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Dina James

Chronicler of the Paranormal

September Eve

It’s almost here! It’s almost here!

SEPTEMBER IS ALMOST HERE!

Here in the US, the first weekend in September is Labor Day Weekend. It traditionally marks the end of “tourist season” and summer in general, as schools of all sorts resume classes (despite there still being an ongoing pandemic for which masking and air quality issues have just been yeeted into space) and the northern hemisphere prepares for the coming autumn and winter.

Though the “official” end of summer isn’t until September 21st, Labor Day Weekend is the last hurrah for most tourists and snowbirds. People rush to destination spots, getting in one last trip (or maybe the only trip they’ve taken all year) before being corralled back into daily life at home. Various retail outlets have “end of season” sales (loads of local businesses cut their hours after Labor Day as well) which they also flock to, either for early Christmas gifts or stocking up on favorite things (like tea) to get them through the winter.

As much as I look forward to September, I am not a fan of Labor Day Weekend these days. (Twenty years ago you would have found me at Dragon*Con, but I am old and broken these days, and leave the travel and cosplay to others more able-bodied than I. If you’re headed there this weekend, please wear a mask and practice good social distancing and hygiene. They acknowledge attendance carries a risk of death. See Article 20 of their Policy.)

We are still dealing with pandemic from Covid-19 and its variants. You agree to abide by any Convention Covid-19 protocols, which may change, even if you disagree with these protocols. You understand that there the Convention will have thousands of people who will be indoors, and very near each other, and you. You will risk contracting Covid-19 or a variant while you travel to or from the Convention, and throughout the Convention. Under Georgia law, Dragon Con and its personnel are not liable to you or anyone else for an illness, injury, or death that may occur, wholly or even in part, from Covid-19 or a variant. You assume the risk of any illness, injury, or death from contracting Covid-19 or a variant during the Convention, including traveling to or from the Convention, entering any of the Hotels, or participating in Convention activities.

I mean…that’s certainly a way to say “at your own risk.”

As for me, it’s tidying and tea. I talked last time about my usual fall nesting kicking in early this year, and with the help of an awesome friend (you may know her as “The Real Robin” from the Stranger Things series) that’s happening little by little.

As is tradition for Labor Day Weekend on the Oregon Coast, the rains have started, because that’s what happens here this time of year.

My little black heart is warmed by the rain on the herds of tourists flocking to the beach for one last hurrah.

Welcome, September. I’ve missed you so much.

-D

Something Wicked This Way Comes

You know how every year it seems the holiday season begins appearing earlier and earlier?

Something like that is happening to me, and it’s only the second week of August.

I’ve spoken at length about what the arrival of September does both to and for me, and this year the desire to begin my fall nesting has begun nearly a full month ahead of schedule.

This week is forecasted to be the hottest of the year temperature-wise, which by usual standards involves me remaining indoors with a glass of iced tea, moving no more than necessary to avoid overheating despite climate control and oscillating fans, not considering how best to begin my yearly reorganization of the household.

The summer has been fraught with projects and other commitments, so certain things have fallen by the wayside.

Okay, most things have fallen by the wayside.

We’re severely behind on basic household chores (I reluctantly admit I can’t remember the last time I scrubbed my shower. I think it was sometime in May. I’ve spot cleaned and rinsed it out and so on, but it’s been some time since I’ve gone in there with a sponge and cleaning solution. Regular readers of my blog will be horrified, as a clean loo is one of the things that soothes my damaged calm, and while I’ve been running a brush around the toilet every now and then, there’s hasn’t been a dedicated Cleaning of the Loo in an embarrassingly long time) and running on the “bare minimum” principle — dishes, litter boxes, enough laundry to keep us in clean panties, etc.

As I said, the James Household has had many other commitments this summer, and while the studio is more or less complete (I basted a quilt in there last week! It’s a real quilt studio now!), the aftermath of its completion is still consuming the two-car garage we filled last year with things removed from it. (Holiday decorations and other things we were storing in the former workshop it used to be.)

Mess is a unique creature. Various factors contribute to it, including depression, anxiety, chronic illness, mental health issues, behavioral issues, and more. Unfuck Your Habitat covers a multitude of things and has been tremendously helpful in the past, so I’m thinking tomorrow I may dig out the old UFYH app and start making a dent in the habitat I’ve long neglected.

