The plan on start was to release as many short stories as I possibly can over the next year, which is scary because I suck at short stories, and then see where I sit at the end of it. But it's going better than expected. I have the next short written out. It's a messy sci-fi story involving aliens and swamps and dissertations on Stockholm Syndrome, which means the editing is probably going to be a bitch. Bitch or not, editing will probably begin after I finish the next project--a continuation of the characters in Silver Bullet--and so I'm setting a really really tentative release date for sometime mid September, with an even more tentative release date for the next project in November.
The thing I can use the most right now is feedback. If you've bought the book and read it, ANY thoughts are welcome. Writing sucks? Let me know. Editing suck? Let me know. Artwork sucks? Let me know. Coding sucks? Let me know, but be aware that there probably isn't much of a solution for that until I learn how to tickle Kindle's coding right. (BTW if you do want to buy the better-coded version of the story, go get it from Smashwords, not Amazon. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to code a functioning TOC, and trust me I am still trying. When I'm satisfied with what I can do with Kindle on my own, I'll let you know. Until then, Smashwords has the better system and thus, the better looking book.) Did you like it? LET ME KNOW PLEASE please please please PLEASE because that will totally make my day.
And if you haven't bought it yet WHY HAVENT YOU!!??!!?
Jk jk. Just kidding. Mostly.
(Still: It's a dollar. You can't even buy a coffee for a dollar anymore.)
/self important self promotion
In other news, I seem to have adopted the neighbor's cat. Totally inadvertently, but I'm not sure how to undo it.
To clarify, we have two outdoor cats. Felix is a chicken James Bond, a smooth operator in a tuxedo who requires a great deal of loving care and kitty treats before he will agree to sit on your lap. Thomas is a orange marmalade who we used to think was a great, brave hunter who stuck with frogs because there wasn't anything bigger around. We have since discovered this is wrong. Thomas is not a hunter. Thomas is a stoner. He spends all day licking and/or eating frogs and then shows back up at the front door so he can take a nap.
Thomas will sleep inside. Felix will not. Felix rearguards the indoors as the scary place of claustrophobia and alien furniture, and while he will go inside he will go ballistic if you shut the door. And Thomas isn't all that fond of being inside when he's not stoned. So we feed them outside. And while this is a beneficial arrangement all around, it has certain unfortunate side-effects.
Two weeks ago my mother sent me a text message with a picture in it.
Her name, she told us, was Chloe. Which was frankly silly because she belonged to our neighbors and it wasn't our place to name her. Also, this tiny itty bitty kitten had hoovered the food intended for Felix and Thomas while the two older, male cats stared on in horror. Chloe is a svelt skinny kitty until you get to her tummy, which bulges out like the butt end of a pear. If you put her in front of a whale you would see those little eyes explode in emerald green joy, and then you would not have a whale.
Having conquered the outdoors, occupied the porch and deprived the other felines of dinner, she has decided to invade the kitchen, and the amazing thing is how good she is at it. I look down and I see that little thing looking back up at me, and I kick her out because 1. she is not my cat and 2. my cat will eat her when she finds her. But my heart weeps, because kitten.
the problem is that she is here all the time. I worry that her owners will eventually start missing her and lock her up, and I'll have to get my kitten fix by actually getting a kitten. Or that my mom and her current S/O will eventually grow tired of her. Mom doesn't mind, and all CSO does is block access to the outdoor cat food, which probably explains why we have the slow subversion of the indoors into kitten zone.
Still, every day I get to wake up and walk outside to this:
Life is good.
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