I drink alone - with nobody else

It's been an adventuresome Monday over here, I tell you what. Long story short, our kitchen sink's garbage disposal exploded this morning. By "exploded" I mean "produced a lot of smoke, sparks, smells, and awful noises before going completely dead."

In case I haven't mentioned it here before, the guy we bought this house from fancied himself a "contractor." Without getting too hateful about it, let us simply note that he redid the kitchen in 2007 (give or take) and he left the garbage disposal without a bottom plate on it...and with all the unit's exposed wiring hanging free, not even capped off. So basically, a minor jam caused a minor short in the system that almost started a fire.

It's fixed now.

But that ate up more of my day than I would have preferred - and hey, now I know a lot more about garbage disposal units and how to fiddle with them, because the guys who came out were happy to educate me on the minor maintenance thereof. (I ask a lot of questions, okay?)

Also, they were happy to play with Greyson - who was delighted to have visitors. I mean, I don't know if you knew this or not, but EVERYONE who comes to this house, comes here to play with him.

As far as he's concerned.

* * *

In other news, I burned some calories on the handbills for Maplecroft - so those handbills can be available in time for BuboniCon at the end of this month. I know it sounds like a trivial task, but believe me: Whittling down flap copy and/or blurbs to fit on a post-card-sized thingy is harder than it sounds, and takes more time than you'd think. See also: starting a few guest posts, for a few awesome bloggers who are game to have me in September. And likewise a few business-type emails, getting Writer Business sorted out.

Wait a minute. SPEAKING OF BUBONICON . Or rather, something I'll be taking part in, near BuboniCon. Did you know that my birthday is July 30? Did you know I'll be in Santa Fe, July 30?

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT I'LL BE UP TO?

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, since I wasn't sure when all was Official And Ready To Announce...but once it's on the theater's website, I figure it's fair game to link around. So. YEAH. There will be AWESOMENESS. ON MY BIRTHDAY. IN NEW MEXICO.

* * *

Ahem.

So, yes. It's been one of those Mondays. Not all good, not all bad.
But definitely full.

That said, here's today's 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: 2091
Present total word count: 89,226



Things accomplished in fiction: Begged for help; second-guessed some earlier decisions that seemed rock-solid at the time.

Next up: The villain gets his say after all, and part of that "say" is him wondering whether or not he is, in fact, the villain. Or if he just has shitty henchmen.

Things accomplished in real life: Neighborhood jaunt with dog; lots of business emails; drew up copy for the Maplecroft schwag; chased down/managed the nice plumber dudes who fixed the garbage disposal; started guest blog posts.

Other: Not for nothing, I'm kind of in love with Penguin's page for Maplecroft - where you can hover your cursor over the "preorder" button and it gives you about a zillion options. Check it out . And feel free to preorder that bad-boy, if you're so inclined.

Number of fiction words so far this year: 122,619