Lightning strikes maybe once, maybe twice

The second landscaping guy came by today, and now all I can do is sit back and wait for these two dudes to give me their assessment. Great is my patio-envy, but little is there to be done about it.

I'd planned to wrap up this blog post and see about some work out in that very same yard, for it is getting scraggly in all possible places ... never mind the giant rectangle where the patio will go - where we've neither weeded nor mowed so far this year, heh.

But the best laid plans, etc. etc. etc., for now it's pouring down rain. Even if it stops, I don't feel like working in the mud. So forget it, for today.

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New strategy last night in the Cat Karaoke wars. This time, when she hopped up onto the nightstand to sing into my ear at 3:00 a.m., I pulled her into the bed, under the covers, and held her there. She wiggled and fussed for about fifteen seconds, then started snoring. No further cat-singing ensued.

I'm not saying this is a successful tactic, mind you; just because it worked once, that doesn't mean it'll work again. But a good snuggle is probably preferable to a pillow upside the head.



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I love it when the cover art goes live on Amazon. It just makes everything feel so much more...official, you know? And also, in my experience, it makes people more likely to preorder books like oh, say, Maplecroft (if you were so inclined).

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Here's recent progress on my witchy art-deco horror novel about Lizzie Borden thirty years after her parents' deaths - now featuring ghosts and non-ghosts alike, anti-Catholic conspiracy nuts, supernatural political shenanigans, the mafia, and a Bonus! space-worshiping murder cult hiding behind the KKK:
Project: Chapelwood
Deadline: October 1, 2014
New words written: 2250
Present total word count: 72,275



Things accomplished in fiction: Sent a very weird letter to a very nice girl, who wigged out about it; made plans to follow up on some of the details of that letter, while it's still possible to do so.

Next up: One more trip down to Storage Room Six.

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunt with dog; consultation with the landscaping guy; paid some bills.

Other: Nothing else to report at this time.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 105,668