I know.

I know how long it’s been since I last blogged here. (A month today, I see.) Honestly, I have no excuse for that other than general apathy. I am still blogging every other Monday over at the Evil League of Evil Writers with the “Ask Dr. Dina” series I’ve been writing since January, but other than that, haven’t been doing much with the online thing.

Yes, I’ve been busy. I’m working on stuff both professional and personal, and most of you who read my blogs/tweets/FB/whatever know I’m not a real joiner/sharer-type. (Yes, I’m aware of the irony of an anti-social person on social networks. Go with it.)

Blogging/Twittering/IRL socializing takes a back seat to a lot of things. It’s not real high on my priority list. Now, when I have something to say, I say it. When I have thoughts that I think are interesting, I share them (usually – politics/religiosity/activism are generally things I keep to myself for various reasons). When I’ve got something going on I think you’ll be interested to know, I’ll tell you (if I can). When I need to rant, I rant. (You all KNOW I rant….)

I don’t blog just for the hell of it. I know a few people who update their blogs daily for whatever reason, and if that works for them, yay! Some people need that connection. Some people have a rabid fanbase that gets bitchy if that person isn’t there to constantly entertain them with what they ate for breakfast that morning. Some people need to feel like they’re part of something, like they’re being heard.

I don’t have those needs, and if you’re one of my fans, you don’t have the need for me to entertain you daily, which is good, because I ain’t gonna.

I’m an introvert and always have been. As I’ve gotten older, that’s become a larger part of my nature. Oh, I can socialize. I’m not afraid to, or shy or anything. I’m just not very social. As I said above, human contact isn’t all that high on my priority list. This leads to a lot of “are you still alive?”-type questions, and for that I apologize. I know friends and fans worry when I “go dark” (so to speak – points if you get the reference!), but I promise you all, someone would let you all know if some tragedy (or on-purposory, like, you know…jail for some type of crime ending in “-cide”) occurred. Probably Skyla Dawn Cameron. She’s always a good one to pester if you’re worried about my silences.

Also, I’m pretty much in a type of reverse hibernation during the summer months. Summer in my area brings a lot of things that I have absolutely no desire to be involved in or associated with in any fashion, so I pretty much just go to ground from May through September. When the tourists and the Daystar go south for the winter, I come back out. Summer means long, hot, bright days full of people. Fall and winter mean long, cool, dark, quiet nights. Hot tea, warm socks, darkness, short days, darkness…did I mention it’s darker in the winter? Like lots of it? For a long time?

I may have.

So yeah. Summertime is not Dina-time. I’ll be around a lot more in about six more weeks. Even more in about nine weeks, when the autumnal equinox comes and the days start getting shorter. So don’t worry if you don’t see me around much until then. If I’ve got something of interest or import to say, I’ll post. Or if I have a rant that I need to let out.

Until then.

Oh, for those wondering, Death Knell (Stranger Things III) is on track still for a Fall 2013 release. No specific date yet, but I’m thinking late October, early November, but that could change. More as it develops.