Definitely second Uganda. Lake Bunyonyi is also a fantastic place to chill and swim even though it's not your typical beach. The primates you can see and all the variety of ecosystems in a relatively small area made it an awesome trip for us. Also we had a great guide with eagle eyes. It made seeing wildlife at the parks a real treat.

Personally, I'd skip Guatemala City even for a day or two. I really recommend not staying there at all. Not worth it, and you can just drive straight from the airport to Antigua very easily. The city isn't terribly safe or charming. Not great for families in my opinion. Antigua, though, is absolutely fantastic, and Atitlan is a great place to slow down and enjoy the natural surroundings.

Thank you for taking the time to give me all this great advice. This is all gold, and I'll look out specifically for these things. I noticed one downspout, for instance, was clogged up. The end of it was pretty well buried. That might've been on small contributor some of these potential drainage issues. Anyway, you've given me a good checklist to help troubleshoot and hopefully prevent recurrence of any issues we saw there. Yeah, we've had a very diligent inspector that helped us uncover some nasty surprises, so that's been great.

Thanks, I really appreciate the insight. The foundation looked to be decent from what I could see on the outside. Just saw vertical hairline cracks near a corner, but not big. Inside, the basement was finished (in 2001), but didn't notice anything. So hopefully it's just the driveway slabs and nothing else funky is going on.

Ah, sorry, had an issue trying to upload it directly to Reddit, but here's a pic: https://imgur.com/a/sAdome1 I appreciate the insight. I peeked at old images from Google Street View, and it looks like the majority of the settling happened after 2012, so nearly 15 years after construction. Dunno if that's helpful.

Wow, yeah, that's insane and frustrating. (I happily pushed this memory aside after dealing with all the stupid stress and incompetence dealing with AIRBNB trying to resolve this a couple years ago) I compiled a letter and sent it during the appeal process stating a few different things.

First, I looked up possible causes for the TV defect since I was in a similar position. The images the host provided didn't show any damage because there wasn't any. I listed a bunch of websites and forums showing this exact problem with the television and how it was an internal issue. This was the most important issue, I think. Really, the problem he was claiming to see with the TV was something that was a known issue with that particular model. I even referenced consumer confidence ratings on the TV brand, because it was a junky brand prone to breaking.

My host also referenced an insanely high price. I found the exact model from several different places, so I also made sure to reference those, showing that the host was trying to charge me way too much money. The host also had people over at the apartment between our stay and when he claimed he "discovered" the damage.

I made sure to point that out to AIRBNB that there we couldn't even ascertain that if there was damage (which there wasn't) there were cleaning people, his family, and others who had been/could have been in the apartment and caused the issue. In your case, you noted the TV didn't work when you all came, so I would hope that's pretty clear to AIRBNB when you tell them. You could mention the last guests may have been responsible or someone prior to that since you all dealt with a broken TV the whole time. Anyway, that's a ton of advice and hopefully some of it is helpful.

They're good people. If you go with them, your book will be in good hands. Good luck!

Nick and I have two full series we did together (really spin-offs of some of his other books) and for Orbs we just did Orbs IV together. I can't take credit for the first three. But so far that's all we've done together. Might do some other projects in the future.

You're totally right on Bray and Hayes. I'm currently listening to the DCC books and enjoying every minute of it immensely. Man, those series just wouldn't be the same without them at the helm. I actually wrote my Deadmen's War series imagining it being read by Bray. So I was totally stoked when he narrated the first too and a little sad when he had to bow out of several series, including mine, thanks to some insane scheduling conflicts. (Mark Boyett does a great job picking up the series, but I digress.)

Thanks so much for checking the books out! Yeah, sometimes I get to help pick my narrators; sometimes, I don't. I actually contacted Ryan way back when I was a newbie to publishing and working on getting my first audiobook published. He agreed to narrate my first Tide book, and the rest is history there. So glad to hear you enjoyed his narration. I know how much narration can make or break a book, so it was stressful trying to find someone who could handle all the different characters in this series!

Yeah, Nick Smith and I are good friends. We co-wrote a few different series/books together, all within that same post-apoc realm. His Hell Divers series especially kicks ass, so I was quite happy to get to work with him!

Ah, awesome! Thanks for checking them out! Appreciate it and hope you enjoy the journey!

Hmm, it was supposed to go through via a normal message. But I'm not finding it either. Don't know if there was a technical error or I made a mistake when I tried to send it. I ran out of codes for After the Tide (and unfortunately don't know which code you were supposed to get), but I can send you some other books to make up for it if you'd like.

Thanks! So, the tone is pretty similar. However, I do feel like After the Tide is better writing and storytelling (I think), just because I have had quite a few years and books between the two. Plus, the original series is pretty long (10 books). But since you're interested, I can send you some codes from that old series. If you like it, you'll definitely like After the Tide. If you don't like it, no worries!

Sorry, ran out of 'em!

Sorry, US codes got used up yesterday. Also, r/audiobooks does giveaways, too, as a heads up. Not nearly as popular of a sub, but myself and other authors try to spread the love there, too. You might have better luck getting in on that sub earlier if you're missing out on these.

Nope, unfortunately they ran out yesterday.

Sent!

Sent!

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Sent!

Great! Saved you a code, and just sent it.

Got my last one for now!