News:

No writing news, unless you count voting being open for the Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest, of which my story “The Green Room” is a finalist.

In personal news, my injury kept me from maintaining my heavy aerobic exercise regimen, which is necessary to combat a multitude of issues that have come roaring back these last few months. I’m up to 25 minutes on the elliptical, and I may try doing two days at a time instead of every other day, because I didn’t have any problems with that yesterday. However, it’s slow going bringing that exercise back up, and it looks like I have to get back on metformin in the meantime. We’ll see what the real damage is when the rest of my blood work comes in. It’s not unexpected. Just really disappointing to lose all my health gains.

Works in Progress:

Family time and what I’ve officially diagnosed as untimely burn out have minimized my progress this last week. I’ve written most of a short story and I may manage one more before the end of the year. Then I’ll try to write another Meridian novel, but I’m off by a month, and I’m not used to that while on sabbatical. (It was de rigueur while working.) Depending on submission call deadlines, I might edit erotic horror novella A Woman Alone first, which would help with the burn out. But I would still need to finish the next Meridian novel mid-January, which is when I need to pivot to work for which I’m actually paid. I’m really anxious about that, not least because I don’t fit into clothes right now and I donated all my clothes from when I was last this shape.

I’ll do an end-of-year retrospective with stats on New Year’s Eve. That’s where I’ll be.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

Music I’m Listening To:

Christmas playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Violent Night
Evil Dead Rise
Black Christmas (1974)
Black Christmas (2006)
It’s a Wonderful Life
A Muppet Christmas Carol
The Christmas Calendar
Holiday Baking Championship series
Holiday Wars series (finished)
Elf on the Shelf: Sweet Showdown series (finished)
Christmas Cookie Challenge series
Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition series (finished)
Hoarders series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Angel series
Transplant series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

i cannot believe
there was a time
when i thought
the world made
some kind of sense

because as bad as
things have become
i know it’s just
a matter of place
of context and access

perspective through
twisting kaleidoscope
geometric glass in
mirror but hard to
see beauty in smoke