This Blog is Moving

Seven years. Over 1,100 posts. Over half a million page views.  And its time for a new start in a new space.

From 1 January 2014 this old blog is officially retired.  But the ranting, raving and jam recipes will be  continuing, just as they have always been.

You can find me at

http://caitlynnicholas.com/blog

See you there!

PURSUIT

Out Now!!

“Oh Sarah Easton —” A cold digital voice mocked her. “It’s about to begin. Send the virus.”

Cold horror washed over Dimity. She jabbed the phone’s off button and dropped it on the table.

A noise, the rough grate of wood on metal, startled her. Numbers curled across her mind as a migraine inched closer.

“It’s the stove.” She spoke out loud, to break the quiet.

Beau – the labrador – cozy and content at the base of the wood-burning stove, continued to sleep as if he’d spent the morning chasing rabbits.

Which he hadn’t.

Unless bacon was involved, Beau never ran.

The silence of the house closed back around her.

She scooped up the phone, hesitating, waiting, and hoping the suffocating dread would dissipate. It didn’t. Then she hooked the handset back into its base, flicked open the dishwasher and unloaded the dirty cups and glasses she’d stacked there in a rare burst of domesticity that morning.

Someone hammered on the front door. A thick white mug, with the faded words Nerd Girl on it, slipped from her fingers, bounced off the side of the dishwasher door and shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor.

Jake? It couldn’t be him. He had a key and was in the south of France. But no one ever came to visit, she made sure of it.

The person hammered again.

“Shit,” she muttered. “This stupid life.”

Amazon - iTunes - Amazon UK

Pursuit...

Wow! Just WOW!! Pursuit is shooting up the bestseller lists.  Huge thanks to everyone who has bought a copy...

Legendary hacker, Dimity Pond, is on the run from the law.  

Her landlord’s sold her home, her money has disappeared along with her two-timing husband, a cyber-terrorist named Nemesis is forcing her to wreak havoc with a nasty virus and she's developing a vile migraine.

Six years ago, Nemesis framed Dimity for the collapse of one of Europe's biggest banks. The money was never found, and the bank's failure caused untold damage to its customers. She's been living under the radar ever since. The only way she can clear her name and live a normal life is to uncover Nemesis's identity, but he's always one step ahead.

Since Lord Richard Summerhayes left the Special Forces he's built the best disaster-recovery network in the world, known as The Bunker. Banks, militaries, airports and other major systems around the world rely on him as the last unshakeable digital fortress in the face of disaster. Richard has been keeping an eye on his neighbor who has a dubious hacking past. He doesn't like hackers, and when someone nukes his network with an intriguing new virus he knows exactly who to blame. But when he confronts her, he gets a whole lot more than he bargained for.

When Nemesis commits an unthinkable act of terrorism, the last hope is an encrypted file that only Dimity can crack. Will Nemesis manipulate Dimity into helping him wipe out the world's biggest financial center? Or can Richard and Dimity take Nemesis down once and for all?

“My name is Susan Kiffler.” The woman had a cultured English accent that perfectly matched her outfit.
Kiffler? Dimity’s heart stopped.
“So?”
The woman scrabbled around in her gigantic mauve handbag. “This is a photo of me and my husband, Jake Kiffler, on our wedding day.” She held out a picture with a hand that shook. Not just trembling, but shaking, like an online gamer at the end of a forty-eight hour session, down to his last quart of caffeinated beverage.
Dimity took the photo from the trembling hand and stared at it, trying to make out what it meant. A stunned, sledgehammered feeling made it hard to concentrate. Thoughts skittered out of her grasp and fragmented, like the smashed mug.
One thing was certain.
Jake was the groom who smiled at her from the photo.
“He said it was a disaster, that his first marriage only lasted a few months.” Dimity lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. Jake knew her secrets. He’d helped her create a vague sort of life.
Hiding. Isolated.
“Jake Kiffler and I have been married for eleven years.” The woman pulled out a piece of paper and waved it at Dimity. It was a wedding certificate. “We’re not divorced. He’s still my husband.” She pointed to his name on the paper, then put it carefully away.
“Get away from my house.” Dimity reached forward and flicked the photograph back into the gaping bag. “Go away.”
Susan grabbed her wrist. “He’s disappeared. We’ve got two children.”

