Life in Progress

99.9% of the time, when someone shows you something and then adds the line "Well, it's a work in progress," that's their way of saying "Yes, I know this kinda looks like a hack job right now, but quit judging me for it."  So.  Take today's title as you like.

With the last string of comments received on the blog's appearance, we've made some changes to the design of this particular work in progress to make it slightly less dark and halloween-all-year-long-ish.  That being said, I really don't see what the problem would be with having Halloween every day of the year.  I mean come on, how sweet a gig would that be?  Everybody in costumes all the time, I could wear my cloak to work without getting stared at overmuch, and you could just send your kids around the neighborhood to collect candy when you're trying to get them all riled up in the middle of the afternoon so they'll be ready to drop come bedtime.  That's a winning theory right there.  But I digress.

For those of you who received our Christmas letter/update, most of what follows is just an update to said correspondence, and for those of you who didn't, we probably didn't have your address entered into our contact information in either of our phones.  Facebook messages are a wonderful way of rectifying that particular situation.

The two very large deals around our house over the last month or so consist of one exciting event in fiction and another in reality.  One must have balance between these things in life, it seems.  The first, and fictional bit of excitement (the story is fictional, but the fun (for all our Big Bang Theorist friends out there) is real!) has been the publication of The Lightborn Queen, which is the conclusion to the Ironborn Cycle, the previous two of which were published on Kindle earlier this year.  The whole online publishing experience has been an interesting ride for us over this past year, but it's something we've wanted to do for some time, and this was the right trilogy to do it with.  We're not sure what's going to be going up next so far as self-published works, but we certainly won't be stopping at three, that's for sure.

The most exciting piece of news of late has been the confirmation of Dave's suspicions as to the gender of our coming child.  After much speculation, none of which was backed up by true empirical evidence, modern science has confirmed that our baby is indeed a boy.  Bring on the blue onesies, the complicated potty-training, the parade of car rides to various kinds of sport practices, and eventually, another priesthood holder in the house.  Very excited about at least half of these things.  Which half, you decide for yourself.



This Christmas season, we'll be staying pretty close to home.  Christmas is at Dawn's grandparents' home this year, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone there for the festivities.

In our home at this time of year, we celebrate the birth of Christ, no matter when his birthday factually happened in our history.  We do this to remind ourselves that we should be thinking of him and the blessings of his life and his gospel in our lives all the rest of the year, not just at Christmas.  In that same way, though some of you may only seldom hear from us because of distance and distraction, we want you to know that you also are dear to us at all times, and not just when the days are shortest.  May peace and laughter linger constantly in your homes, long after the Christmas music has finally been turned off and the decorations have been shuffled back into the attic.  

Greetings, Mortals!!!

First posts are always awkward, aren't they?  There's always all this stress of making the right impression the first time, trying to immediately impress upon the reader all the intricacies and quirks of your nature in a few words delivered digitally through the modern miracle of . . . well . . . everything.  It's tough.  I've never been much good at first posts.  That's why I'm not gonna do one.  We're just gonna dive right in.  Anyone reading this already knows us anyway, so introductory posting seems just a touch repetitively redundant at this juncture anyway.

We've decided to keep a blog because, as most of you are personally familiar, the act of journalling and record-keeping is a part of our beliefs.  It's normally one of those parts of the discussion on Sundays during which you can kinda see the guilt wash like a wave through everyone's expression like a bad cheer at a football game.  The overwhelming sensation in the room is one of "Can we please talk about something else? I know I should be doing that on a regular basis, but . . . hey look!  Something shiny!!!"  Therefore, in an effort to counteract the Something Shiny reflex, this will become a regularly scheduled effort of ours to update and amaze.  And so, without further ado, we begin. 

Life is good.  That's really the best way we can describe it at the moment, honestly.  Dawn is still working over at Chicago Title in Olathe with her aunt and uncle, and the dietary sanctions levied against her by our still-cooking child seem to have been lifted for the time being.  For a while there, it was down to chicken and bread.  Less than fun.  For now, though, she's just into the cramping-at-all-times stage of things, waiting for the time when she starts getting physically assaulted from within.  On December 5th, we'll be going for the ultrasound to determine the baby's gender, so we'll find out whether it's Allie or Adam who will be joining us next year.  (Dave thinks it's a boy, Dawn still thinks it's a girl.  One of us is bound to be right.  News at 11.)

As for Dave, he's settling into his job working for United Health Group one week at a time.  He's being trained for about six different job functions, it seems like, and so there's a lot to take in, but he's meeting lots of people from his company and settling into the role one week at a time.  Learning how to work with Medicaid specifically and health insurance generally is a lot to take in, but if he can navigate tech support, he figures he can navigate health insurance.  

Life in fiction is also going swimmingly.  The first two books of our werewolf trilogy, The Ironborn Claim and The Heartborn Mate have been out for some time now, and we've almost finished the formatting and preliminary work necessary for the third one's release.  The only piece of that puzzle still missing is the cover artwork (big shout-out here to Jen Hessler, whose artwork on these books has been phenomenal in every way!) and the final formatting, and The Lightborn Queen should be out for publication around the beginning of December.  Just in time for the Mayapocalypse we've all been hearing so much about this year.  Yay. 

This week, we'll be headed down to Arkansas to meet up with the Ball team for Thanksgiving, which will be loads of fun all around.  Dave is looking forward to beating many of them in chess (again), and Dawn is looking forward to assisting in a hostile takeover of Tina's kitchen for the day.  Should be good times all around.  

For now, it's off to do more writing.  The work of fiction never ends.  Or at least, it should never end.  Not if it's being done right.  More to come in December, when we have another book out and we'll find out who the next contestant will be on "Mortality with The Brumbleys."  Until then, the answer is still 42.