column: Arachnid Evicts Garage Owner

Hey, I'm back -- did you miss me? Whaddya mean, no?
I popped back briefly once or twice, but for the most part I've been offline longer than I thougth -- something like ten days.  In that time I ate Thanksgiving dinner in three states (Indiana, Missouri, and Arkansas), drove for something like 28 hours in a five day period, got stuck in a traffic jam on I-57 in Southern Illinois (nowhere near as bad as what motorists ran into in upstate New York), and got to drive in our first snow of the year (see above about nowhere near as bad ...)

We saw so many horrible motorists that I came up with an idea for a new novel: A serial killer who only preys on bad drivers. He'll be the good guy, "Dexter"-style. That and my other novel ideas will have to wait until I'm finished with my history of the Albion Fire Department, which I'm polishing now with the idea of putting it out through print on demand to coincide with the AFD's 125th anniversary.

In other writing news, an agent I queried has requested the full manuscript of Red is For Ick. I'd really like to work with this person, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my attitude positive.  So far I still haven't heard back from Whiskey Creek Press on Storm Chaser edits.

Also, we got the Christmas tree decorated, but I don't think we'll put up outside decorations this year -- we could live without the extra electric bill.

So, yeah -- I've been a little busy. I've missed catching up with my online friends; anything to update me on?

 
SLIGHTLY OFF THE MARK

 

           

( Real history is interesting and not dry at all – if done properly – making it somewhere between blowing things up with Harrison Ford and reciting dates in middle school. I was terrible at dates, all the way through school, but enough about my love life. My own archeological misadventure would have been shrugged off by Jones, involving as it did only one spider. )