Highway 62

2008 is here, and I find myself once again in Northern Arizona. Sedona, to be precise. Luckily, the winter palace where I'm staying is far enough away from highway 89 that I can't hear the dull roar of traffic over the dusty gusting of the chill wind. The stars at night are two sizes bigger than I'm used to, and if I leave the dog bowls filled at night, they turn into miniature hockey rinks the next morning. We're living off of the the rib roast leftovers and a cache of coldcuts purchased in an effort to not have to go to the grocery store over the course of the next week. Well, that and the homemade Chex mix.

Cold and dry. Was hoping for some snow this year. Got to see some in Flagstaff (before they shut down I-17 due to careless handling of some couple hundred gallons of an unnamed corrosive liquid), but it was mostly black and gritty, loitering unwelcomed in the Target parking lot, rimed over so that it wasn't of any use to anyone for snowman making. Still have a few days yet. Might get lucky. High cirrus and some virga scattered across the wide blue dome of the sky. The wind might yet push those together into something useful, but in the meantime, it's cold hazy afternoons before the sun ducks down.

Home and work beckons soon enough. Get back on Saturday to paint the newly-converted office on Sunday (two coats of Killz and then something a little less clean white over on top of that, and maybe a nice brick red for the walls.) After that, a lot of talking to local retailers (and some not so local) and making plans for Wondercon in two months, the World Horror Convention in another after that (right about the time that STRANGEWAYS: MURDER MOON hits the shelves) and finally Stumptown in April. Then there's the nagging reminder that I've actually got to get some actual writing done too, it quietly gnaws at the recesses of my brain, molars grinding on the gray matter deliberately and slowly.

2008 will be a busy year. More work to shoot through the wires. More thoughts to trasmit, transport, transform.