This past month, the book cover design brief has monopolized my time. After sorting through 3,500 Amazon book covers with dragons, I found five that feel like my book. These will inform my designer of what I like.

Which takes us to the next step. For the MiniBuk description on the back cover, a fellow author and I wrestled with words until we settled on this blurb:

Saxon incursions prove invasion looms for Deron, prince of the Britons. He reluctantly accepts counsel from a mysterious enslaved vinedresser, the center of a web of dark rumors.

Despite the pervasive superstition, Deron welcomes her intelligence. But he uncovers her shocking secret. And her dire situation.

Obeying her oracles may steer him to a costly victory. But her curse could drag him to a bitter end.

That’s it. What do you think?

You might have noticed I’m repeating “Winter.” But the three additional seasons wrap up the story in a 12,000-word novella. I think you’ll like it.

And more good news—Jenneth, my cover designer, finishes her art in August. So my next newsletter should be a cover reveal. It’s going to be great.

In the meantime, may you live as long as Melchaiyim, even to the end of the age. 

I was wondering. Do you have plans for the summer? You’ve likely been asked two dozen times. My days will be divided between two things. Mostly. Writing and yarding. Is that a word?

Although the End-of-School-Year craze consumed May, I completed the fourth Oracle of the Vine Dresser story. Almost. Prince Deron insists he needs a more climactic ending. No promises. 

But I’m determined to release the next Minibuk this summer either way. And a second one before November. How? By sending two other stories to the editor for autumn. They’re homework assignments. I resumed my class the Five Year Plan (To Overnight Success)—cheesy, but accurate. Neither story involves dragons. Sad. But they both have creatures who shift. 

As for the yard work, I’ve got good news and bad news. My grape vines did not freeze in April. Thank you for asking. The bad news you’ve probably guessed from the photo. Two yellow jackets nests in one week. I found the first over the weekend. The second, well, it found me the following week. It’s going to be a long summer.

But I want to leave you with this fantastic verse: Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps. (Psalm 148:7) Yes, tanninim in the Hebrew. Meanwhile, may you live as long as Melchaiyim, even to the end of the age.

“If you don’t like the weather, wait a day.” That’s a common saying here in Virginia. Which is why, if you passed my house Easter evening, you would’ve seen a grape arbor transformed into a tent.

We had a freeze warning. Temperatures fluctuate in April. But the 80 degrees in late March confused my vines. They branched out. Rats!

When we had a May freeze in 2020, the tender leaves blackened. A sad sight. I wanted to protect at least one of the four vines from a similar fate.

So, although I pushed past my personal freeze up in the fourth and final Oracle, I didn’t work on the story. Instead, I wrapped an 8’ x 8’ x 7’ gift. To myself.

I had enough blankets and tarps. And burlap. And sheets. And a bolt of bright orange felt I’d forgotten I had. All to protect my smallest and youngest vine. But that’s Virginia.

The freeze happened on a night and a morning when I didn’t have church or school. And that’s God.

This morning all the branches look healthy. Except for the ones I snapped off when a blanket snagged. And the freeze? It spared all four plants. Thankfully, I don’t have 31 like my vinedresser.

I will have her stories—Autumn, Summer, and Spring—out before July. I hope you’ve read her first story, Winter. If you haven’t, it’s available now in my MiniBuk Fire Flight from my website www.deniselajuanpeters.com.

Or, if you’d rather wait, I plan to include the first story with the other three in the second MiniBuk.

Meanwhile, may you live as long as Melchaiyim, even to the end of the age.