hurricane.  Otherwise, I would have been having a heart attack on Wednesday what with Nanowrimo starting on Thursday.   James couldn't wait for November and has already started working on his fan fiction story.  Whom am I to stand in the way of creativity?  Now if I can just force myself to stay up at 6:30 when the cats demand to be let outside, instead of going back to sleep for a couple hours, I may just get some writing done.  I'm actually looking forward to the end of Daylight Savings time.  There's one hour gained back.  Hee Hee!

My goal this week - to choose the mountain I want to climb, be persistent, let my muse lose and just let the creativity flow.  

Have a wonderful week!  


Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. ~Earl Nightingale





Sunday Salon: Conflict?


Light bulb moments!  You spend hours doing something then realize it's not what you wanted in the first place.  Wasted time this week fooling around with changing the blog domain over to my name, designing the blog and never being completely satisfied.  Then realized I was totally happy with my My Two Blessings and will hold the other domain in reserve for when ready for my actual author site.     Also spent 2 to 3 hours going through model sites trying to find a picture of Hunter's mystery woman. (The one I found originally and mentioned in an earlier post - wasn't the right one)  Then it hit me.... Hunter doesn't know for sure what she looks like and because of that I don't know for sure and her full identify will be revealed through the story.  Sometimes procrastination leads you through a lot of worm holes.  

In the midst of planning Green Cross, my F2K class this week is all about creating conflict between your antagonist and protagonist and ending it unresolved. I had fun coming up with a scene between Hunter and his mystery woman:

"Saturday morning and the Maputo market bustled with locals and tourists. Hunter polished off his espresso, then rolled his shoulders to ease the ache in his spine. He’d spent hours yesterday exploring the elephant reserve in an ancient jeep spending more time battling bumpy roads, than looking at the animals. He’d gotten some great shots of the elephants, birds, hippos but his poor battered body hadn’t like the additional abuse. He threw some coins on the table and limped through the market, no longer overwhelmed by the blend of bananas, spices, coffee and fresh fish or the yelling and chattering of the fish merchants.

He headed off to the bookshop, ignoring the vendors shouting for his attention, when he saw her. Though she wore huge sunglasses and a colorful blue and purple scarf hid her hair, he knew it had to be her. When she smiled at one of the fish mongers and waved her glossy fire red fingernails, he was sure. She disappeared for a moment, then he caught another glimpse as she rounded a fruit stand. He knew that smile, that walk. Had she seen him? He rounded the corner and saw her enter the bookshop.

A bell clunked against the door as he walked in. Books piled high to the ceiling on shelves or stacked in precarious towers that looked like they would collapse if you so much as touched them. First editions and rare books mixed in with new and used paperbacks. Dust tickled his nose as he caught the faint aroma of vanilla and lavender. She’s here, he thought, looking around the small crowded shop. The shop owner sat behind the counter cleaning a book.

“Welcome. Welcome. Just the man I wanted to see. I just finished cleaning your book.” The old man beamed and held it out to him.

“Henry.” Hunter glanced around the shop. “ A woman just came in here. Where did she go?”

“No. No woman.” He waved his hand, beckoned Hunter forward. “Come. Come.” Then sighed when Hunter ignored him and searched the narrow aisles of the shop. He pushed up out of his chair, pressed the book into his hands. “You come. You take.”

Hunter looked down at the book and frowned. “This isn’t the book I found yesterday”

“Yes. Yes. See.” He ran wrinkled fingers over the cover. “See.”

Hunter eyed the man, “House of Silken Secrets? You must be confusing me with someone else.”

Henry huffed out a breath, put his finger to his lips, then opened the book. Pressed between the pages was a picture of a Celtic cross with a spider in the center and an antique key.

Flashes of the fire, the explosion, pain and her face rippled through his mind. Damn,she worked for them. No! He was done, he wouldn’t be pulled back in. He slammed the book, shoved it back in Henry’s hands.

“No. tell them no.”"



My goal this week is to come up with an outline of 30 scenes, finalize my settings, and research my characters a bit more.  James has decided he's going to do Nano as well and will be writing a fan fiction story starring Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man. 

Reading wise, I started Stephen King's Drawing of the Three which is the 2nd book in his Dark Tower series.  Also listening to J.D. Robb's book # 27 in the In Death series Salvation in Death. Not surprised my reading has slowed way down the past couple months. I discovered the more fiction I read, the less I write so.... 

 Life is like a blanket too short.  You pull it up and your toes rebel, you yank it down and shivers meander about your shoulder; but cheerful folks manage to draw their knees up and pass a very comfortable night.  ~Marion Howard

Be sure to stop by and see how the rest of my ROW80 writing buddies are doing.  