Remember the “bare minimum” I mentioned previously? Everyone’s bare minimum is different. For me, it’s “mess is fine, filth is not.” Sure, most of my flat surfaces are covered in junk mail and cat toys, but we’ve been keeping the dishes done and floors swept (we have five cats — the vacuum sees regular service). So my house is a cluttered mess of detritus, we’ve been living on convenience foods like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and take-out rather than actual sit down meals as both our schedules and energy levels change from day to day, and my garage is full of empty boxes that need to go to the recycling center, but it’s “clean dirt” as my mother would say. (Just don’t look at my baseboards. Ask Skyla about the baseboard thing.) I make a distinction between “tidy” and “clean,” and we’ve been coasting on “tidy” for months now. (“Tidy” for me is where things are straightened — couch blankets folded, table piles cleared — whereas “clean” is vacuuming the living room and wiping the table down with a bleach wipe.)

Now, though?

The distinctive urge to purge and clean and prepare the lair for my favorite approaching season hit hard tonight. Granted, I don’t have the energy to make this a reality, so I may need to call in some help via friends or professionals (there’s a local cleaning service that will come and do a deep clean for a very reasonable fee, but that involves logistics and cat wrangling and I’m not sure I want to deal with that; I’ll think on it some more as it might be worth trading one stressor for another temporarily to achieve equilibrium), but things will get done.

I think it’s hit me early because my brain knows things take significantly longer than they used to, given my progressive annoying bitch of a disorder. What used to take me a couple weeks (getting my entire house clean and tidy for the arrival of fall) is now going to take me a couple months, so I suppose if I’m going to have an enjoyable environment by the middle of September, I’d better get started now. Even my craft room is in dire need of a reorganization.

The biggest issue I have these days is spoons, both mental and physical, and so many things take priority over cleaning. That “bare minimum” I mentioned is sometimes all Mr. James and I can manage. He’s older and has had a hip replacement, so neither of us are in the best of shape when it comes to keeping house. He’s better at it than I am these days, running the vacuum and cleaning litter boxes. Just the idea of everything that I both want and need to get done is overwhelming, mostly because things have gone untouched for so long the prospect of unfucking them is daunting, but I’ll get there.

I’ll take it slow, a day at a time. I used to write out long, detailed lists of everything I wanted to get done for that particular year’s Fall Nesting. Things like “sort the linen closet” and “clean out the junk drawer.” The last couple years I’ve made the list, but haven’t completed it. This year, I don’t think I’ll bother with a list. This year I think I’ll just start in a corner of the house and work my way room by room, piece by piece. A lot of cleaning suggestion sites say things like “if you’re going to vacuum, do all the floors at the same time — you already have the vacuum out.” That does work if you have the spoons for it, and that might be the case when I get there, but I think I’ll try the Johnny Cash method this year – one piece at a time. That way I won’t get distracted when I put a dish away and decide to organize the Tupperware instead of mopping the floor or take a look at the overfull dusty bookshelves and get overwhelmed and go watch something stupid on TV.

Theoretically.

We’ll see what happens.

Until next time.

-D

The Great Mystery Quilt

Whoo boy, where to begin?

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog of mine already know I’m a knitter, and (like many with leftover mask-making cotton) took up quilting during the pandemic. I’ve made a few quilts so far, but have been on hiatus since last September due to life happening (foster kittens in my craft room, book deadlines, medical issues, studio remodel, car accidents [yes, plural]).

Now things are settling down (mostly) and I have a little room to breathe and time to craft. I’ve picked up long-neglected knitting projects (those of you patiently waiting for things in my knitting queue, they’re getting done, I promise) and restored enough order to my craft room to begin quilting again. I’ve got one small quilt to finish and send off, then I’ll be ready for my next project.

This week has been one of the most stressful of my life for various personal reasons (everyone is okay; it’s a me problem), and quilting and other crafts are known remedies for stress relief. (Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Steve Perry-era Journey also help.) I’m sure you’ve all had those nights when you’re absolutely exhausted but can’t sleep so your brain goes on about All The Things, and when considering my next quilting project (once I finish the one that’s been waiting at 80% since September), somewhere along the way it reminded me that there was a Mystery Quilt Along all ready to go in my craft room.

What’s a Mystery Quilt Along? Well, exactly what it sounds like. Here’s a blog post (I didn’t write) about what they entail.

