Posting on April 1st always seems a little iffy...

....mostly because of the whole "April Fools' Day" thing. Although we're not fond of pulling pranks, the tradition of doing so is a long one -- the Romans had the festival of Hilaria (which sounds like a Seinfeld sketch), the French...or maybe the British, or maybe it was the Hindus...but somebody had All Fool's Day, long, long ago -- while the actual origin of  this silliness is still up for discussion. Not here, mind you, but in more intelligent, scholarly blogs.
 
If you came here, hoping you might be inspired to pull a few gags on that boss you don't like, you came to the wrong place. You should have stopped at Paste Magazine, which will provide you with a handful of pranks "straight from your kitchen". Or you could stop at The Huffington Post, if you'd like to see some strangers doing outrageous things to their loved ones and/or co-workers. ("Outrageous" was HP's phraseology. Still, pretty funny.)
 
Here at MarsNeedsWriters, we like to pretend we're above such shenanigans (no one knows the origin of the word, 'shenanigans' but everyone expects it will vanish from the lexicon shortly), but we're mostly too lazy to bother.
 
Besides, we've been busy. Busy writing, naturally, with a fantasy novel coming out this month and a romance novella to follow (both under different pen names, neither of which we'll bother you with at the mo'). We have a pair of translators who should be giving us new and foreign versions of After Things Went Bad shortly, too, for our review. But, for us, the big, big news is that one of us -- the better half of the team -- is finally painting again.
 
Life issues had caused Renee to set her paints aside. We both thought it was a temporary hold before other issues popped up; and one thing followed another until, alas, years had vanished. Looking back, we were both surprised at how quickly the time had gone. But, no more. Bad Hair Day is complete, another painting is on the easel and under construction, and the switch from oils to acrylics had been surprisingly smooth. She's having fun.
 
We hope you are, too. Just watch out for a mayonnaise-filled donut (Paste Magazine, you're such a scamp).
 
Watched:  The last of the Hobbit movies: The Battle of Two Many Armies. Even on DVD, the visuals were gorgeous, the acting was solid, but the storyline was a little ham-handed and a bit padded. And couldn't they have completed dealing with Smaug during the second movie?
     Yes, yes, they could have. It would have made Hobbit the Second that much more enjoyable.
 
Reading:  .M.C. Beaton's The Death of a Policeman. We love us some Hamish Macbeth and we're glad to see the series just keeps trucking along. This is #29 in the collection, if Amazon is telling the truth, and we can't wait for #30.