HELLO, loyal FANS!
I'm so grateful for all of you that have been patient and stuck with me through a very tumultuous year! 😊
I know who you are, and I truly appreciate you!
I won't bore you with rehashing All of the previous history. Feel free to read my previous blog posts to catch up on this year's crazy and un-anticipated events.
This post is to get you all up to speed!
QUICK SUMMARY:
My last post (around April) we were preparing to travel to and MC our God-daughter's wedding.
We were also supporting and helping her Mom (a best friend of over 30 years) get her house listed & sold after her hubby (also a dear friend) passed in January.
Simultaneously, my Mom was dealing with multiple serious health issues that required the family to all pitch in to help her and Dad.
PLUS...We were facing a summer chock-full of a MOUNTAIN of critical repairs on this house we just bought in Taber!
There were a LOT of things that suddenly demanded our attention!
Well, it's Nov 05 of the same wild year, and I have GREAT things to report!
The wedding was a smashing success, so I'm super happy about that. As always, my wife Denise was integral to ensuring things went smoothly. She is so talented & generous, stepping in to make things happen wherever and whenever is needed. I am so lucky & blessed to have her as my life partner! 😘
Our dear friend has sold her house & fully moved, and is now slowly but surely adjusting to the next chapter in her life. Re-connecting with her after so long has been a very special blessing to us both this year :)
My Mom still has serious health issues, but she is now largely stable, and in Much better condition than she was at the start of this year. Unfortunately, Denise' Mom has had some concerning health issues crop up in the last year. SIGH, watching parents age is no fun. :(
We have been so blessed by the incredible hot summer this year, (Thank you, Lord) which allowed us to tackle a Massive amount of those critical home repairs! We both "ran ourselves into the ground," but it was worth it.
With the first snow fall of the year flying this week, I can look outside with great relief, knowing that the vast majority of those critical exterior repairs on our house were completed before the winter weather hit!😃 This fact allows me to proceed undistracted with returning to the Captain Choo Critter Capers books!
TWO DAYS AGO, I submitted a Query letter to Scholastic, hoping to partner with them as a publisher.
Currently I'm self-publishing through Blurb. They're great, but a BIG publishing house should be able to MASSIVELY reduce my Print Costs, AND... simultaneously MASSIVELY increase my Publicity and global Exposure. That translates to me potentially being able to offer my fans the best price possible world-wide, while reaching a much larger audience, which I think is critical to making the business financially viable. It's a justified and prudent long-term goal.
Getting hired by a Big Publisher is no easy task, so it's a long-term endeavour that I will keep actively working on. Meantime, barring any further complications, I will keep drawing and self-publishing the books I've already written.
TODAY, I caught up on all my business ACCOUNTING for the year, that had been put aside while I was hammered with reno/repair projects. It's mundane and boring, but still absolutely necessary.
TOMORROW, the goal is to "take up the Captain CHOO mantle" again!
I am so eager to jump back into the actual ART! I Really HATED having to stop drawing the illustrations for Book 6, "The BEAVER with a CLEAVER" esp. midway, back in January. That actually "ATE" at me all this year! My "THRILL" comes from doing the actual writing and art, plus I really despise leaving Any project unfinished!
Tomorrow, I intend to begin rectifying that, picking up Book 6 where I left off.
It's a hard "SLOG," resuming ANYTHING 10 months later, because that usually means you're out of practice, you've forgotten stuff, and you need to reset & refresh...but past experience has taught me that I can pick up the old skills quickly.
With that in mind, I hope to have this book completed by year end!
Love❤ & Blessings,
Dave Chouhan, AKA Captain CHOO💖
