Busy pre-Halloween weekend
Busy weekend: Friday was a bit of a lost day due to a series of misadventures that I really don't want to describe. Sometimes, it makes it harder to put things behind you, if you talk about it too many times.
Saturday was an interesting day: my dad had come upon a few yard sales while running some errands, and at one, he found a nice wool winter coat that was about my size; he came back to see if I was interested, and since I need one badly after last winter, I went along with him to have a look and maybe buy it. Perfect fit, and it's a lovely deep tan with a hint of red to it. Hopefully, it'll keep the wind out this winter; hardest part about buying a winter coat for this area, getting one that's rated for our at times arctic winds, plus, I take the bus, and that can mean braving the elements to get to where I need to go. Also stopped a couple other yard sales, likely the last of the season, since November can be very rainy: found more jack o'lanterns to add to our jack o'lantern jamboree, also saw some wacky Halloween yard haunts: one featured a skeleton rock band (talk about a death metal band!) and another featured what looked like a mad scientist's lab complete with operating table and blood-spattered dummies.
And that evening, the New England Horror Writers got together at Annie's Book Stop in Worcester, for some Spooooky Storytelling, several folks reading selections from their short stories and a chapter or two from a novel or two. I read one of mine "Curiosity Shop", the first of mine that got published this summer, and the first half of "Paper Masks", an unpublished short story (another King in Yellow tale which I sent out recently to an editor working on an anthology based on the themes of "True Detective"). I was a bundle of nerves, but given the "oooh"s and knowing chuckles and the applause I got, I made a great first impression (that and I was the rookie author in the clan, so that kind of made me stand out a bit, which added a little to the nerviness, but nothing I haven't experienced before, since I was the rookie in the community chorus I used to sing in).
Today: We got a lot of work done adding the final touches to the jack o'lantern jamboree: put up the purple and the orange string lights that line either side of the driveway (also festooned a few sets across the bushes under the pine trees out front. Dad added some more shelves of pumpkins (this time on benches and boards on boxes - kicking it old school, since we started out putting stuff on just those sorts of things!) and put a few tweaks on the shelves on the main display.
I helped as much as I could: That Time of the Month hit me pretty hard, wound up taking it easy part of the day. Curled up with a few books: still pecking away at a chapter a day of "Night in the Lonesome October", which is shaping up into an utterly fascinating read, also reading one book from the library, "The Mammoth Book of Monsters", with a whole slew of unusual monster stories (one delightfully claustrophobic tale by Ramsay Campbell, featuring a creepy thing in an office basement).
Saturday was an interesting day: my dad had come upon a few yard sales while running some errands, and at one, he found a nice wool winter coat that was about my size; he came back to see if I was interested, and since I need one badly after last winter, I went along with him to have a look and maybe buy it. Perfect fit, and it's a lovely deep tan with a hint of red to it. Hopefully, it'll keep the wind out this winter; hardest part about buying a winter coat for this area, getting one that's rated for our at times arctic winds, plus, I take the bus, and that can mean braving the elements to get to where I need to go. Also stopped a couple other yard sales, likely the last of the season, since November can be very rainy: found more jack o'lanterns to add to our jack o'lantern jamboree, also saw some wacky Halloween yard haunts: one featured a skeleton rock band (talk about a death metal band!) and another featured what looked like a mad scientist's lab complete with operating table and blood-spattered dummies.
And that evening, the New England Horror Writers got together at Annie's Book Stop in Worcester, for some Spooooky Storytelling, several folks reading selections from their short stories and a chapter or two from a novel or two. I read one of mine "Curiosity Shop", the first of mine that got published this summer, and the first half of "Paper Masks", an unpublished short story (another King in Yellow tale which I sent out recently to an editor working on an anthology based on the themes of "True Detective"). I was a bundle of nerves, but given the "oooh"s and knowing chuckles and the applause I got, I made a great first impression (that and I was the rookie author in the clan, so that kind of made me stand out a bit, which added a little to the nerviness, but nothing I haven't experienced before, since I was the rookie in the community chorus I used to sing in).
Today: We got a lot of work done adding the final touches to the jack o'lantern jamboree: put up the purple and the orange string lights that line either side of the driveway (also festooned a few sets across the bushes under the pine trees out front. Dad added some more shelves of pumpkins (this time on benches and boards on boxes - kicking it old school, since we started out putting stuff on just those sorts of things!) and put a few tweaks on the shelves on the main display.
I helped as much as I could: That Time of the Month hit me pretty hard, wound up taking it easy part of the day. Curled up with a few books: still pecking away at a chapter a day of "Night in the Lonesome October", which is shaping up into an utterly fascinating read, also reading one book from the library, "The Mammoth Book of Monsters", with a whole slew of unusual monster stories (one delightfully claustrophobic tale by Ramsay Campbell, featuring a creepy thing in an office basement).