Coming Attractions

Christmas already? Yep, next week this time it’ll be here. Hope you’ve got all your shopping done. I mailed my cards out the other week. Let’s see who responds. So far I’ve only gotten return cards from the people I was going to drop from my list. Next year I’ll mail out my cards on the 22nd so everybody has to scramble. Ain’t I a stinker?

I probably won’t be here next Thursday. For starters, it’s Christmas. Nobody goes on the Internet on Christmas. For another, almost everything’s closed, and since I still don’t have home WiFi I doubt if I’ll be able to find a place to set up and post. Lancaster County’s libraries are shutting down for both Wednesday and Thursday, in addition to the Ephrata Library being closed on Fridays. That’s three days I have to hunt for someplace to check my email. Therefore, screw it, says I. I’ll just find a funny picture on Google Images and schedule the blog to self-post Thursday morning. I myself probably won’t even leave the house. I’ve got gift books to read and eggnog to drink. If I’m lucky, some channel will run Die Hard, my favorite Christmas movie. Or maybe the library has the DVD. I’ll have to check before they close.

And why don’t I have home Internet yet? Because I had to use the money to buy mandated health insurance for 2015, or pay the massive penalties. Thanks for nothing, Affordable Health Care Act. I think I’ll get sick next year, just to spite the government. I wonder if hospitals have free Internet access?

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That’s Christmas. The library’s following the same shutdown schedule for New Year’s, but somehow that doesn’t seem quite as bad. For one thing, McDonald’s is open on New Year’s Day, so I can post my blog and enjoy my first Sausage McMuffin of the year. A friend of mine down in Valley Forge used to hold a New Year’s party, but she stopped around a decade ago. Since then I’ve been able to get a full night’s sleep (no more long drives home at 2 in the morning) so I’m no longer a zombie on New Year’s Day. I don’t even think I can stay up that late any more. Once you turn the corner of 40, all those new years start to pile up.

If I knew I’d be awake, I’d drive up to Falmouth (it’s near Three Mile Island. Get out your maps.) and watch them lower the goat from the flagpole. Stop your outraged protests. The goat’s fake. Here in my corner of Pennsylvania they drop all sorts of stuff, like red roses and white roses and Lebanon bolognas and giant M&Ms and a Hershey Kiss and a wrench (Mechanicsburg) and strawberries and fun things like that. Falmouth is known for its annual goat races, so they drop a goat. About the only place that doesn’t drop anything is Ephrata, so I have to go out of town. Looks like I’ll have to go out of town for Internet. Maybe it’s time to move?

Again, I’m not sure if anyone bothers to go on the Net or read blogs on a holiday, so I’ll have to decide whether I want to bother posting or not. Let me see if I can come up with a topic. I can always postpone it until Friday, when the Lititz Library will be open and people’s eyes will be properly focusing again. I could write about the perils of sleep deprivation. Sound good to you?

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New Year’s is when I usually make resolutions that I break within a week. This year I’m going to make an effort and attempt to send out at least one sub a month. Because I’m not that fast of a writer, I’m going to cheat and finish some manuscripts I already have started. I’m including self-publishing in this, so if I end up self-pubbing twelve porn stories that’ll satisfy conditions. Only things I might get paid for count. No more free reads from me in 2015.

First up will either be the porn story I never got a cover for, or The Mountain Lion King. Somehow I screwed up and actually worked on it, and now the first draft’s almost done. How’d that happen? One to two pages a day every day, that’s how. Slow and steady, people. That’s how it’s done. Once I edit, polish and type it up I’ll be sending it out to the group to make sure I have all the facts in our “universe” straight, and then it’s wrestle with formatting. If I can pick up the pace, it may be out by the end of January. I want to get a Talbot’s Peak story on the market fast—well, fast for me—to take advantage of any good press generated by Love to the Rescue. We’re starting to build a fan base. We’d better produce.

Right now it looks like the book after that will be a M/M shapeshifter story for Siren. Or vampire cowboys. Or porn. The year hasn’t even started yet. These things are still subject to change.

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Finally, Stray Kitty’s got company. My neighbors across the street have an indoor/outdoor cat who’s started coming around. Peanut’s friendly as all get out when you’re in his yard and his people are there. Once he steps off his turf he might as well be feral. But that was before. Recently he’s started coming up to me in my yard. That’s probably my fault. I made the mistake of giving him some dry food once. Now I’m his bestest buddy. Stray Kitty is not at all happy. The other morning I heard noise on the porch and there was Stray Kitty scrunched up by the door and Peanut prowling around the steps. I had to feed both of them, with separate dishes at opposite ends of the porch while making sure each cat had a clear escape route, just in case. At least Peanut lets me pet him. I don’t even have pets of my own. I should get a dog. And how is your holiday going?