Hello, my dears and darlings and isolated hamburgers. (MY DARLING, MY HAMBURGER was a young-adult novel by Paul Zindel from 1969. It’s something Deb and I commonly call each other.)

Just thought I’d bring you up to speed on what’s going on at our house, in my head, and with the overall progress of various books and other projects.

Like most everyone else these days, we are sheltering in place, which in our case means staying home with four college-age young people, three dogs (varying kinds of crazy), a cat and a snake. The isolation itself is not that unusual, at least for me and for Deb, since we’ve been working from home for years, so please don’t feel too sorry for us. And I, at least when I’m in my normal writing mode, hardly go out anyway, except to hurry to the local store and buy more ice cream or other crucial writing tools.

(I have a bowl at the end of the day. It’s a reward for getting all my work done. I use it in a very sensible way and I can quit anytime I want, I swear.)

The dogs are generally pleased and puzzled by having us around so much. Our big dog, who is, as Deb calls him, “John, John, the Writer’s Son”, always hates it whenever anyone leaves for any reason. Me going away on tour has always been an even bigger tragedy to him: when he sees a suitcase or me pulling more than one shirt off the rail in the closet, he goes into full Eeyore mode, sulking and inconsolable. He won’t even make eye contact with me. So you think he’d be happy that I’m ALWAYS around these days, but apparently that’s not 100 percent satisfactory either. He groans a lot before he makes room for me on the bed, then finally rolls over with bad grace so I can squeeze onto my sliver of the edge of the mattress. Half an hour later he will be flopped all over me, head on my chest, making sure I don’t try to sneak off.

Anyway, here’s the latest scoop on books and schedules. Things are delayed, but so far those delays are nothing to do with COVID-19. Many of you know I lost most of a year to a shoulder problem in 2018, and after the operation and the rehab, started writing THE NAVIGATOR’S CHILDREN in April of last year. I worked a lot (seven days a week) and pretty fast, and the manuscript is now all but finished—1300 pages at last count, so in second place behind TGAT for all-time longest Tad book—but we ran out of time for the 10/20 publication date that had originally been planned. Just before the whole virus thing hit, we had to push it back to 10/21, because that was the only appropriate date available on the publication schedule.

Because of this sudden extra year added to the delivery schedule, I decided that I would put CHILDREN aside and finish the second short novel that was meant to go with the trilogy (THE HEART OF WHAT WAS LOST was the first short novel).

So that’s what I’m working on at the moment, with the idea that now it—the short novel—would be published before CHILDREN, which actually works out better for the overall story. So, expect the new short, still tentatively titled THE SHADOW OF THINGS TO COME to be published in 6/21, some months before the last volume of the trilogy finally hits the shelves and the virtual retail world.

Deb and I are also working on the third of our ORDINARY FARM books. Deb has written her draft, and it’s now waiting on me for the second draft. More details on that when I’m able to start. Deb is currently working on some writing projects of her own, and when I clear my desk of the two Osten Ard works I’ll be doing some other stuff too. It’s entirely possible that I may be announcing my next novels before too long. We’ll let you know.

So, that update delivered, just wanted to say that I hope you are all bearing up in a difficult time and practicing isolation whenever possible. My parents are in good shape but vulnerable, and we have two-to-three immunocompromised people here in our household (one with asthma, which I think counts but I’m not sure) and your caution helps to protect our loved ones as well as yours. Think of it as getting to experience the lonely grumpiness of a full-time writer like me, like a theme park ride. Complain about what’s in the refrigerator! Rage about missing or misplaced tools! Trip over dogs! You too can have the Tad Experience!

Anyway, more seriously, I hope this finds you and yours well. Stay in touch!

Love from our house,

Tad