Happy sunday!

Happy 59th Anniversary to Mom and Dad


Happy 59th Anniversary 

Mom and Dad

I've been very blessed to have you as my parents and you have set the bar and showed us  through example what commitment and love mean.  Thank you. 



Blessed Union
 
Very rarely,
God chooses two extraordinary people,
bonding them in marriage,
a unique, blessed union,
a golden couple
who shine like a beacon of hope
for the rest of us—
hope that we can learn
to glow as they do,
with intelligence,
good character, strength
and love.
We feel privileged to know you.
Happy Anniversary

For us, you are truly heaven sent.
 
By Joanna Fuchs

Sunday Salon: You, me, I, it





Brainstorming away here for Green Cross and in midst of it, getting insight into scenes to edit for Blue Steel.  Changed the name since I have a theme going here with Red Thief and Blue Steel. Green Cross sounds more interesting, than Ice, since it isn't going to be about diamonds but nanotechnology and deceit.  Don't you think?    My goals this week will be to interview Hunter, write his backstory and get to know him better.  Plus get a grip on other characters - my main female lead, her sister and my villains.  Also completed a bit of research on settings since story will take place in a few places.    Although reading and working through Writing Begins with the Breath, received Chris Baty's Writer's Workbook - Ready, Set, Novel! and  will use it for brainstorming, plotting and planning.   

My creative writing class is going strong and this week's task was to write the same scene from two different points of view.  I took a scene from Eyes in the Ashes and rewrote it from my female villain's 3rd person  point of view and 1st person pov.  Really helped me see the scene in a whole new way.   Which one do you like?

Ashley stepped aside and waited for Greg to open the door for her. She dipped her head and walked ahead of him. She hesitated, let out a small gasp, pushed past Paul and rushed down the front steps as two vehicles parked in front of the inn. Ashley had expressly forbidden any of the service people to park there because it ruined the beauty and symmetry of the entry way. “No. No. No. No. You can’t park those monstrosities in front of my inn. Heaven’s. What will people think?” The van had a painting of a wild land scene with deep green grass, blue skies and eyes peering out of the grass. The jeep next to it was battered and muddy with a painting of a huge bat on the hood. The license plate said bat lady. A woman hopped out of the driver’s side. She removed an equally battered cowboy hat, ran her fingers through her hair. The woman had short, scruffy hair and wore a khaki colored shorts outfit. Ashley shook her head again, opening her mouth to speak when the woman skirted around her and ran to Paul, jumping into his arms for a big bear hug. She heard someone clear their throat behind her. She turned to see a man, tall, well groomed and dressed in Armani shirt and slacks. She tucked a piece of hair behind one ear and held out her hand. He took her hand in his, kissed the back of her hand. “David Wickham at your service. You must be Ashley McCourt. I’d recognize that beautiful face anywhere.”



Greg held out the door for me, as he should. I halted in the doorway, dismayed to see some god awful jeep, followed by a van painted a garish green pull up in front of my inn. No. No. No. No! This won’t do. What will people think? My reputation! I pushed past Paul and strode down the sidewalk as a girl climbed out of the driver’s side of the jeep. A girl? No. A woman, short, with hair as scruffy as the car. I had hardly opened my mouth to speak when she completely ignored me and ran past me and threw herself into Paul’s arms. I drew in a sharp breath, affronted by her behavior when I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. I turn to blast this person for having the audacity to ignore my parking instructions published in clear sight at the top of the drive. Oh My! My voice died in my throat. Tall, well groomed, delicious blue eyes.  And those teeth! I lost my breath, tucked my hair behind one ear. He held out a hand, took mine in his and kissed it. My knees turned to rubber as those lips, warm and soft, pressed upon on the back of my hand. “David Wickham at your service. You must be Ashley McCourt. I’d recognize that beautiful face anywhere.”

Great exercise which helped me see how different points of view really change the impression you get from a story.   Speaking of impressions, I'm currently reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz.  He has a way of writing that is just so visual and really captures your imagination.  He really knows how to set a scene, paint a haunting or scary picture without totally creeping me out.  

Someone else who knows how to paint an interesting story is Kait Nolan, our wonderful ROW 80 leader.  I just finished reading Red and thoroughly enjoyed it.  If you haven't read it yet, be sure to check it out.  Very, very good young adult mystery urban fantasy story about a teenager whose inherited the family curse and could possibly turn into a werewolf soon.

Cherry Adair, one of my favorite author has released a self published, ebook in the T-Flac series, Ice Cold and it is available at the special price of $5.59 for the rest of the weekend.   Have no idea what she's going to charge after this so if you are interested, get it now at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Be sure to stop by and see how the rest of my ROW80 writing buddies are doing.


