This week has been chaotic, car-wise. My car radio hasn’t worked since October, when my car battery died and I had to have a new one put in. I didn’t know how to fix it, so I’ve been listening to iHeartRadio here and there, but mostly nothing. Car people told me how to put in the code to get the radio back. Damn, I’ve missed having music in the car when it turned on.

But I mainly brought the car in to get my headlights replaced. I drive four to five hours in the dark on working days, so it’s really important to have working headlights. They actually tried to get me to believe that my daytime running lights were the headlights and they were very convincing. If they hadn’t known about cars, the logic would have totally made sense. But they do know about cars, so I don’t know how they couldn’t see that the daytime running lights and the brights weren’t headlights.

Had to go to another service center, which I’m pretty sure overcharged (which is why I like my usual one), but now I have headlights, and it makes such a difference. I feel much better. I have pretty good night vision (mild astigmatism notwithstanding), but side street and neighborhood driving was way too dark, even for me.

Anyway, going to a service center is hard enough to do one time. Two really took it out of me.

News:

Char’s Horror Corner reviewed Question Not My Salt. They have the review on Goodreads and Amazon, too, but I’m just really excited that she took on the story of her own accord and that she enjoyed it.

Works in Progress:

As promised, I finished Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8) on Friday night, pushing through 5K words to hit 141,538 words total. I was exhausted and collapsed to bed afterward. Then I got myself some chocolate chocolate-chip muffins, because that was hard and I’m proud I accomplished it. I’ll be taking on my usual double edits in January, as soon as I finished a few other things.

Took some time off to work and rest and do my car things, then dove right into edits of In the Dollhouse We All Wait. I have my weaknesses that the editor pointed out, but otherwise, it’s been a pretty smooth edit. I’m trying to take care of my mental health while working on it, because I can take on the despair of my character, but so far, it’s been manageable.

I keep telling myself that, however bad I write something, what actual people do with state-sanctioned blessings are worse. That doesn’t make me feel better, but it gives me some perspective. Very depressing perspective. What these last ten years and especially this last year have shown us about the worst people with too much power…

I’m aiming for reaching halfway through edits today or tomorrow.

Books I’m Reading:

Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Rose Madder by Stephen King
The Shining by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Christmas playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
A Cinderella Christmas
Christmas at the Catnip Cafe
Is It Cake? Holiday series
9-1-1: Nashville series
Ghosts (US) series
CSI: NY series
Holiday Baking Championship series
Great British Baking Show series

Poem of the Week:

you will find me under the color-fading oak
food for roots and food for thought
a cautionary tale untold until uncovered
but perhaps it is best i remain remains
unspoken and forgotten except in whispers
wondering what my ghost wants
and that we let the tree thrive where
i fell before the fall and rest
undisturbed by the turning of leaves