Updatey things, new year...

[catherineldf]

The year has begun with its usual rush of excitement. The big news is that I do have a new job and I start it next week. The timing is good in that we are now mostly coasting on savings (buy a book! Or a fancy box!) until money starts coming in again next month. But we can actually do that, so still not dire, though support is much appreciated and helpful.

This week I went to:

• A Midwest Independent Publishers Association meeting for a presentation on video marketing.
• A talk on green burials in Minnesota at the Seward Co-op.
• Third Thursday at the MIA (local art museum invites in a bunch of musicians and artists and other creative folks)
• Burned the midnight oil (literally) to get a story completed and turned in during a short extension period. Fingers crossed! It's another Sherlock Holmes story so if gets accepted, it will be my second one for this year. It's a Holmes and Mrs/ Hudson story so we'll see how it flies.
• Finished another story which I'll be doing a final pass on before submitting tomorrow.
• Saw the cover and the TOC for the forthcoming Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives edited by John Linwood Grant (Belanger Books), which will include my story "The Rani's Dream."
• Did a bunch of Queen of Swords Press 3rd Birthday Party planning for next Saturday (1/25), including dropping books off at The Irreverent Bookworm in Minneapolis. The big news is that Elise Matthesen will making a glorious thing for the prize drawing - it is sure to be amazing! But you do need to show up to enter, so see you there if you can make it.
• We now own a handtruck that converts being a cart.
• By some miracle, even though we are mid-blizzard and I waited until this afternoon to ask, the guy we call when snow gets really bad said he could fit us in tomorrow.

Now to watch Antonia's Line, which I haven't seen in forever and rest my elbows so they stop screaming from some of my recent more strenuous activities.