Joe Beernink's Blog, page 6

A New and Pretty Song–Maddie and Tae–After the Storm Blows Through

Heard this song the other day, and it just stuck with me. Very pretty, and calls to be on a soundtrack somewhere. Enjoy.

Time for a Roundup

No, not a cattle roundup. A roundup of news and what’s been going on and keeping me busy lately.

At the risk of no one reading past the first news, I am going to start with the goings on regarding Nowhere Wild. Obviously, there was the big news from Friday night of getting the first copies of the ARC. That was a pretty thrilling night. I let Lisa open the package. Just seemed like the right thing to do, since she was the one who told me to start writing again all those years ago.

There’s been lots of other book related things going on, from proofs that I’ve reviewed, and reviews of proofs that I’ve reviewed (seriously). I’ve also begun prepping for the marketing blitz planned for the launch. I’ve got a couple of blog entries and a short story for other sites already written, and have been trying to make sure retailers have the correct information for the book, and have been registering in their various author programs (more on that in the near future). I’ve also been prepping for the launch party. I visited the University Bookstore in Seattle over the weekend to check out the venue. More details on that to come as we get closer to the launch date as well.

On the work side, life has been extremely busy. A phase on a project I’ve been working on will be wrapping up soon, and for a while it was consuming every spare moment I had, including some I didn’t. I’m a morning person, not a night owl, and there were more than a few days of working past nine at night… sometimes as late as eleven. Anyone who knows me, knows my brain completely shuts down at 9:36 PM. Coding any later than that is usually a recipe for disaster. But somehow the work had to get done, and it did.

At home, things have been equally hectic. My daughter Lorelai has been taking piano lessons, and just finished her first performance of “Ode to Joy” for her school class. Lisa and I are very proud at how hard she worked at it.

My son just finished up his third season of baseball, and did very well. He still has plans to play professionally after college. That’s not a bad goal for an eight year old, and judging by the way the Mariners have been hitting this year, something that is looking all the more likely by the day.

I’ve started riding bikes again… riding my road bike around the neighborhood, and taking my son mountain biking at a local bike park. My daughter tried it once, but she wasn’t quite up to it. She’s usually the fearless one, but one steep descent turned her off. Hopefully she’ll give it another try. Reece and I have a ton of fun every time we go (when my bike doesn’t break down… FYI, it’s really hard to ride with a busted seat.)

Between work, and baseball, and piano, we haven’t had a lot of spare time, but when we do have spare time, I can now sit outside on our patio and write. It gets a little warm there by about 5 PM, but it’s absolutely perfect earlier in the day. A little music and a laptop, and away I go.

And yes, I have been writing again. I’ve got two books on the go right now. That’s a little unusual for me, but I started on one, and then this other one jumped into my head one night. I wrote down the outline and immediately churned out the first chapter. We’ll see where it goes, but it seems to have legs.

Just 70 days left until Nowhere Wild launches, and my summer is already absolutely packed, It’s times like this that I miss my old train commute into Seattle. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss the 3 hours a day in transit, but I do miss the guaranteed writing time each day. Somehow I have to wriggle it back into my schedule, or neither of these two books will get done this year.

Oh yeah, here’s tonight’s sunset. It get’s pretty easy to take them for granted around here, but man are they amazing.

Seattle GBS-CIDP Foundation Walk and Roll–We did it!

Today was the First Annual Seattle GBS-CIDP Walk and Roll at Magnuson Park. It’s been over three years since I first came down with GBS. Walking a mile back then would have killed me. Now, it’s a just a Sunday stroll with the family, in a beautiful park along Lake Washington with a large group of GBS Survivors, each with heartbreaking stories of how GBS brought them down, and uplifting stories of how they have / are still recovering.

Many thanks to the organizers who put on this wonderful event. At last tally, over $12,000 was raised for GBS awareness. If you’d like to donate, please check out http://www.gbs-cidp.org/.

It Has Arrived!

Look what landed in my mailbox today….

