Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday... Shopping is hard. Let's work, instead.

Good morning, world. I hope that your Monday started better than mine (with an email saying, basically, "um, I know we go live in 24, but there are A Few Problems in the File..."). Nothing like seeing that at 6:05 AM to make you double the amount of coffee you're making.

The Do Board is brief but fierce today. And the window of "I need to hear by" for several projects has started to close. If Merc is still retro, it should get the hell in line ASAP, because I do not need any more communication screwups, thank you very much.

Reminder: the Thanksgiving-for-Readers contest has been extended until Sunday (to allow those of you who were traveling for the holiday time to get your entries in).

Reminder: if you're giving copies of my books as gifts this season, let me know, and I can personalize/send a bookplate! (no charge to you).

And, because it wouldn't be me on a Monday without a small grumble...

Friend: "oh my god, did you hear about [insert financial news]?"
Me: "yeah, [insert business news neepery]"
Friend: "How do you know all this?"
Me: "Because I've been paying attention for the past twenty years?"

I may be slightly annoyed at people who are only now discovering things like how finance charges work, or that companies buy and sell bits of each other on a regular basis...guys, I have only a layperson's knowledge of this, but seriously.. once you're past 30, it's a bit late in the game to be playing wide-eyed innocent at OMG the business world. ESPECIALLY if you aren't inherently wealthy, pun intended.

The story is "Don't Toot Your Horn" but here I am, doing just that...

(and finding a reason to use my Nick Fury icon)


speaking of DON'T READ THIS BOOK, Dorkadia sez:

"I hate to apply “clever” as praise too often – it’s easy for it to come across as dismissive, like the follow-up “little” is lurking around the corner – but it’s one of the first things to leap to mind for the contributions from Greg Stolze and Laura Anne Gilman. Stolze’s “Don’t Harsh Your Buzz” is a well-framed fencing match between a human Awake (as the emigrants from the waking world are called) and an anthropomorphic nightmare, while in “Don’t Toot Your Horn” Gilman tells the story of a drifting jazz musician with the scattershot phrasing and odd timing beats of the protagonist’s own trombone playing."

And then they go on to say nice things about the rest of the anthology, too. http://www.dorkadia.com/2012/11/26/dont-read-this-book/

I m especially pleased because I sweated over that story, to get the phrasing and beats down right. *grin*

So, ya know, if you like clever dark fiction, or know someone who wants exactly that for the holidays... there's your shopping, sorted. Yer welcome. :-)

B&N
Amazon
Direct From the Publisher