Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated my blog. I’m around and have been working away like a busy bee, but haven’t really felt a strong need to blog. I want to get back into it and I do have lots of food photos to share.

I’ve also been working on my first novel. Oddly enough, I posted exactly a year ago saying I was almost finished with this book. And I was. Sort of. Because this is my first novel, I really wanted to take my time and do as good of a job as I could. Nearly every day, as Tom can attest, I’ve worked on this thing. It’s been written 3 times — last year when I posted, I had only written it twice. Every time I rewrote the story, I learned a ton about writing.

This final version is the final and best version, and I am going to submit it to some agents to see what happens. I feel stressed, but what do I have to lose? The worst (and most likely) outcome is that they will say no. If that happens, I’ll go another route – self publishing or internet or whatever.

At the time of this post, I have two chapters left to write and then I need to go through and finish my edits. The first three chapters are pretty much done and I’ve been passing them around. I even already have fans in my church, if you can believe that. It’s a weird feeling to know that I have fans, but it’s really encouraged me.

The book is called “The Fourth Channel” (sorry, I don’t know how to underline in HTML) and if you’re interested in taking a peek at the first chapter, post a comment below or send me an email.

I’m very excited about having this book done. Already my brain is churning over the next book, which is actually the practice book I had been working on before this one. A few days ago, I woke up at 3AM, and the first chapter just hit me. The idea is an exciting new and gritty start to the story, giving it a whole new flavor and tons of possibilities, and I’m excited to get going. Now that I’ve learned so much working on this current book, I expect new projects to go a lot faster. At least, I hope.

In gaming news, I’m sure it hasn’t escaped anyone’s attention that I disappeared from WoW yet again. Sorry. I’ve been playing a PS3 game called Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. It’s a strategy game, which appeals to me because I loved Final Fantasy Tactics. Disgaea is similar in that it’s a strategy game, but it’s like FFT on crack. So when I’m playing games, I’ve been playing that. Maybe I’ll get back into WoW, but I think I’m nurturing a healthy fear of Sabe hitting level 80 and, if I invest a couple more hours into her, that’s what she’ll be.

And yes, she’s still dressed like the Ghost of Arenas Past.

My sound room is also done. In my spare time (har) I’ve been working on elements for a music project that is going to be coming very soon. Not much to say about that yet, but soon.

More to come, and hopefully some food related topics! Tom and I have a lot of cookouts and BBQ’s on the social calendar so I’ll have a wealth of photos and recipes to share… So stay tuned.