Have a wonderful week!  

Row80: I'm sensing something....




I'm really enjoying the F2K creative writing course through Writer's University.  The lesson this past week was all about senses   Besides the normal  - hear, see, taste, feel and smell - Bob came up with 3 more:  Sense of Time  (a song, a place, a specific time period), Space (open room, close cove, busy street), and Unknown  (danger).  We have to come up with 8 sentences which implied and didn't include the specific sense words.   Plus one paragraph that included all the sense without saying what the sense is.   Then let your fellow classmates identify which senses you used.   Here's mine: 

Exercise One

She danced in the chair, her head bobbing to the beat, her fingernails tapping the scarred table top in an out of sync rhythm that struck him as discordant until he recognized the sequence.


Sage’s belly tightened as her leg muscles turned to rubber when she saw who stood outside her door.


The pearl white light, filtered through the blinds, gave her the impression of prison bars across the chair.


She eyed the green liqueur and took a small sip, gagging at the blend of licorice and spices.


She covered her nose as the overwhelming odor of unwashed bodies and the copper tinge of blood hit her when she walked up to the open door.


She stumbled, dropping the flashlight and sank to the ground as the pitch black darkness of the cave weighed down upon her.


She smiled when she heard the Cat Steven’s song blaring from the radio for it reminded her of high school buddies whom she hadn’t thought of in years.


She nibbled on her lip, catching it between her teeth, not knowing how to respond to his question.




Exercise Two


Lucy stepped aside at the entrance to Martinique’s as two women, arms linked, weaved out of the door of the restaurant. The red head gave her a brilliant smile, then uttered soothing noises, as her brassy voiced companion continued her story at the top of her lungs. “Then he had the audacity to..to..to” She waved a hand, long lacquered fingernails barely missing Lucy’s face. “Think I’d go along with his insane ideas. Can you imagine…” Her voice cutting off as the door swung shut behind Lucy, enclosing her in the tiny foyer. She wrinkled her nose at the lingering sweetness of the woman’s perfume. She stepped through the foyer door into an overwhelming world of voices and music in the cavernous warehouse restaurant. As she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim light, she smiled at the song playing on the jukebox. Lucy in the sky with Diamonds. He’s here. She inhaled the heavenly scent of garlic, onions and peppers sizzling in the open grill. She felt a hand brush her shoulder. She turned and there he stood. He always took her breath away. She rested a hand again his chest, pressed a kiss to his check, his five o’clock shadow tickling her lips.

This week the task is to take a paragraph from Poe' s A Tell Tale Heart or Faulkner's A Rose for Emily and rewrite it in a different Point of View. 1st person if written in 3rd and visa verse.  I love both these selections, especially A Rose for Emily, so fun, fun, fun.  This class is really testing my creativity. 

Still reading Writing begins with the Breath and since I'm in prep mode for Nanowrimo, just got the writer's workbook  Ready. Set, Novel!  by Chris Baty, Lindsey Grant and Tavia Stewart-Streit.  I love brainstorming.   

My goals are simple this round - write every day.  Anything beyond that is gravy. 

Check in with my fellow ROWer's here and give them some encouragement.

The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it.  ~Charles DeLint


Sunday Salon: Distractions and will power







Distractions and will power.  Two things I've been working on, in myself and my two guys.  Technology poses a bit distraction for all us and I'm toying with the idea of a technology free week. I need to wean myself away from the internet and  reset my brain.   Have gotten in the habit of checking emails on my iphone first thing in the morning, which of course, leads to facebook, then let's see who posted what on Well Trained Mind and then it progresses throughout the day. A few minutes here, while waiting for James to finish his math, a few minutes there while he writes his paragraph, and so on.  Which makes me feel like I'm not getting anything accomplished work wise on the web because by the evening, my brain's gone in to passive mode.  My I-phone sort of became a quick work around  the no technology until 4:00 rule.....because it's only for a minute or two (snort).

I just finished reading Overcoming Writer's Block without Willpower in the latest Writer's Digest magazine. Wonderful article and a swift kick in the rear.  It's all about discipline versus distraction, reacting vs creating and how to rewire our creative brains.  The first suggestion - 'don't start your day by checking your email or phone."  HA!   So true, it wrecks my day.  Also suggests limit your information input (too much mental clutter), don't take your phone to bed (guilty), plan your week before it begins, check email and social media accounts only at set times throughout the day and keep a notebook with you at all time to capture thoughts as they come.  All excellent ideas.  Another, which I can't remember exactly where I saw it was to set a word count for the week, not daily, which will allow for those off days. 