Let’s go back to the summer of 2022. June, to be precise. I had just received a FORTY POUND BOX of fabric from my Canadian Platonic Murder Wife Skyla Dawn Cameron. There were many, many fabrics in the box, including two quilt kits. One was this:

Announcement written in Papyrus font about the Mystery Quilt Club On The Road To Minnesota Quilt

The packet included all eight installments of instructions (written in Comic Sans, no less):
Instructions written in eight installments in Comic Sans font about the Mystery Quilt Club On The Road To Minnesota Quilt

Everything needed to complete the Mystery Quilt was included. Every piece of fabric was labeled and neatly packaged up according to the instructions (given in the eight installments pictured above). I brought it out again a couple days ago and checked off the fabric against the list (there were two sizes given, and the person who began the project chose to make the larger of the two) given in Installment One. Not only was it all there, but they had completed the majority of Installment Two — cutting some the fabric. Each is neatly labeled according to the instructions, and I admire the dedication of whomever started this ambitious endeavor (for the purposes of these blog posts, we will call her MeMaw from now on). Check out MeMaw’s handiwork:

Yeah. One of those baggies has 144 (ONE HUNDRED FORTY FOUR) half-square triangles cut and ready to sew together. This appears to be where MeMaw was either unwilling or unable to continue working on her Mystery Quilt, and I honestly don’t blame her. I HATE half-square triangles and have no desire to ever make them again. No matter what happened, everything got packed up in two gallon-sized Ziplocs and donated to the charity Skyla was working with last summer, and that’s how it ended up at my house.

MeMaw didn’t skimp on her fabric choices, either. She went with one of the suggested (and not inexpensive) lines from that year (2007 near as I can tell, given the date on the announcement newsletter) from a quality manufacturer (Moda). The fabric line is called Chocolat by 3 Sisters.

Doing a little research, Border Creek Station Mystery Quilt Club is still around, as is Hamels Fabrics in British Columbia, where MeMaw signed up for this Mystery Quilt Along (MQAL) seventeen years ago. The pattern is called “On The Road To Minnesota,” and as it’s a Mystery Quilt, I won’t know what it looks like until it’s finished. (Well, what I will make it into. Even the best instructions sometimes have errata, and even if a person follows them to the letter mistakes can still happen.)

How this unfinished quilt project ended up in Ontario is a mystery in itself, and I will attempt to do justice to the long-abandoned work. MeMaw spent a lot of money and time on this MQAL, and it deserves to be made. Believe it or not, there are people out there who make completing orphaned craft projects their mission. I doubt I’ll ever be one of them, but I have rescued more than one knitting project from a charity sale or two. (Okay, one was crochet, and I’ll get to it…once I’m better at crochet.)

I honestly have no desire to join a quilt club, guild, or anything “of the month,” so this will be an interesting experience. MeMaw chose well, and I look forward to finishing what she started. If it ends up being as large as the pattern states, it will be the largest size of quilt I’ve ever made at 76″ x 90″. I tend to stay around the lap to throw sizes, which are usually no larger than 60X60″.

So that’s the plan. I have no idea how long it will take to finish, given it’s partially complete and I have to pick it up in the middle. Quilt Along projects are usually done month to month in installments, so it seems MeMaw was two months into an eight month project. However, since I don’t have to wait for the instructions to come every month, I might get it done over the summer. It appears MeMaw did the hardest part of cutting out all the small stuff, but I won’t know until I get into the pattern. There may be more half-square triangles in my future.

If that’s the case, I’m really going to hate this project.

Until next time.

P.S. If for any reason you find yourself Not Okay, I highly recommend the Everything Is Awful And I Am Not Okay PDF from Sinope. Seriously. Print it out and put it on your fridge.

Little Bitty Pretty One – February 2023

Hello, Darklings!

I thought for 2023 I’d try a new post series given I have a lot of irons in the fire and stuff and things planned, so welcome to Little Bitty Pretty One, the spiffed up version of the General Updatery post.

It may surprise some of you that titles are not my forte. I know. I’m a writer and titles are my bane. Usually my titles come from a line in the text or something else in the story. In this case, I couldn’t think of a title for this new State-of-the-Union-type series of posts, so I decided that the title of the next song that came up on my Pandora would be what I would call them.

