My Last Post for this Year

Have you ever felt that no matter what you do, nothing works out? The harder you push, the harder life pushes back?

Well, I’ve finally given in. Last week, after three separate bouts of flu, tonsillitis got me. So I’m taking a short break, to recharge and to replenish the stores.

With the traveling abroad and the constant getting used to new places and habits, I’ve gotten a little distant from my kids and my wife. It finally got to a critical point. Now, I need to turn inward for a while before coming back to blogging and writing.

I’m going to spend long evenings playing with my son, who is at a challenging and wonderful age. I’m going to have long, lazy evenings with my wife. I’m going to visit some Christmas markets and buy presents.

But here’s a teaser of what’s to come on the blog in the new year:

• What we can learn about becoming heroic from Thomas Carlyle
• The Russian Book of Kells
• 5 Interesting Facts about Medieval Moscow
• Animal motifs in icons
• Facts and myths about Domostroi
• How to organize your day like a 19th century Russian noblewoman

And plenty more.

As far as the novel-writing life goes, I’ve received an answer from the last publishing house that was looking at Lamentation of Sirin, and they’ve said “Maybe.” I won’t get a final answer from them until May at the earliest.

But, in the meantime, I’m working on two novellas, one occurring before Lamentation and one acting as a bridge between novels one and two. I’ll make both of those free, first to subscribers only, then to everyone. So look for the first of those around March or so.

In the meantime, I hope to see you in the comments section of my novels and on my Facebook page. I’ve been happy to see that some people have been sending me content to share on my page. I’m very happy to repost things that I find engaging or edifying. So keep em coming!

Thank you for your support and for sticking around!