Lucky at Bat Update- and Some Ratty Updates As Well

Hey everyone! This might be a bit of a longer one, since I've missed a few weeks. August has always been a hectic month for me, with Pirate Fest, and FanExpo coming right at its heels. This year, we also took our first family vacation in two and a half years, and drove to Montreal. As for writing stuff, Lucky at Bat is coming along, and we have some news about its status! We are delayed, but just a bit. With everything since the pandemic, the publishing business has had some delays as well. The good news is that it's only been delayed by a few weeks. Our new date is... December 20th, 2022. So, we'll have a preorder date in time for holiday orderings, and some ARCs coming soon. As this is Joseph's first book, he has been following this whole process with fascination. He came with me to every day of Toronto FanExpo; attending my panels, learning how to sell books, and seeing just why I am utterly exhausted at the end of August each year. He became a photographer, learned the ins and outs on convention food, and why the hotdogs are pretty terrible, and saw first hand the hard work cosplayers put into their costumes. It was a great experience for him, and he can't wait to go back!

One of the panels I was on: ALTERNATE REALITIES - WHAT WILL WE READ IN THE MULTIVERSE?

Joseph attempting a selfie

Joseph and R2D2

Once FanExpo was over, it was time to head back to real life. Lucky at Bat is going to have some gorgeous illustrations for each chapter, drawn for us by the incredibly talented Erin Cutler. I sent her pictures of Joseph's very real rats- Loki and GusGus, who are the inspiration for our fictional ratty protagonists- Lucky and GusGus. I can say that I have seen all the pictures done for the book, and they are absolutely perfect. (You can catch a sneak peak of one of them here.) I can honestly not say enough good things about being a rat owner. They are exceedingly affectionate, intelligent, and just so darn cute! I mean, look at their little faces!

GusGus is such a chonky little boy. We love him.

Loki. Don't let that innocent face fool you. He is as mischievous as his namesake.

But I have to say, it doesn't matter if you have a dog, cat, gerbil, hedgehog, rat, or any kind of pet. You have to be responsible for them no matter what. And we had a great example of that with GusGus following FanExpo. It was discovered that he had a lump just over his left shoulder. The vet told us that this was a tumour, and strongly suggested he go into surgery to have it removed. Of course we want our animals to be healthy and comfortable so we said yes. 

Things I never thought I'd be doing: Cutting a sock into a rat vest so he doesn't chew on his sutures, and learning to administer pain killers via oral syringe to a cuddly rat who keeps trying to climb down my shirt to avoid the drugs! But with Joseph's help, we are making this work. We anxiously await the histology results on his tumour, but we remain optimistic. GusGus is in good spirits, and still acts like his cuddly self (even with a giant bald patch on his back from surgery). Loki awaits the day that he and GusGus can be reunited for playdates. This will happen next week, after all of his stitches are removed. 

​These little guys are Joseph's pets and he loves them so much. Next month, on Halloween it will be the first anniversary of the day he got them. We are using Lucky at Bat as a fundraiser for the rescue that we adopted them from. Teeny Snoots Rat Rescue does fantastic work rehabilitating rats, and finding homes for all the little ratties who need them. Check out their instagram for pictures of all the adoptable little ratties and the pet boxes they have for the small animals you already have in your life. 

Keep GusGus in your thoughts, and we'll keep you updated.