My very first ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) of Nowhere Wild! I am thrilled beyond words. There is much squee!

Lisa has not read it in a couple of years, and a lot has changed in the story since she last read it. I can’t wait to get her thoughts on it.

I’ll have more words for the interwebs later this weekend. For now, I’m going to just take the evening and enjoy staring at the cover.

Seattle Walk and Roll for Guillain-Barre Syndrome

As a Guillain-Barre survivor, I like to help out those who have just found out that they have GBS, or are struggling to recover from it. I was encouraged by so many other during my recovery, but nothing does as much good for the soul and the spirit as seeing that others have made it through, and are going about living normal lives.

Three years ago, I couldn’t walk to the mailbox. Things are infinitely better now. To prove it, on Sunday, June 14th at Magnuson Park in Seattle, I’ll be participating in the GBS|CIDP Foundation International Walk and Roll to support those who are still dealing with this debilitating syndrome.

This effort will raise the profile of GBS within the general and medical community. Immediate and proper diagnosis of GBS is critical to a speedy treatment and recovery. The quick diagnosis I received at Puyallup’s Good Samaritan Hospital was key to stopping the symptoms before they became life threatening and permanently debilitating.

If you want to attend to show your support for this worthy effort, please sign up. If you can’t attend, but still want to donate (or even share some words of support for those dealing with GBS), please visit my donation page on the site, and help the team reach our goal.

Please spread the word, and feel free to share my story. It’s a disease that can be beaten, and I’m proof of that.

Tonight’s Sunset Brought to You by the Letter ‘O’

As in Orange… and oh my!

Save the Date! Nowhere Wild Launch Party–August 24th, 2015

I am very pleased to announce that we will, in fact, be having a launch party for Nowhere Wild on Monday, August 24th, 2015 at 7:00 PM at University Books in Seattle. This is actually the night before the books go on sale throughout Canada and the US, but I have been told there will be stock available for purchase at the event for those who want to get an early start on reading it. And if you would like, I will even sign it for you!

So save the date, and come on out! I hope to see lots of familiar faces there!

Sunset over Seattle

Had a pretty awesome sunset over Seattle tonight. My camera skills don’t really do it justice, but I’ll keep working at it. If you look really hard, you can see the silhouette of the Space Needle.

A Day Trip

I took a trip into Toronto today where I met up with Rachel Letofsky from The Cooke Agency. We headed over to Yonge and Bloor and up to the HarperCollins offices on the 20th floor. We were grandly welcomed by a sign in the lobby. How cool is this?

 

Hadley Dyer (not pictured) led us on a tour of the office, where we met many of the folks diligently working on many projects, including Nowhere Wild, which was just being sent to type-setting when we arrived. (Again, how cool is that?) It hit me this morning, while there, that “Holy cow, this is actually happening!”

I managed to snap a shot of Yonge Street from one of their conference rooms. It’s been 20 years since I’ve been in Toronto, and it seems so much bigger. It absolutely sprawls, in every direction, even up. Seattle is big. Toronto is massive.

After the meet and greet, we went out for celebratory lunch (as we in the publishing industry do), to talk about the book and things to come as we approach the launch date. Nothing is written in stone at this point (besides the launch date which is set for August 25th in both US and Canada), but we covered a lot of ground, and it was a very productive and enjoyable meeting.

I’m rather exhausted after 7 hours of driving today, so it may take me a day or so to recover, but hey, this was a really cool experience, and I had to share. G’night!

Breaking News: Nowhere Wild US Launch Date Moved UP!

Yes, you read that correctly. HarperCollins has moved the US launch date for Nowhere Wild up from February 23rd, 2016, to August 25th, 2015. Yes, that is the same day it launches in Canada.

Why did this happen? Not exactly sure. Something to do with warehousing, of all things. Someone must have waved a magic wand somewhere, and poof! Launchus datus accelleratus!

Now if only they can wave a magic wand over me and clone me for the next 6 months. So much to do! So much writing to be done! 173 days until launch. Holy Cow!