And the rest of the week...

Enjoyed a perfectly fine and fun convention weekend at MultiverseCon, which included a reading at Charis Books and More in Decatur with the delightful Meg Elison and some very talented local writers and poets, a trip to the Decatur Historical Society to see some interesting exhibits, meeting up with some old friends like Lee and George Martindale and Ed DeGruy, chatting with lovely people who I do not know as well but hope to know better like John Picacio, Candra Gil and Sherry Renee Thomas and brand new to me lovely people like Kenesha Williams of Black Girl Magic Magazine, Melissa McArthur of Falstaff Books and a whole bunch of other nice people and then wrapped it up with stunning art at the Atlanta Airport. All good, would go again next year if things work out.

Then I came home to a letter from the county announcing that they were dropping my mother from medical assistance (the only way she can afford 24/7 nursing home care) because of a specific issue. I knew that there might be a problem at some point soonish, but hadn't expected to have only 8 days to solve it, 6 by the time I got back. Many phone calls later, I had a solution in place and am working on it, but in the meantime, they send me a threatening letter per day just to make the experience more "fun." So that was Tuesday and Wednesday and every day since.

And on Thursday, I got laid off from my day job. The new regime handled this staggeringly badly, doing it with no notice or warning (bearing in mind that they had "cancelled" the layoffs last December and we had a couple of years of warning on those) so a few people were crying and freaking out. I was deeply touched that the contractors gave me an "honor guard" and helped me carry my stuff out and then one of my ex-colleagues bought me lunch. I look forward to hearing about the new regime going down in flames, as they should. The bright side is that I do have a "transition package" and will get a meager severance when I fill out the paperwork (one of tomorrow's tasks), but will have to start job hunting in December, which is not the best time for such things around here unless I can get traction in the writing/editing/publishing parts of my life. I'm also very burned out and am wrangling some chronic pain issues so I'd love to get a bit more leeway on when I have to start searching again if I can.

If you are so inclined and can do so, here are a few ways that you can support my wife and I as we deal with this new fun-filled development in our lives. Signal boosts on any/all of these are also much appreciated!

• "Breaking Out of the Slush Pile" - registration deadline November 6th, class takes place on November 10th. This is a webinar that I'm teaching for Hidden Timbers Books and it does not yet have enough registrations to carry.
• Queen of Swords Press - buy some books! The Press is inching slowly toward being self-sustaining, but if I don't have to pump money into it for a few months, it would be a huge load off my mind (and bank account), not to mention helping it move forward. Our books are available all over the place as well as direct from the website. You can ask your local library to order them in too! Or buy them direct from us at events!
• I also have a Patreon that supports the Press (Get novels in progress! Have fun guessing how it is that I do what I do! Win free books!) and there is QoSP Ko-fi if you don't want to commit to pledging, but want to kick in.
• My wife, Jana, makes handmade books and boxes and she has an Etsy. She also teaches at MN Center for Book Arts, Carlton College and miscellaneous art centers. Take a class or buy a pretty box! They make great gifts.
• Hire us! I write, edit and teach and am both knowledgeable and reasonably entertaining (other people think this too!) on a number of topics. Jana makes custom boxes like portfolios, wedding albums, storage boxes for old books, does repair and offers private tutorials if you want to learn more about bookbinding, box making book repair.
• Finally, my bookseller pal, Dave Christenson, is experiencing some hellish health problems. He's been helping me sell off some of my parent's books that made it out here when we moved my mother out from NYC and we're down to the last book. If you know any Charles Lindbergh fans who might be interested, please point them Dave's way. We'd really like to get this to a new home soon.

And that's it for now. Thanks for reading along this far; I hope to have better news soon.