My house in America had a water leak right before Christmas. The repairs were supposed to take 3 weeks. They finally ended in mid-April. The flooring had to be redone 2-3 times due to unimaginably bad workmanship by the crew. I can't even count the number of times the drywall had to be looked at again. It was a big challenge to manage it from Japan. I'm just glad it's over though.

The good news on the real-life front is that we moved in late January. We now have a bigger place, still river-front, and close to two big shopping centers. Sadly it's a bit far from Costco, but I'll live, esp. since I now have an actual office.

The new place, however, needed a new kitchen. The previous owner ripped out all the cabinet doors. I have no idea why. No, the doors weren't rotted or anything. And the stove didn't work quite right, and the fish oven/grill was really gross with rust all up inside it. Thankfully, ripping out the old kitchen and putting a new one in was done on time, with no major problems and very minimal supervision. The biggest angst we had with this particular job was deciding on the color of the new flooring.

Then The Boy got the chickenpox--he's okay now--and had some misadventures.

So since I had all these crises and issues, I didn't get to do any serious writing from January until late March. I didn't start writing again until late March, and very slowly, too.

The good news is that the sequel to Carnal Secrets--featuring Ethan and Kerri--are with a couple of betas. I've also outlined the 3rd book in the series featuring Ethan's younger brother, Gavin, so hopefully I'll be able to finish the first draft by summer if not sooner.

I'm hoping to release both titles this year before Christmas. If you want to know and/or get sneak previews, sign up for my newsletter below:

Hope everyone has a lovely May.

This morning, I left him alone with Hero Material and went grocery shopping. He pretended to go to his room to grab some toys or something, but then he detoured and snuck into the shower and started the hot water*.

The Boy neglected to take off his clothes, so of course he got soaked through instantly. So Hero Material had no choice but to wash him, and he was thrilled to be finally squeaky clean again.

Thankfully, he's gotten over the chickenpox, so he can go back to daycare and hang out with his chibi (= very small) friends. Yay us.

* Japanese bathrooms have shower controls at around most adult's shin level because people here like to shower while sitting down. Also the water wasn't super hot or anything because it takes a while to warm up, and the shower temperature is set for 41C / 106F.