Well, it’s been two months since I posted.  Personal stuff, we won’t go into it.  But summer is here — always good news for a teacher — so maybe I can be  writer again for a few months.  And we’ll start by writing a blog post.

For starters, I have a story out in a new themed anthology from the Sparkito imprint of Dark Quest books.  The anthology is called Galactic Creatures.  The theme?  Animal satellites.  Yeah, I’ll let that sink in a moment…animal satellites.  When I heard it, I wasn’t sure whether to work with satellites that looked like animals, behaved like animals, contained animals, animals that behaved like satellites…heck, there are probably a dozen ways to interpret the theme.  I suspect that will lend to the variety of the stories within.  No, I haven’t read it yet because I was out of town when my copy arrived.  But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

My story is called “The Scrapper and the Saint Bernard”.  My interpretation fell somewhere between a satellite that looks like and acts like a Saint Bernard dog.  It uses an almost epistolary style, a first for me.  I think it all worked pretty well (he said without prejudice).  Pick up a copy and see for yourself.

In other news, I just got back from my third trip to ConCarolinas in Charlotte.  No, I wasn’t a guest or a panelist; I’m not big enough yet.  (Soon, though.  Soon…  But I digress.)  Con time was split with some time bonding with high school buds, so it wasn’t the immersive con experience I have had other times, but it was definitely a fun trip, as were the last two years there.

The best part was probably spending time with the Magical Words crew again.  Good people, good writers.  They are a big part of why I go every year.  Faith Hunter, A. J. Hartley, David B. Coe/D. B. Jackson, Misty Massey, Carrie Ryan, Kalayna Price, Edmund Schubert, Stuart Jaffe…not all of them are involved with MW anymore, and some are part-timers there, but I have enjoyed their fellowship and wisdom.

I also enjoyed other aspects of CC: the Dr. Horrible sing-along (always a favorite), sci-fi Whose Line Is It Anyway, the costumes, browsing the wares in the dealer room, yadda yadda yadda.  It’s a mid-size con.  It’s fun.  I only hope I’ll get there next year now that my buddy in Charlotte (whose apartment was a few minutes from the con hotel) is moving to Florida.  Note to self: look up cons in Tampa.

That’s it until next time (which won’t be quite so long).