Amazon - iTunes - Amazon UK

PURSUIT - out now!

Its 1 August and Pursuit is finally released.

Cannot describe how excited I am!!  You guys are going to love this book...

When Dimity and Richard first meet its not exactly love at first sight...

The purr of a powerful engine made her glance around. A luxurious car cautiously made its way into the yard, its fat tires creeping through the mud.
A pitchfork leaned against the side of the stables. Dimity grabbed it and stepped out in front of the car. It jerked to a halt, and its driver stared over the steering wheel, as if deciding whether he could run her over and get away with it. Then, with a slow shake of his head, he turned off the engine.
“You’re Dimity Pond,” he said with grim resignation as he got out of the car. He was taller than she’d imagined, lean and dressed entirely in black. His hair was dark brown, same as his eyes, and he had the pale skin of a cave-dweller. There were deep lines of strain around his eyes.
He took a step toward her, keeping a close watch on the pitchfork.
 She tightened her grip.
 “And you’re Richard Summerhayes.”
This couldn’t be about the virus – it was untraceable – so she glared at him, though he didn’t seem to notice. Instead he glanced down, frowning as his black boots sank into the mud. There was a controlled rigidity about him, as if every movement was planned. He wasn’t quite what she’d expected.

Amazon - iTunes - Amazon UK

Alpaca a Lunch

The kids and I headed off to Mum's place last week to do some Alpaca hugging.

This lovely lady is Hermoine, she's always been the tamest in the herd and even though she's just had a little cria she's still happy to be made a fuss of.

Hermoine the Alpaca

They're looking a bit of a motley bunch because they roll in dust to clean and protect their coats.

No one wanted my lucerne.

Okay, who wants some lovely lucerne?
That's Christmas Carol - the little cria that was born on Christmas Eve

No one at all :(

I'll take that as a no then
That's Hermoine's cria in the background, he's two weeks old

In other news, I've got two blog tours coming up and am buried in interviews and guest posts.  I've got some lovely stuff to give away (including timtams) so I hope everyone gets a moment to comment and enter the comps.

The first one, for Drive Me To Distraction, kicks off in a week...

No rest for the wicked!

Warp Speed Mr Sulu...

Things are back up to Warp Speed.

On the weekend I made a lot of lists, many of which began with...
1) Stop eating easter eggs
2) Clean house
3) Budget
4) Buy new bra
5) Save whales

I call these lists, To Do (Eventually), and usually happen upon them in several months time only to find I can't tick a single thing off

Some lists are so much more fun, like this one below, I call it To Do (Writing)

• Write Running With The Hunted - its turned into a trilogy.
• Do a Maggie Lawson course
• Send out newsletter (sign up HERE) oh there will be prizes!
• Edits for The Bunker (out July 2013)
• Write guest posts for the Danger Game blog tour (fifteen of them, yikes)...

It starts in a month!

Of course being at warp speed is not without consequences...

Mt Washmore has reached epic proportions

With more still on the line (they may have been there for some time)

Half a tree fell on the washing line and broke it, sigh

 And the pool is still breeding new life forms...

And so it continues, much as it has always been

Press-ganged relatives may never leave...

After a hiatus of some years the newsletter is back!

Coming out monthly its going to keep subscribers up to date with my latest releases, plus there will be heaps of give-aways, exclusive stories and some really neat surprises...

Sign up!  I'd love to get to 1000 subscribers :)

To sign up for Cait's Newsletter, fill in the information below and hit submit. You will receive an email to confirm your subscription.

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If you are interested in joining Cait's Crew, my awesome band of helpers who assist with everything from promo to research, click here (it'll take you through to the form on the website).

These wonderful people get occasional emails from me asking things like 'does anyone know what Tahiti smells like' and 'help, someone please go and like The Danger Game on Amazon' and 'if you read this scene would you throw the book at the wall.' Also they get to be on my Christmas card list and be extra specially loved by me.  You may leave at any time*

*Please note blood relatives who have been press-ganged onto this list may never leave.

Five Fabulous Things In My Garden

This time of year my garden is not at its best. Searing summer heat and gales followed by high humidity and rain make everything look tatty.

But there's still fabulousness.  Its a garden, so there's always fabulousness...

1. Purple something plants (can't remember the name right now) and my ever faithful helper, the dog.

2. Hairy old carrots

3. Green chillies

4. Crab-apples, ready to be made into crab-apple jelly (they're called Crab-apples because they're so astringent that you make a face like a crab when you eat one. I tried it on the kids. Its true).

5. Granny Smiths.  Our Granny Smith tree is groaning with fruit this year.  Nothing beats sending the kids out to pick their own snack!

An Escapade

I'm involved with a thing.  Yes, yes. An Escapade.  Its actually rather cool...

Thirty Escape authors have got together and are writing a story. One author. One day. 200 words.  Romance for sure. But authors who write all kinds of romance; suspense, erotica, paranormal...You never know what's coming next.

I'm third on the list, and my contribution will be up on Saturday 16th :)

Read the first 200 words from Rhian Cahill HERE and check back every date for the latest instalment.

The Day I Met Him

Things have been on the busy side here at Chez Nicholas.  The last few weeks of the summer holidays morphed into the insanely busy first few weeks of term.  I took to what I thought was a finished book with a red pen (metaphorically, I use scrivner for editing!) and the book split itself into two books then turned into trilogy, which caused me to need to lie down for a few days.  And I have taken up exercise.

It also seems to have turned into February when I wasn't looking, and of course we all know what happens in February.

Oh yes.

Pancake day.

Pancake Day: Clearly doing it wrong

There is another type of celebration in February, the one where I spend a lot of time saying 'no, no don't get me anything' to hubs and then being pissed off on The Day when I don't get anything.  Ah yes. Valentine's Day. That relationship minefield.

In a striking example of irony hubs and I met on 13th February 2003 at a We Eschew Valentine's Day party at a mutual friends house.  I drank a lot of tequila and apparently impressed the poor man by crapping on about my first husband.  To celebrate this fact we went and had a coffee this morning and discussed our children. Okay. We totally forgot, but we did go and have a coffee.

Its been a busy ten years!

Coming Up:
Tomorrow (because blog posts are like buses around here) I'll be talking about my part in a very exciting Valentine's Day story over on the Escape Publishing blog...

AND
Even more exciting news about The Bunker in the next week (hopefully!)

Drive Me To Distraction goes FREE (and is an ARR Award Finalist)

So yesterday I christened my new laptop by snorting tea all over it.  You see I'd just checked out the Australian Romance Readers awards and discovered that Drive Me To Distraction is a finalist in their Romantic Suspense category.

Yes there I am, the highlighted blue one.
Can't see it?
No neither can I
Link is here: http://australianromancereaders.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/2012-arr-awards-finalists-announced/

Well, WOO!!

But wait, there's more.

You see one email discussion led to another and Momentum and I decided to put Drive Me To Distraction on the Free list, just to say thanks for voting for the book :)

So, if you don't have a copy, here are the links...

Amazon (Kindle)

Amazon UK (Kindle)

iBookstore (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch)

Kobo

Drive Me To Distraction has hit the free list on Amazon with style.  It is currently #145 overall, #1 in Sports Fiction, #8 in Women's fiction, #13 in Contemporary fiction, #48 in Romance and #98 in general fiction.

WOO indeed :)

In the last three days...

On Friday

The view from here...

Its trashed.  The entire house.  There is not one single surface that is not piled high with clutter.

It was all lovely and neat and tidy when the holidays began. A situation which lasted an entire two days.  To be honest the laundry is probably the best of it.

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"It never ends. It just never does. #theviewfromhere #fmsphotoaday "

On Saturday

Mine...

Hubs gave me this charm for my birthday.  It says Me, Myself and I.  He wanted to remind me that its okay to take time for myself.
I wasn't sure about it, at first.  But its grown on me.
In fact I love it.

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"Mine. #fmsphotoaday my latest charm, it says; me, myself and I"

On Sunday

Movement...

I may* have had a slight sense of humour failure about the pit that my lovely house has become. 

*I totally did.

So today the blitz began, with the packing away of the Christmas tree.  

The trouble is, now I can see all the dust.

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"Movement. Moving all the Christmas bits back to the shed. #fmsphotoaday"

All about... Rachael Johns

Today on the blog I'm delighted to host Rachael Johns.  Rach and I joined romance Australia at the same time some years ago and bonded over being newbies and our burning desire to be published authors.  Her two latest books, Man Drought and Stand in Star are out in January and I highly, highly recommend you check them out. She's an awesome writer.

First, the basics…

Who are you? Rachael Johns – Mum, Wife, Supermarket Owner, Writer, Reader, Arachnaphobic, Washer-woman, Lover of the colour pink.

What occupies your time?  Washing occupies a lot of my time (I have three boys who seem to wear at least three outfits a day each) as does picking up after my kids. That’s about the extent of the housework I do. The rest of the time (non-kid related that is), I work in our shop and try to write romances people might actually enjoy reading!

Where do you live? Goomalling, Western Australia – wheatbelt town of around 500 people.

Who do you live with? One hyperactive hubby, three occasionally-gorgeous heroe’s in training, a loveable old English sheepdog, a cat who I swear spends his days plotting to kill everyone except me, and a budgie belonging to my middle son. The budgie can’t stand me cos I insist on trying to give it cuddles on a daily basis.

Day job / other job? Trained as an English teacher, now work in our supermarket.

Secret gifts / talents / hobbies  Eek…. I can’t think of any! My year seven teacher gave me an award for being able to make a little piece of chocolate last a LONG time. Does that count?

Interesting stuff I’d like to know about you…

1. Finish the sentence…
I love… cats!
I hate… spiders!

2. Tell me about your preferred type of weather? If it’s stinking hot, I wish it was cold and vice versa.

3. What are you reading at the moment? Is it good / bad? Bridie’s Choice by Karly Lane. There’s also this book called Drive Me To Distraction on my Kindle which I’m looking forward to getting to ☺(Heh!)

4. What frugal thing do you do? Have you got a sneaky money saving tip? You know… I don’t think I’m frugal at all ☹

5. Do you do something awesome to save the planet... My kids forget to flush the toilet on a regular basis. Does that count? Maybe not, considering they use half a roll of toilet paper each time they go. I’m sure I do more than this but I’m coming up short at the moment. Mental note to improve the sacrifices I make for the planet!

6. Excellent recipe for me to try...
My never-fail muffins (although I should probably touch wood saying that cos everything is failing cooking wise lately).
Banana and Pear muffins from the Huggies website – that’s right, I found them on the back of a box of nappies! They taste delicious and are definitely not just for kids - http://www.huggies.com.au/toddler/recipes/banana-pear-muffins-recipe

7. Most amazing place you’ve ever been?
Queenstown in NZ or Salzburg in Austria. They are both just so picturesque! In Salzburg I also loved going on The Sound of Music tour – yes, I’m a bit of a fan! Loved following Maria’s footsteps and seeing all the places from the movie!

8. Fave way to waste time? Not very original but Facebook, Twitter, checking my book rankings on Amazon!

9. Tell me about your secret weakness… Raffaelo chocolates. I have restraint where most sweet things are concerned but have been known to scoff a whole BIG box of these.

10. Tell me about your greatest achievement…
Sounds corny but my greatest achievement are my three beautiful boys. Although they infuriate me on a daily basis, they also amaze me, make me laugh, cry happy tears and make me so proud of their zest and passion for life.

Nitty Gritty at the end…

I have two books out in January – Stand-in Star with Carina Press set in Hollywood with an Aussie heroine completely out of her comfort zone and a really sexy ex-paparazzo hero. And Man Drought with Harlequin Australia about a young widow who buys a run down pub in a country town with hardly any woman living there. Both were lots of fun to write and you can read more about them and enjoy an excerpt on the books page of my website

Where can we find you…

Blog  |  Website  |  Twitter  |  Facebook 

Heart

I love this poem. I just love it.

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"I Carry You In My Heart... #fmsphotoaday #heart"

Something New

The ladies, my chooks, are in fine fettle these days.  Well except for the poor broody one who is sulking in the hen house, refusing to leave and pecking anyone who gets close enough.

We're getting three eggs a day at the moment.  Which is plenty for us.  Made mostly from leftovers (and a little commercial feed) they're organic and have zero food miles.

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"Something new. Eggs from the Ladies. #fmsphotoaday "

#Today

"My fave birthday pressie... #today #fmsphotoaday "
An electric pencil sharpener!!

Its My Birthday New Years Giveaway

Happy New Year to YOU & Happy 41st Birthday To ME :D....

Leave me a comment telling me what happy thing you would like to happen in 2013 and you'll be in the draw for...

1st Prize: $10 Amazon Gift card
2nd Prize: Copy of The Danger Game (e-book)
3rd Prize: Copy of Drive Me To Distraction (e-book)

Comments are at the bottom of this post.
If the comments don't work for you (and I know sometimes they don't) please leave a comment on Facebook, tweet me or email me at caitlyn.nicholas@gmail.com and I'll add you to the draw.

Out Now, my novella... The Danger Game

Amazon : Amazon UK : Kobo : Ibookstore 

Goodreads 

Out Now, my novel... Drive Me To Distraction

Amazon : Amazon UK : Kobo : Ibookstore 

Goodreads 

a Rafflecopter giveaway Entries in Rafflecopter that don't have matching comments won't be winning any prizes. Yes I have a list. Yes its easily checkable. Just sayin.

All about... 10% Inspired

Today I've got the very lovely CJ from 10% Inspired guest posting.  I was very excited to guest post on her blog a few months back...

First, the basics…
Who are you?  I'm Cassandra Wunsch, though my friends all call me CJ. Before I was married I was a Jones... it's amazing how fast having to spell out your last name gets old.

What occupies your time?  My passion has always been writing, I think it started because I liked the idea of something you could do no matter where you are... these days I just want to make a connection. I love it when people tell me that something I wrote touched them somehow. Made them laugh or cry or think...

Where do you live? I was born in NSW, but these days I live in Hobart, tassie. The temperature suits me better, and everything moves so much slower, which is good because I've never been very quick.

Who do you live with??  Right now my three bedroom house (plus shed) is crammed to the rafters. I live with my father, my husband, my two daughters (4 years and 1 month) and my sister-in-law. Hubby and I have just bought yet another house (our third) so we'll be living there by the time this interview gets posted.

Day job / other job?? I work casually for the Salvation Army in their stores in the Hobart area (when I'm not pregnant or on maternity leave that is).

Secret gifts / talents / hobbies Very few people who know me now know that I sang in the opening ceremony's of the Olympic and Paralympic games in Sydney.

Interesting stuff I’d like to know about you…

Tell me a story about your car / a car you loved??
My very first car I inherited from my nanna when she passed away. It was a one year old Mitzubishi Mirage – bright red. Most of the somewhat questionable things I did in my youth, I did in or around that car. Spontaneous 5 hour road trips to Orange and Queensland, 2am runs to the closest 24 hour maccas because I just HAD to have a cheeseburger. Here in Tassie, I don't need a car to get around, but in country NSW, that car meant freedom.

Fave thing to eat??
My 'signature' meal if you like, is scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. A bit of milk, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, onion and sliced olives, scrambled in with the eggs. All of that on toast topped with smoked salmon strips and grated cheese.

Tell me about your secret weakness…
Stationary!!!

Nitty Gritty at the end…

At the moment I write mostly for myself at 10% Inspired, but I also write articles for the Hobart Mums Network newsletter and the Tassie Tourism blog Think Tasmania.

Where can we find you… 

Blog: http://10percentinspired.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/10percentinspired?ref=hl

How To Write A Novel: Part 1: The Preliminaries

Okay this is how I write a novel....

First, I spend a lot of time procrastinating 'thinking'.

I find Lolcats...

and Lexxie Couper's Geek Randomness Pinterest page help here.

Then, when I get bored / hubs cuts me off the internet I make a plan.

During all this 'thinking' time I have actually been 'thinking.'  So I've got some idea of what I'm going to write about.

• Bra boys surfie type meets uptight journalist type (Dark Island Paradise - coming soon), 
• Rich heiress gets knocked up by Special forces dude (The Grey Man - Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance) that kind of thing.

Where do I get my ideas from?

• Sometimes there's an issue I want to write about - female working in a male dominated environment (Drive Me To Distraction). Hackers (The Bunker). Asylum seekers. Ancient Tibetan artefacts. Obesity. I'll research whatever has piqued my interest and characters and plots will flow from that.
• Sometimes I'm just pottering about on the internet 'thinking' and come across something that sets off an idea, like the Wired article about cyber-war programs that inspired The Danger Game.
• I don't like admitting to having a muse, but sometimes ideas appear from nowhere and beg to be turned into a story - interestingly these ones are often the least formed and the hardest to write

So, at this point I've also got the internal and external conflict between the couple sketched out, and, because I write romantic suspense, the adventure plot line thought through as well.

For example, in the Danger Game, (there's a great review HERE, which also outlines the plot) I started with this...
Heroine: Flick -  a very smart computer programmer, introvert, not a people person, lives at home due to serious family problems
Hero: Ben - an ex-army spy, loner but good with people, fractured family background he has escaped
Plotline - Flick's deadly cyber-war program is stolen, she has to get it back. Ben can help.

I use two structures to map out my novel depending on the length.

For short 50K or less stories I use a simple eleven chapter structure.  I'll talk about this structure as I go along as Jewels of Deception is 50K.

For longer 50 - 100K novels I use a more complex structure.  If you get hold of a copy of The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler it outlines the structure I use beautifully.   Here's an online summary of it.

In this early stage I use a lot of mind mapping and scribbling down of ideas which I then link together using my structural plan.

It ends up looking like this...

The Final Draft Plan
The first ones are never this neat

I then sit down and write something that bears some resemblance to this plan.

If I don't have the plan then I go off track, panic, write long irrelevant stories about sub characters which I then have to delete, and just get in a horrible mess.

But, I don't stick to the plan either.  Ideas pop up, characters change, I (in horrible moments of clarity) suddenly see plot holes so huge they would make any reader or reviewer throw my book at the wall, I realise my original story doesn't have the momentum or depth to get to 50K etc...

But I have to start with a plan.

Next up (on Saturday): Actual writing and why I use both Word and Scrivner

Summertime and Nearly Christmas

Its summer holidays, the kids are underfoot, the weather can't decide if its going to be overcast and cool or eleventy billion degrees - so it usually does both in the same day, the tree is up and decorated, pressies bought, menu being decided, and its all coming together.

Though, given the awful news of earlier this week, a pall has been cast over Christmas for me.  I know it happened thousands of miles away, a different country, a different culture, but since I saw the first tweets in my tweet stream my heart broke.  We decided at the outset that for our girls there would be a media blanket.  If they hear about it, it'll be when they get back to school at the end of January, it won't be front and centre in the media, and hopefully we will be able to lessen the impact it will have.

I'd be interested in hearing what others have told their kids, especially ones still at school (mine broke up an uncivilised two weeks early - something I'm deeply glad about now).

I've never felt so protective of my girls, I can't let them out of my sight at the moment and keep getting in trouble for too many cuddles :)  I'm so appreciating spending time by the pool or having excursions to the mall or the beach.  Keeping the radio off means its non stop carols in the car, and no commercial tv means we're working through the backlist of kids movies. We're watching Despicable Me right now!

I've started my next novel.  Working title is Jewels of Deception, which I'm not entirely happy with, so expect it to change.  I actually haven't written anything new in the last year, I've spent the whole time editing! And I've still got 12 unfinished novels on my hard drive, so there's much editing to come. But I wanted to write something fresh and new.

I thought I'd blog about my writing process (expect tears, self doubt, loud young person music, and a lot of comfort eating, yes its going to be very messy).  My plan is to get 50K down by the end of January, and given that I've managed to write 2,500 words in a week, I should easily fail completely to reach that goal!  Oh I kid. You know I'm a goal obsessed Capricorn. (Kid, Capricorn, Goat, did you see what I did there?? No? You're not actually reading anymore are you...)

Sadly blogger still hates my photos. But I've managed to back up the entire blog now (all nearly 6.5 years) so hopefully I can start to get it sorted out soon.

Dont forget the sunscreen :)