Thursday the 4th, and the 4th day of this challenge. I almost missed it! But that’s going to happen from time to time.

Personal News

Chris has a sweet, adorable kitten named pancakes, and she’s now just old enough to go into heat. Consequently, she tries to get out of the house at every opportunity, and she yowls the song of her people constantly. Mournfully. There is no consoling her. Not in the afternoon. Not in the evening. Not in the wee hours of the morning, when we’re still trying to sleep.

Thus, I am tired. I have been tired most of the day, which is bad because the work days are not merciful. I wound up taking a nap during my lunch break, and I took another nap when my normal work hours ended. When I’m done with this post, I’m going back onto the work laptop in order to get a couple more things done.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

Upcoming Events and Such

There isn’t much to report that I haven’t already mentioned. Melissa and I will get on a plan, one week from today, and we go to Boston for Arisia.

I’m looking forward to it, but I have to be honest. I’m not going to know that many people there. I’m an unknown, going to a convention that is unknown to me. There is potential for good things to happen. It is also possibly a waste of my vacation time and money.

I will be kept busy in the dealer’s room, though.

The Topic: Another Urban Fantasy, Huh?

When I think about how I spend most of my writing time, I usually think of my SciFi stories. My formative years were spent reading a lot of Heinlein and Asimov. I read fantasy, too, but I always thought my first published stories would be SciFi.

I suppose my first one was SciFi. Unclaimed Goods is in an anthology, but apparently that book sold fewer copies in 4 years than The Repossessed Ghost sold in 6 months. If one were to go searching for my name, they would not find Unclaimed Goods anywhere, which is a shame because I really like that story.

A week from tomorrow, when searching for my name, you’ll be able to find The Repossessed Ghost and One for the Road. Both are urban fantasies, though they’re both very different in tone and approach.

That’s something interesting about urban fantasy. I think a lot of people think about Dresden Files, or Iron Druid, or Ilona Andrew’s stories. Even my Mel Walker stories fit with those in feel and presentation. But there’s room for more than just gritty, down-on-their-luck characters working through the conflicts by the cut of their wits and the punch of their magic.

One for the Road is more whimsical. Tina and Alexa are more relatable, I think. There may be stormy, troubled miscreants in their world, but they don’t appear in this story.

I can’t wait for the 12th when it’s actually out in the world.