I’ve spent most of today emailing people. Some I know, some I don’t. With the short notice, and my even shorter amount of spare time, today has been an absolute flurry of activity.

The first thing I did was pick up a prize for the bloghop. Because Christmas ornaments play a fairly important role in this story, I thought it would be fun to give one away. Specifically, this one:

It’s made of pewter, by local craftspeople. (Well, local to me, anyway.) Two birds, perched on a wooden house, with the words ‘Our First Christmas’ carved in the front of it. It’s cute, and it fits the theme of the story.

The next thing I did was start contacting blogs–some I’ve worked with before, some I haven’t. If you glance down the right hand side of the blog, you can see some of the dates I have lined up.

There’s another complication, which I haven’t put on the calendar yet, simply because I don’t have hard confirmation of the release date. The Absolute Write Underground Erotica Anthology is slated to come out on December 1. Remember I mentioned this before? I’ve had a chance to go back and read some of the other stories now that I have galleys and it’s really good. A wide variety of stories, both MM and MF. Some kinkier than others.

And, aside from paying the cover artist and buying the ISBN, all the money goes to support the forums at Absolute Write, which is an amazing resource. If you’ve ever considered trying your hand at writing, you can’t go wrong there. I’ve heard it said that, if you spend enough time on there and take your reading seriously, it’s the equivalent of an MFA. Without the tuition fees. Plus, they’ll help you target appropriate markets and figure out how to publicize your stories. I was happy to contribute Henry and Jamie to the antho and hope to revisit them again–maybe if we do a second one?

In any case, I need to book a post or two for that, as well. So there’s going to be a fair bit of emailing still going on for a while.

And then I decided to defrag my computer. What is it about watching the disk view on these apps that’s so appealing? I could watch the little bits disappear and reappear for hours. This must be what cats get out of watching a mouse hole all day. It’s completely mesmerizing. But so satisfying, too.

And now I’m hungry again, so I must go feed myself. And sweep the floor. Because ew.