Barney is here in my icon to remind me that the payoff for putting bottom in chair and fingers to keyboard (instead of playing Sims2 all day, which is what part of me wants to do) is success at my ultimate goal.

Another great reminder that the goal is in reach is having a good friend tell me I have to wait to talk to her because she's reading Orphans in the Storm at the moment. Positive feedback is always a good thing. Tell a favorite author what they're doing right and dollars to donuts, there will be an extra bolt of energy when they sit down to do it again. As much fun as writing is, there are times when it's hard or inconvenient or we don't feel like it. Then again, imagine if your doctor or bus driver didn't have to go to work when they didn't feel like it. What if a homemaker didn't feel like wrangling some combination of kids/pets/seniors/housework? Nope, we all have work, and we all have to do it. As a former writing group facilitator of mine used to say, the process can lead to the passion, or as my mother used to say, the more you do, the more you'll want to do. They are both right.

Yet another reminder is the fact that I am in the start of the end of the second draft stage. In a handful of days, I will be at the NEC conference, pitching Endless Summer, possibly to its future home. There's an incentive if there ever was one. Plus the free promo items (I will never have to buy a pen again if I can go to enough conferences, truly.) and free chocolate (source of my "I can only have Lindor truffles if I wrote" rule) not to mention free books at every meal. Even better than that is the fact that I will be among other writers for the better part of a weekend, metric tons of creativity in the air.

Here's the part of my post where I remind myself to add a random Orphans in the Storm fact: the look of Eben, Simon's friend and right hand man, was inspired by British decorator Laurence Llewllyn-Bowen.

::Cartwheel:: It's here! It's here! Orphans in the Storm is finally here!

It seems like a lifetime ago that Jonnet and Simon came into my life, but now that they're ready to mingle with the wide world, it's easy for me to slip back into their world. I've always loved the history of the British Isles, and a project with a collaborator, begun a few years back, gave me an appreciation for Dutch history as well, so it was a natural that an idea would present itself at a time when British and Dutch history intertwined.

Near the end of England's Civil War, times were tough in Charles II's Court in exile in the Netherlands. Loyal British subjects who longed for their king's return and the end of the Protectorate contributed the finances needed to bring their rightful monarch home. Throw in a guilt-riddled hero with a strong sense of duty, a heroine out of her element but determined to prevail, even in the face of serious family dysfunction, and an adventure that sweeps from the Isle of Man to the frosty Netherlands, and Orphans in the Storm was born.

Sound interesting? Go here to read an excerpt.