Okay universe I get the message.  So starting tomorrow morning, back to the no technology until 4:00 rule which include the iphone.  Lord give me strength.

Had a great brainstorming session with myself and Hunter (yes, my imaginary character) which lead to some great ideas and also some synchronicity with Blue Steel.  This may just turn into a series.

So far, doing a great job of writing every day, whether it be working on story, journaling, blogging or research.  I'm off and running.

Check out how other ROWer's are doing the first week of round 4.


ROW 80: Curiousity



Nano Nano.  Why is it every time I think of Nanowrimo I'm reminded of Mork and Mindy. *grin*  The 2012 site has been relaunched.  Be sure to check out the new forums.  I'm in the curiosity stage where anything and everything is possible.   Also just finished reading the 'curiosity' chapter in Writing Begins with the Breath and one of the touchstone exercises asked:

What are you curious about? What have you learned through experience and what have your learned from books?  Notice the difference between heart/body learning and head/mind learning. 

That triggered quite a few brain cells to start shooting here, there and everywhere.   My late grandmother was a great believer in brainstorming and creative thinking.  When you brainstorm, all things are possible and don't discount anything. Throw it out there on the table and see what happens.  I'm trying to keep that in mind as ideas pop up for my latest story. Herring says:

"If you already know where you're going, then your mind stops you from letting in possibilities from outside the box and focuses on its predetermined destination.  You will, in all likelihood, get to your destination, but the journey won't have been enriched by detours and unexpected synchronicities..  If you have already decided what your answers are, you destroy the spark of curiosity that sustains the work."

I just had an epiphany and pretty sure that's what happened when I was trying to edit Eyes in the Ashes. I wasn't letting the story deviate or let the characters steer me in new directions.  Decided I had a plan and this is where we are going and they (the characters) just simply stopped talking to me because I wasn't listening anymore.  Guess we need to have a come to Jesus meeting so can move forward.

Excuse a writer's crazy moment here.  Another touchstone question was "what is your character seeking?"  Since just starting the research and planning process for Green Ice, asked Hunter, my main male character to tell me and we somehow got around to women and he had caught a glimpse of a woman in some market in Europe. He couldn't tell me much except that she had long dark hair, beautiful smile, and she was wearing sunglasses.  She checked him out and then he lost her in the crowd.  Caught another glimpse of her a couple days later, but she got away.   Even though they were just fleeting glimpses,  he wanted me to find her.  Needle in a haystack, right.  I think I found her.  She looks quite similar to this gal


Sage Emile Allard.  She's a french scientist.  He's in big trouble.

Off to do some research.  Happy writing!

Oh - check out Daily Good.  It is the most wonderful sight on positivity I have come across. From an article about Why Creative Thinking is Inclusive Thinking:

"Albert Einstein was once asked what the difference was between him and the average person. He said that if you asked the average person to find a needle in the haystack, the person would stop when he or she found a needle. He, on the other hand, would tear through the entire haystack looking for all the possible needles. With creative thinking, one generates as many alternative approaches as one can."

Now go be curious and check out everyone's first days of Round 4 here

Row80: 4th round and Nanowrimo - What a combination




Today begins the fourth round of A Round of Words in 80 days.  Round 3 was a complete and utter failure for me.  The editing didn't go so well.  I got side tracked by an online critique class which ended up going nowhere when the instructor simply disappeared the last three weeks of the class and never returned.  The powers that be are still trying to figure out what to do.  And I just quit writing.  I was completely blocked and my muse took a vacation.

Happy to say my muse has returned and I'm feeling more creative.  Started reading and working through Writing Begins with the Breath by Laraine Herring.  I like her perspective on being blocked.

"The writing is not blocking you.  You are blocking the writing... The first step when you find yourself stuck is to become aware of what is being blocked...Can you identify some piece of the next step that contains something you might not be reading or willing to address yet?  Writing has a sneaky way of pushing us outside our comfort zone...Stay with the discomfort. Stay with the uncertainty. Stay with the emotions that a scene or memory might conjure up for you.  Stay with the work. It'll guide you home."
Herring intersperses body breaks into the chapters - breathing or stretches to wake up various parts of your body and mind.  And the touchstones at the end of each chapter has you journaling on different prompts and story ideas.  Can you tell I'm getting a great deal out of the book.  I'm back to getting up a bit earlier than usual and writing every morning.  I'm feeling good and psyched.  

My goals are going to be simple this round. Anything I accomplish beyond them will be gravy.

1)  Write everyday
2)  October: continue with F2K creative writing course and prep, plot and plan for Nanowrimo.
3)  November - Write like crazy
4)  December - push to finish nano book so can begin editing come Jan 1st.

Check out what other ROWer's are doing here.