I hear you over there. “Dina, you’re a little Goth girl. Why would the Universe queue up a song from the 1950s on your Pandora?”

Well, because I have a soft spot for 50s music. I’m sure I get it from my Daddy (he passed over 20 years ago this week), who loved listening to the music of his childhood when I was a wee one growing up in the 1980s. (I had the realization the other day that my listening to 80s music at my age is exactly the same as my Daddy listening to 30-year-old music in the 80s. Get off my lawn.)

So, I have a 50s rock ‘n’ roll station on my Pandora. And good as my word to the Universe when trying to think of a title, Little Bitty Pretty One by Thurston Harris came up in the rotation.

And here we are.

Harris’ version of Little Bitty Pretty One was featured in the 1983 John Carpenter movie Stephen King’s Christine (honestly that whole soundtrack is fantastic for 50s music; John Carpenter has excellent music in his films and is pretty damned good at music himself) , and it’s one of my favorites of the era. I also adore Dion, The Drifters, The Everly Brothers, Herman’s Hermits, Ritchie Valens, Del Shannon, and so, so many more. Despite several of the songs being problematic these days (sexist, misogynistic, objectifying, downright racist, etc. — looking at you, Ricky Nelson), and the predatory practices of record companies exploiting Motown groups, the late 50s began to expose white audiences to the music of POC such as the Marvelettes, The Temptations, and The Four Tops. (BTW, in case you didn’t know, those guys who did that song from Ghost you like — The Righteous Brothers — were white dudes totally ripping off Motown. I only learned that last year.)

And I have digressed so far off the topic of this post. This is what happens when you fall into a research hole. I’m supposed to be writing an update post about upcoming projects and have gone on for paragraphs about what’s on my Pandora.

ANYWAY! Let’s start again.

Hello, Darklings! Welcome to Little Bitty Pretty One – February 2023

As this is the inaugural post of LBPO, we’ll just go with the bare-bones format I’ve outlined for these posts.

We’ll kick off with my CURRENT PROJECT:

Here’s where I’ll announce what I’m working on at the moment, which for February is the release of DEATH KNELL, the third (and final?) book in the Stranger Things series. It’s out now for sale in various places in all formats. Am*z*n is having a little trouble with the paperback version, but once the technical issues get resolved, it will be available as well. They had no issue with the hardcover, but their quality control bot had a hiccup with the paperback format, so once they approve the tiny little thing they want my amazing formatter to fix, we’ll be golden. (Seriously, it’s a number. They can spot a transposed digit, but not Nazis, apparently. Priorities, I guess.)

So that’s the Current Project. DEATH KNELL is now available (though the “official” release date is February 18, I managed to get it done before the farthest date I could push it back, so you get it now)! You may purchase it wherever you buy your reading material in whatever format pleases you most (except paperback, which again will be available in a couple weeks once the ‘Zon gets their undies untwisted).

Another current happening (not so much a project, just something I’m involved in) is a livestreaming D&D game over on Twitch. It’s called Tal’Dorei South, and you can find it every other Sunday at Border Kingdoms Adventures. While I am a Dungeonmaster myself, in this game I’m a player, and shenanigans are afoot with our all-female game run by AD&D League Dungeonmaster Joe Alfano.

Our first game was on February 5, so if you want to see me mouth off to an evil baddie and pay the price, head over there and check us out. We’re level 1 babies, so get in on the ground floor now so you don’t have to play catch-up later.

Watch Tal’Dorei South Episode One on YouTube here.

Also, if D&D is your thing, here’s a reminder that Skyla Dawn Cameron is offering YOU a seat at MY gaming table (you’re so lucky — they’re invitation only), when she meets her goal of 100 Patrons.

From January’s Newsletter: “When Skyla makes it to 100 Patrons, she’s planning on holding a contest where one lucky winner gets to play in a D&D one shot with her (I’m the Dungeonmaster) at our usual Friday game, so if that’s a thing you’d be interested in, there’s another reason to support her there. Shenanigans may include TNR of an owlbear, the murder of red-headed children (don’t ask), seducing a lich (really, don’t ask), or helping a kitten out of a tree. Or maybe overthrowing a local fascist dictator. Who knows?!”

So, if you’re not already one of her Patrons, remedy that now for as little as $1. If you’re already her Patron, give a signal boost and get people signed up so YOU have a chance at winning that seat.
Okay. That about sums up the current project portion.

