​Monday, July 1 --- 5,403 words

Tuesday, July 2 --- 8,406 words

Wednesday, July 3 --- 3,500 words

Thursday, July 4 ---  4,992 words

Friday, July 5 --- 6,832 words

Saturday, July 6 --- 4,002 words

Sunday, July 7 --- 6,966 words

TOTAL words for Week 12 --- 40,101 words

I'm late again to post my new book's intro info, although I've already made a dent in writing today. I was on Read My Lips Radio earlier today, with fabulous host Radio Red and co-guests James Hill and Candace MacPhie. It was livestreamed, but if you didn't manage to catch it in person, here's the recap:

And that leads me to this week and my new book. As I mentioned, I've already started writing it, and my new book is called The Art of Love. It's the first book in a trilogy, which I'll be knocking out, one by one, in the next three weeks. Here's what it's all about:

Miriam wants to leave it all behind—her boyfriend just ran off with her best friend a week before her wedding. She’s ready to hide and lick her wounds for the next five hundred years or so. That’s when a great opportunity strikes: she’s won a year-long fellowship sponsored by the Arts Council to study painting under her idol, contemporary Métis artist Jon McMurray. He runs an inn in the small town of Bobbins in Alberta.
 
But when she arrives, Jon seems to have never heard of the fellowship—or of her. He laughs off her paperwork and tries to kick her out. Undeterred, she offers to help out at the inn to prove herself. As she works closely with him, her hero-worship starts to change to something else. But does the grumpy artist see her only as a protégé or as a partner in more ways than one?

Come back on Sunday to see how it all turns out for Miriam and her crush when I read an excerpt from my new novel. Until then, have a great week!

The weather has warmed up considerably in a cross-province heat wave, and so I'm inside my house today and probably for the next couple of days as I'm writing. I'm just finishing typing the last few words of my new novel Sloshed... instead of outside in the oven that is my office in the summer, LOL.

I have to say, I usually I really like the characters I create - a good trait, since I'm the author, right? - but I LOVED writing these two characters this week, Fu and Violet. They have a great The Odd Couple vibe, which was a lot of fun to play up in the story.

​Here's an excerpt, so you can see a bit about what I mean:

And speaking of couples, I'm going to be tackling a multi-book contemporary romance series over the next 3 weeks, so tune in to hear about some more tortured... ahem, fun characters falling in love. (Well... love IS torture sometimes, isn't it?)

Until then, hope you have a great Sunday, and I'll get back to writing the last chapter of Sloshed. ​Until tomorrow!

​Monday, July 1 --- 3,244 words

Tuesday, July 2 --- 0 words

Wednesday, July 3 --- 9,767 words

Thursday, July 4 ---  7,001 words

Friday, July 5 --- 9,670 words

Saturday, July 6 --- 7,505 words

Sunday, July 7 --- 5,001 words

TOTAL words for Week 11 --- 42,188 words

Happy Canada Day! I'm getting a head start on the holiday by raising a glass to my new book, which is called Sloshed. In my new manuscript, I'm taking a Chinese water dragon and putting him into a modern-day setting, which will include a few modern-day concerns as well. Here's what the book's about:

When Fu retired, he figured he’d live his remaining days in peace in his favorite city of New York. Since belief in dragons has long been on the wane, and that’s what sustains his magic, he knows he doesn’t have many days left to him. He’s content to use his powers of shapeshifting and be the grumpy old man rocking a barstool for whatever time remains. Dragons don’t exist without belief, and the modern and cynical age has killed more than one of his kind.
 
However, one function of his powers used to be to help control rain – to bring it where it was needed and stop it where it’s not. As half the world gets torched by wildfires and the other half gets drowned by floods, the bartender of his favorite haunt discovers who the old man is… and starts to believe in him again. Violet begs him to set the world right. She begins a society of dragons to help bolster his dying powers and returns him to his youth and strength. So, he agrees to take up the mantle again and help the world. The only condition? Violet must accompany him and continue to make his favorite drink whenever he rests.
 
She agrees – she always wanted to see the world, but has never been able to. The reality is that he is only one dragon when there used to be thousands protecting the planet. But he promises to do his best to help, and Violet almost believes that, together, the two of them might be able to save the world.

This will be a fun one - my kids have loved dragons since they were really, really little, but I've never written a dragon book. After this week, I'll be able to say that I have! Have a great week, and see you back here again on Sunday for an excerpt from my new novel.