After the requisite amount of time I am pleased to say that they Bookstart Campaign has wound down quite successfully. We managed to raise just over the required amount and the publishing process is coming along apace. 
Everyone on the "Dying Embers" team would like to express our gratitude to everyone who pledged and gave to get this book rolling. 
The rewards will be coming, as well as the e-mails and surveys that will be sent out to make sure that each one of you gets what you want. So keep an eye on your emails in the coming weeks. A lot of the time frame depends on the publisher and how quickly the editing goes so know that everyone involved is going full tilt. 
Thank you all again! 

Taking the advice of a good number of people I didn't quit my day job. Or rather I didn't quit the several subsidiary methods I use to supplement my income in the winter when I am not busy doing science type stuff full time.  This includes writing commissions, doing small editing jobs, and working for the county. 
For one glorious week however I am up at a family cabin under the beautiful but dangerous Mt. Rainier.  Seriously it has a 1/4000 chance of blowing sky high any given day, and thanks to its location and the piles and piles of glacial ice on top is "probably the most dangerous volcano on the continent" according to the US Geological Society. 
While that does put it all in a lovely ash covered perspective it does not change the fact that most of my writing assignments follow me wherever I go. Doomsday lahar scenarios or not. (Seriously why has no one in Hollywood thought to do a movie about Seattle getting flattened by Mt. Rainier?) So hi-ho hi-ho tis off to write I go! 

Despite the very best efforts of the internet to distract the author the first round of editing is done. Track Changes turned out to be an easy to use and rather intuitive program and I had been wondering what that "review" tab was for up there for a while. It turns out there is not as much work for me to do as I was expecting. 
Well! On to the next batch of edits and keep this ball rolling! 

Well, the official first round of editing. Certain people have already looked over the story and given me feedback. (You know who you are.)  ;) 
I have just gotten the first eight chapter of "Dying Embers" back from my mysterious editor. The pro knows his stuff for sure! All the little punctuation is in all the right places and now I have to get it back to him. This involves learning "Tracking changes" and other such stuff. Can't be any harder than tracking wildlife right? 
The timing has aligned very well for this as I am heading up to my father's cabin at Mt. Rainier. High speed internet and nothing else for a hundred miles around. 
So off I go and hopefully this will go smoothly.

There are certain aspects of writing that elude this author time and time again. It is not as if the concept is difficult to grasp hold of at first. On the contrary, these are like tortoises, the kind one buys in the pet store with enough blissful innocence to assume that only the small enclosure is needed because the darling little thing will be able to roam the house. After all, how much trouble could such a slow, simple creature get into?
So the tortoise is caught, much like the grammar concept, and placed in its new environment. It is safe, and secure and then one turns away and gets distracted. The tortoise is gone, tucked under who know what piece of furniture, and no matter how many times it is found and brought back to the center of the room it is always moving. The fable is reveled true. 
Just like the tortoise of legend concept in the human brain are constantly moving and if one fails to refresh both knowledge and practical skill on a regular basis the concept will be discovered only in its absence. A classic example is the that/which issue.
According to exhaustive studies (and boy is this author exhausted) there are three basic rules.

1) THAT: Used without a comma to introduce an essential clause (one critical to the meaning of the sentence).
2)THAT: Used without a comma to introduce a dependent clause, the absence of which would make the sentence look or sound awkward.
3)WHICH:Used with a comma to introduce a non-restrictive clause.  

Hopeful this particular tortoise stays around a while.

Big news! The publisher has now formally introduced the editor who will be handling "Dying Embers"! 
I have not yet gotten permission to release his name and profile picture but he seems like a competent and fun guy. He knows what he is good at and gets right to work.
I look forward to meeting him and introducing him to you all! 

Whoo boy does a little flu bug ever kill one's productivity. On a related note; ever notice that blogs are the perfect place to share personal misery?

Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
- Mark Twain


I do wonder if he was referencing fiction, general, literature, or newspapers.