Lee Hutch's Blog, page 9

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Seven

April 24th

 The exterior work on the house is almost done. All they have left to do is replace the rails on the front porch and paint the new rails and also the rails on the back porch (but we arent replacing those). They will be here tomorrow to take care of that. So it will be a somewhat welcome respite for the noise. I have to say, the paint job looks really good. This morning, I walked out to the street to take a look. A few people driving by stopped to say how nice it looked. Even...

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Six

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April 18th

 We are in the process of trying to get the insurance company to re-evaluate their decision. Our contractor submitted a report and estimate to them, along with some more photos. Well see what happens. Im not holding out much hope, but the total repair cost isnt too egregious. (Less than 10K for tearing off one layer of asphalt shingles and one layer of cedar shake shingles, re-decking the entire roof, and then a new asphalt shingle covering.) Thankfully, with a 900 square foot...

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Five

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Rain damage according to the insurance

April 10th

 The adjuster came out yesterday and met with us and our roofing contractor. He gave everything a thorough going over and took a lot of pictures. We largely stayed out of his way and let our contractor handle it. When the adjuster left, the contractor said that the adjuster told him that he was going to recommend that our windstorm insurance pay to replace the entire roof. 90% of the time, they go with the adjusters recommendation, so our...

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Four

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(Part Four of my Quarantine Diary)

April 3rd

 Today is D-Day on numerous fronts. First of all, and the thing I am most excited/nervous about, Molly O returns from my editor this afternoon. Of course, this means Ill have a lot of work ahead of me as I sort through all of her suggestions, but its work of a positive nature. Then she will go back for a copyedit in late June. After that, I enter Query Letter Hell. On the other front, I figure that today should be the day that I know if I have The...

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Three

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March 27th

 Today was a full day, even though I decided to step away from working on my classes for the day, apart from sending and replying to some emails. Its a funny thing, this switch to virtual classrooms, Im actually busier now each day and indeed, I have longer days, than when Im teaching a normal semester. But normal this semester is certainly not, so I rewarded myself with having a bit of a free day. I started watching the AMC series The Son. It is pretty interesting. Granted, Ive...

2020 Independent Audiobook Award Finalist!

Dear Readers,

I am pleased to announce that So Others May Live has been named a finalist in the General Fiction Category of the Independent Audiobook Awards! A big thanks to my listeners, readers, my editor, and my narrator.

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Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Two

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Dear Readers,

This is the second installment of my Journal of a Pandemic Year series. If you missed the first one, you can find it here.

March 19th: Night

My wife and I sat on the porch tonight between the hours of 8pm and 9pm, as we do every night, pandemic or not. The internets is rife with rumors of martial law (which people misspell as marshall law. I dont believe the rumors. Thats the negative thing about social media. These things spread like wildfire. Still, we only have enough...

So Others May Live Named A Finalist!

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Dear Readers,

Allow me to make a brief announcement. I am chuffed to announce that my first novel, So Others May Live, has been named a finalist in the War & Military category of the 2019 Foreward Indies Awards! You can see the announcement and the list of my co-finalists here. If you are suffering from boredom during our current situation, consider reading one of their books. I particularly suggest No Common War by Luke Salisbury. Its a novel set during the Civil War and is a very good...

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part One

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Dear Readers,

This semester was well and truly f-d from the beginning. I missed the first week of class due to being hospitalized for a complication stemming from the disease I was diagnosed with a couple of years ago. When I returned to class, it felt like I was struggling to get my feet under me. Then an incident happened that made me question my whole decision to teach in the first place. And now? Well, now Ill be confined to quarters for the duration of the semester as we have switched...

Journal of a Plague Year: Part One

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Dear Readers,

This semester was well and truly f-d from the beginning. I missed the first week of class due to being hospitalized for a complication stemming from the disease I was diagnosed with a couple of years ago. When I returned to class, it felt like I was struggling to get my feet under me. Then an incident happened that made me question my whole decision to teach in the first place. And now? Well, now Ill be confined to quarters for the duration of the semester as we have switched...