Which brings us to–

UPCOMING STUFF AND THINGS:

Next up, I’m revamping an old writing guide I wrote several years ago. Once I get it all shined up and updated (THANK YOU, GLOBAL PANDEMIC, FOR FUCKING UP MY NEATLY ORDERED INFORMATION!), I’ll be sending it off for proofing, formatting, and upload. Here’s a preview of the cover, once again by the amazing Skyla Dawn Cameron at Indigo Chick Designs.

Die Well: A Writer’s Guide to Medical Mayhem — Some of you may know that in another life I was a health care professional, and I often call out TV shows and books for medical shenanigans that Would Not Happen (looking at you, Gray’s Anatomy, with your jewelry-and-makeup-wearing in the OR). Once upon a time I  wrote a series of posts over at the now-retired Evil League of Evil Writers talking about certain things one should not do in their fiction if they want their medical situations to not result in people like me throwing the book across the room because you used an animal sedative on a human because it’s the first thing that popped up in your Google search. Those posts have been collected and updated and put into ebook form for a handy reference. Hoping for a Spring release.

Now we come to the “also in the works” portion. Bear with me if you’re a long-time reader, subscriber, or Patron, as this is likely to be repeated information, but we have some new people around, and I cross-post a lot of places.

Also in the works are:

The Silverthorn Protocol — My first foray into sci-fi. Not quite sure what subgenre it is, but I know what it isn’t. It’s not “hard science fiction” or action/adventure, and while there is a romantic subplot involved, it’s not a space romance, nor is it a saga or space opera. I call it “Gray’s Anatomy meets Underworld. In space.” Because of course I have space vampires and space werewolves. I’m also not sure about a release date for this one, but the draft is finished and it’s been through its first round of edits and beta readers, so a Fall release wouldn’t be unreasonable. We’ll see. (Snippet available here!)

The Devil’s Own — This one is near and dear to my heart. This novel is what got me back into writing after a five year hiatus. I’d graduated college, gotten married, moved to Oregon, and one day one of the main characters had me grab a pen and start writing down their tale. I couldn’t get the story down fast enough. I wrote every day, every spare minute (I was in my 20s, okay?), and got that book done in record time. It was then I started thinking about a writing career, and so I wrote my first query letter and sent it off snail mail with a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope for the youngsters amongst us — things were done a lot differently before people really got into the Internet). I got a very nice rejection, but that didn’t deter me. This novel has gone through so many drafts and title changes and has made the rounds “out on submission,” and while it got some attention and some full requests, it never found a home and so I put it away. Until now. It’s going through another round of updates and polishing, and I will release it myself at some point this year. Halloween might be nice, given demons, hellhounds, and a vampire feature heavily. For fans of Kyle, this is his first true appearance.

Midnight Tea Shop — This one is an absolute vanity project. Regular readers/Darklings/newsletter subscribers already know about this, but if you’re new, this was a project that I was cyberbullied into writing by the enablers over at the Alchemy Red After Hours Saturday Write-In. It’s a paranormal cozy mystery that’s basically a contemporary cast of characters and their doings surrounding a tea shop that’s open past midnight. There’s vampires, hellhounds, mimics (okay ONE mimic), and murder. Also asshole ex-boyfriends and a Karen. There’s a lot of swearing. I have no idea if this project will even get done this year, but if it does, you’ll get to read it.

Now we have come to the wrap-up segment of LBPO — the promotional and shout-out part:

Let’s talk about Patreon. If you’re a Darkling of the CHECK FOR TRAPS tier or higher over there, you get to read excerpts when they come out. Otherwise you’ll get to read them a few months later when I make them available to all subscribers. (Everything posted in 2022 is now available to Patrons of all tiers.)

That goes for all the works-in-progress. I post random snippets every so often (I aim for once a month) of things I’m working on here on Patreon, so if you’re interested in those things and don’t already support me here, that might be something to think about.

I don’t really have any shout-outs this month that I haven’t already linked to in the body of the post, but this is the format I’m going for, so here we are.

I’m hoping to do a LBPO post every month, but that might get old, especially if I have nothing new to share, so let’s just play it by ear and take things as they come. If you want more than the occasional public post like this one, such as an Infrequent Newsletter that talks about stuff like my studio renovation and kitten escapades, toss me some pennies and all the shiny things can be yours!

Herself,
Dina

Holiday Wrap-Up 2022

Here we are, at the end of the year, and boy has it been absolute chaos here in the James Household.

Earlier this year we started work on converting our detached garage/workshop into a studio space, not only to give me a dedicated place to both write and craft (I have become a quilter as well as a knitter, and craft supplies take up a lot of space, no matter how much of it you store in twelve gallon totes). While the exterior (new roof, siding, and windows) went smoothly, once we got to the interior (electrical was already installed, but there was no plumbing whatsoever) things started to spiral. I won’t go into details, but suffice to say what should have been finished in October has now stretched into December, and will very, very likely go into the New Year. I keep telling myself that it will be beautiful and amazing once it’s finished (it will double as a guest house for any visitors needing a place to stay while vacationing out here on the Oregon Coast once the pandemic is in the rear view mirror), but given all the delays and obstacles, it doesn’t help much. I am homicidal on my best days, and those are far, far behind us now, so you can guess where I’m at when it comes to enthusiasm for the project.

September brought us a foster cat who ended up staying with us far longer than planned as our local shelter has been full to bursting all year. I was calling every other day to see if they had space in the adoption room for them, but had no luck. One of our friends saw the cat’s picture on our social media and made arrangements to bring him home, but logistics were fouled when Mr. James was involved in a car accident in November (he’s okay — the other driver ran a stop sign) resulting in a total loss of the vehicle that was supposed to transport our foster to his forever home. Other arrangements were made, but the accident and everything it entails has taken a toll on both our mental and physical health.

October brought us another foster in the form of a single abandoned ten-day-old kitten. Longtime followers may know that a few years ago, the James Household specialized in fostering neonatal/orphaned bottle-baby kittens, and though we had ceased operations due to COVID restrictions and protocols, the shelter (being chock full and every foster family unavailable) pulled our name out of mothballs and asked if we “still did that.” As it was a single orphaned kitten and not an entire litter, I said yes, despite everything that was falling down around us. After three days, we knew Her Majesty Queen Penelope wasn’t going back to the shelter, and once she was of adoptable age, we filed the paperwork and made her an official member of the household. She’s now ten weeks old and driving her older brothers and sisters insane with her bouncing. (I swear, she has one speed, and it is 175MPH.)

Given all the above, the idea of putting up a giant cat toy in the form of our customary Sithmas tree for the kitten to destroy throughout the month just didn’t appeal to either myself or Mr. James, so we tacked up a holiday fabric panel from my quilting stash and called it good. (It needs ironing, but that will happen later.)

While Her Majesty Queen Penelope is an absolute joy in these chaotic times, I have been running on fumes the last couple months, so work on Death Knell (Stranger Things #3) has come to a standstill. It was supposed to be polished and released the 20th of this month, but given everything going on around here combined with my chronic illness (Multiple Sclerosis – please consider a donation to your local MS society for the holidays thank you), I just haven’t had time or energy or the coherence to put in the work it needs before publication. I’ve pushed the pre-orders back 30 days on Amazon (that’s what they allow without penalty), but even that might not be enough. We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.

So that’s where we stand for the end of the year. Once the dust settles around the car accident thing, we’ll have to set about getting a new one, and car shopping is one of my least favorite things to do. Both Mr. James and I are severely demoralized over the loss of his vehicle. We’d had it just over a year and it was much loved by both of us. There will never be another one like it, but I have a call into the salesman that found it for us and told him to find us as close a match as he can. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Mr. James will get a new car he loves for Sithmas.

A new studio for me would be nice, too. They were hoping to have it done by my birthday (yesterday), but yet again things got in the way.

I realize this post is full of doom and despair, but the sign on the door reading LAIR OF DOOM isn’t there for funsies. The James Household is also fairly demoralized at this point, and I have to admit missing the release date for Death Knell doesn’t do much to improve my mood.

Here’s hoping your holiday season, whatever you celebrate, is all you wish it to be, and that the coming New Year is kind to you and yours.

Best,
Dina

P.S. There’s a snippet of my first sci-fi novel, THE SILVERTHORN PROTOCOL up for PERCEPTION CHECK (and above)-level tiers over at Patreon. If you’re not a Patron, maybe think about becoming one for the holidays so you can access shiny things like that and more depending on how generous you’re feeling.