It's Almost February!

*** 31 Jan 2018 -- I've unpublished the rough draft chapters, but if you want to the novella shoot me an email and I'll send you the whole thing as a pdf.
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So my sister sent me mail to ask why I haven't written a blog post since August. (Then, a few days later, she sent me another email asking me if I wanted another dog because she knows of a great dog that needs a new home. Because clearly someone who already has two dogs, four cats, and three birds is in dire need of another dog. But I digress.)

I have a bunch of answers, ranging from the politically angry to the generally snarky, but it all boils down to this -- because I haven't felt like it.

However, that's all going to change because February is Thingadailies month. That's right, it's the "make something and post about it every day" month. Last year I did the origami-like things that were fairly successful except for the one that really looked like a swastika and oh god, am I responsible for the angry yam being elected after all? * deep breath * Anyhow, that gave me something to do every day and then Scooter peed on them all and that was that.

This year I've decided to try something different.  I'm going to write and post one chapter each day, encouraging blog reader participation along the way.

Here are the "rules":

• Each day will be a new chapter.
• Chapters will be as long or as short as I feel they should be.
• The term "day" may actually refer to a collection of days if I can't get my act together. 
• I reserve the right to ret-con (i.e., go back and change things in prior chapters if necessary for plot purposes). I'll try to make a note of it if I do anything major. No promises though.
• Notes in the comments suggesting character names, inanimate objects, and plot twists will all be considered. I reserve the right to ignore suggestions (because I refuse to write a story about Girly McGirlyface and seven other characters all named Daryl, half of whom are women -- I KNOW HOW YOU WORK, INTERNET!) However, if you make it fun or interesting, I will try to play along.
• This will be PG-ish, by which I mean there might be the occasional short word of Germanic origin, but there won't be any explicit sex scenes posted here. Remember how I started this all off by saying my sister was complaining that my blog hadn't been updated? Family get-togethers don't need to be any more awkward than necessary.
• Annoying characters named George are probably named that way because of my big dog, not because of my sister's fiance. I just want to make that clear from the start.
• The genre is... cozy mystery. Unless I change my mind.
• I'll post the chapters here, but I'll also see if there's an easy way I can add a link to a pdf for people with Kindles and the like.
• Yes, this work is owned by me and I retain the copyright. (But let's be honest here -- there's not a huge market for first draft, unedited, unspell-checked books from a completely unknown author. No, I'm not particularly worried about someone stealing my work.)

So that's the plan. Feel free to give me suggestions.

And now here's a picture of the big dog in his favorite bed: