Updates and Upcoming #amediting #scifirom

Almost two weeks into July, and the summer break for my monsters is fast approaching, with the usual increase in and around school events. My eldest began her first week of work experience yesterday, which means me playing taxi to her place of work, as well as attending various school meetings, arranging a couple of sleepovers for youngest, and packing for 12yo's adventure holiday next week. 

Somehow around that I have to work and get things set up to run for the seven weeks I'm 'away' from social media. Generally I set up some snippets to cover my absence, but I don't think I'm going to do that this year. For one, I don't think yet more reruns of my current books are going to be particularly interesting to those who already know them. The second is I just don't think I'm going to get time! Thanks to Hootsuite now demanding payment for more than ten scheduled posts (apparently it varies from user to user, but I got just ten) I'm already having to use both Facebook page scheduling and Tweetdeck to automatically run posts. I need to rename my Tumblr cosplay blog and finish scheduling posts for it and set up an RSS feed from that to its own specific Twitter account (@TheIGSeamstress). I've already got three new book reviews scheduled to go from Critique de Book, and all the current ones will rerun over the holiday to keep my FB page active. That's going to be quite enough work! And of course there's the chicks...

So today's post is really going to be a bunch of updates, and lots of chick pics. Admit it, you're only here for the last. :P

Status Updates
I'm still working through the first round of edits for Unexpected but am completely confident of having those completed by the July 14th deadline. It's been a bit of light relief working on something that doesn't need quite such intensive work after essentially having to rewrite Keir's Shadow over the last few weeks.
Talking of which, Keir's Shadow came back from analysis (very) late last night. There's good news and bad news. The good is it doesn't suck as bad as I feared. The bad is my editor wants the book that needs to come before Keir's Shadow but after Keir's Fall. I guess I kind of knew that was coming, having felt there was something deeply unfinished about Shadow and having started to write that 'missing' story last year. My subconscious clearly knew. The problem is that story has barely begun and at my current rate I can't see it being written this year, let alone ready for publication. Y'all weren't holding your breath on getting Keir's Shadow this year...were you? >.< I suppose at least now I have a viable project for NaNoWriMo...
The other bit of good news is I'll probably now be able to reuse a discarded book title - the original name for Keir's Fall no less - which makes me a little bit happy. I hate giving up on a good title.
In the meantime, I guess I have even more incentive to finish edits on Reunion and possibly Revived so that I put something out this year. However, there are things going on behind the scenes that could have major effects on further publications, so I'm just going to keep going and see what happens. I'm sorry I can't be more specific.

Chook Update
My girls have been enjoying the sun and the garden, although they're fascinated by what's going on in the other coop with Effie, much to Effie's irritation. Both Kyru and Pitch keep going to investigate, which makes Effie growl a lot. Yes, chooks can growl (and purr). I just haven't been able to video it.

Scoop sunbathing

Pitch playing at being a lap chicken.
She refused to believe I didn't have food.

Chook invasion!

And now the pictures you really want - the chicks! They're four and five days old, and already growing in their wing feathers. They all ventured out of the nest box for the first time yesterday - the day before only three of them were feeling that brave - and are foraging for themselves, though Effie is being a perfect mum by calling them to her when she finds food and breaking up anything too big for them. They've also mastered their feet and balance a bit better, and can certainly move at a pace now!

Front: Cuckoo, with Lemon behind, then left to right at the back
are Lavender, Mot, and Splash.

The gang's all here! Left to right: Mille, Lemon, Splash, Lavender, Cuckoo and Mot.

Left to right: Lavender, Mot, Splash, and Mille

                                       

Lemon was the first chick out, but Effie's intense dust bathing set her running!

Peekaboo!

And I found an unexpected visitor in our hallway this morning!

We encountered this chap on the way to one of the numerous school meetings.
Meet a British hedgehog, if you aren't familiar with it.

It's weird to think that by this time next week, the chicks should have lost most of their fluff in favour of their adult feathers, though they won't be fully grown for another six weeks on top of that. I will try to keep you posted on their progress over the holidays because they will change that fast.
There are more chick pics posted on Twitter @pippajaygreen if you would like instant updates.