I’ve been busy! Other people have been busy on my behalf! Most of the busyness has been positive! I have exclamation points to use up and a rambling list of doings to record & share.

Convention news: I’m registered for WindyCon in November and Capricon next February, so both my Chicago cons are a go for this season. The dealer table for Windycon is all set too, thanks to Rhiannon Taylor’s organizational brilliance, and I’ve submitted programming interest surveys to both cons AND suggested two panels and a workshop to Capricon.

I wasn’t sure Windy was going to happen this year, but it all fell into place fairly quickly.

BOOK NEWS: Relics From A Traveling Show has an official release date: November 12. 270 print pages of short fiction goodness. All it took was some deadline panic, and help from good friends on fionalizing the interior font (Baskerville) and things started falling into place.

I hope/plan/expect to have pre-release paperback copies to sell at Windycon.

I’ve set up ISBN records for both ebook & paperback, I’ve started the Ingramspark entries, and the cover is In Progress (and the artist knows it’s due by mid-October) I have cover copy, a list price, subject categories, keywords, and BISAC codes, beloved of library cataloger everywhere (she says sarcastically.)

Right now I’m tinkering with the excellent book description copy I commissioned from the Literary Mercenary (Best. Brand Name. Ever) I need to configure it in different ways for back cover, catalog, Amazon entry, etc and so on. I may put a placeholder cover and description into Ingram and the ISBN site just so I can complete those records. We’ll see how the weekend goes.

Me News: Covid Booster AND flu shot for the year have been acquired. I did the both at once thing, and got them both in one arm. and that part worked out well. The part where it knocked me on my ass for 18 hours was not so fun.

By “knocked me on my ass” I mean “a headache like an angry octopus squeezing my skull, sprain-level joint pain in ALL my joints at once, and nausea too severe to attempt pain meds.”

I stayed hydrated, I stayed horizontal, and sorta rested until it let up enough for ibuprofen, saltines & hot tea.Things improved magically fast after that. By 36 hours post-shot, I was completely back to normal, if a bit wobbly.

It’s wild how much of what we think of as being “sick” is actually our own body’s defensive response to a biologic threat. In any case. I’ll happily accept 6-12 hours of feeling yucky over actually getting Covid or flu, please and thank you.

Other Health News: I have successfully collected a referral AND an appointment for the surgical consult regarding my treacherous polypy appendix. Fun fact: my Health Care Provider evidently now has a department specifically tasked with Getting People’s Referrals From Doctor A to Doctor B.

This says sad things about the efficiency of the process overall, but whatever. I got a call from the Referral Concierge a few hours after I called Doctor A (and was told faxing the referral might take a few days groan) asking if I’d like help getting everything finalized. (I said yes, please)

The RC kept me on the phone, and then they called Doctor B via the Supersekrit Batdoctor phoneline, then connected us…and I had an appointment set up after only a 5 min calendar comparison.

So. Anyway. THAT’s a big weight off my mind.

Wildlife News: It’s been a good week for neighborhood wildlife action. Forst off, one of our regular fence commuting squirrels started making lots of noise outside the open window. I went to see if the Bitty Black Stray cat or the Wee Sleekit Tabby one were passing through, or perhaps the neighborhood Red tailed Hawk was lurking overhead.

Nope. The squirrel was pinned down at the corner of the fence and the house being strafed by an angry hummingbird.

I was too busy staring, open-mouthed, at the spectacle to even think of snapping a pic before the victorious hummingbird zipped off..

I did see and hear the hawk several times this week, and then, on Monday afternoon, a fox decided to liven up our afternoon walk by trotting right down the sidewalk half a block away. I did get a picture of that, but it’s a crap long-distance phone shot, and I won’t inflict it on you.

Cat. Nothing new there, Pips is his same old fluffy self, only now with more meowing than ever. Behold, proof of cat:

The adorable little crochet critter in the last pic is a drawing prize I won after donating to support a super awesom human who did a charity bike ride. Pippin of course thinks it's his prize now. We’re sharing custody.

Other things have probably happened that I’ve forgotten. If I remember them, I will write them down later.

But for now, that’s a wrap.

You have reached the obligatory “And now a word from our sponsors” section.

The Rollover Files is an ongoing series of hopepunk tales about an alternate world where moms with midlife-crisis superpowers keep saving the world whether it appreciates them or not.

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