Life update
Here’s the latest news from our neck of the woods:
Last night we met with the guy who’s going to be moving our house. We talked about how the house needs to be prepped and exactly what he’ll be doing to take a 70x28 foot house, lift it off its foundation, and transport it 17 miles to our farm. Seems crazy that it’s even possible. We have a lot of details to take care of in the next few weeks. Praise God, last weekend we were able to move the upright piano (they marketed them as “cabinet grand pianos” in the day—yikes!) and take it to its new home. Many thanks to Scott and Josh for making that possible! We will also have a lot of work on our current trailer house to get it ready to move, since the basement is going to be built roughly where the trailer house stands now. Lots to do!
Lisa and I celebrated our first anniversary last weekend. A year ago we got married in a blizzard, and this year we’ve been running around in t-shirts. Crazy. We both find ourselves so very grateful to be sharing life together. We celebrated by going out for sushi to the restaurant where we had our first date. Then later in the weekend we got together with our home church for worship and food and conversation. It was so good!
We are also excited about our first author event coming up on March 23rd. It’s a meet-and-greet at Fair Trade Books in Red Wing, MN, focused on my novel, Death on Disappointment Mountain. One goal I set months ago is that I hoped to finish the first draft of the sequel before this event, and I finished it last weekend! I’ve got a draft out to a couple beta readers with specific expertise, and I’m trying to focus on other writing projects. We have another meet-the-author event lined up for June 22 in Alexandria, MN, at Cherry Street Books. What a fun way to meet people who love to read!
The Kickstarter for Wait for the Lightning has been a challenge. The world of independent publishing has so many marketing options these days, and you have to figure out what works for you. Apparently Kickstarter is not our jam. We will let the campaign play out and even if we don’t reach our goals, honor those who have stepped up to support the project. While we might come back to Kickstarter in the future, right now we’re going to focus on other ways of connecting with potential readers.
That said, we’re still very excited about Wait for the Lightning. We have had some delightful conversations with beta readers, and we’re eagerly waiting for the first copies of the finalized print book. The ebook will be released through KDP on May 1st. I’m still very hopeful that this book can help change the conversation around Genesis in our culture.
Two writing projects I’m currently working on: First, I’ve planned for months to spend some time this spring and summer finishing a book on Revelation. Much like WFTL, this is a book that could have a big impact on the conversation around Revelation in our culture. Both books grow out of materials I’ve taught many times over the years. Both focus on understanding how the original audience understood these texts (Genesis and Revelation). Once we understand how they read these documents, we can better apply them to our own situations.
The second project I’m eager to get into print is a collection of essays I’ve been writing on and off for the last twenty years. They’re all focused around the outdoors, mostly about hunting. The working title is Blood Trail: Reflections on following Jesus in the wild. These essays are nearly complete, and Lisa suggested that we might be able to make this available in time for Fathers Day. We’ll see!
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The winter that wasn’t is slowly giving way to spring here. The horses are enjoying the mild weather. We’ve gone through about half the hay I expected to use this winter, as they haven’t needed much help keeping warm. Pickett, our cat, has been spending more and more hours outdoors lately, keeping the rodent population under control. For the next couple weeks my responsibilities at my day job will increase, as my boss has family obligations and I’ll need to take on some of his responsibilities temporarily. So that will take a fair amount of my energy as well.
Life is full, and good, and I’m so grateful. Thanks for reading.