Books…
Hate You Forever is on hold for a while for…well, Reasons. Most of them have to do with Craphome Livin’ but the biggest reason has to do with making HYF the best book it can be. If I want to do that, first I’ll need to wrap up a few outstanding projects…it turns out, writing three separate books in a year is a fantastic way to prevent a single book from being completed during that year. Who knew?
So. I’ve completed a strong working draft of a serialized book that’s a sort of tribute to my carny family members (and Borges) am shopping it around. Over the next few months, I’ll be wrapping up the novel that’s a major tribute to my carny uncles (and R.A. Lafferty) (yes, really) and will likely publish it through Woodward Press while I shop it around. I mean, it’s been four damn years in the making; I’d like to see that one out in the world before I die.
I’ll pick Hate You Forever up again in late October. In the meantime, since I’m no longer holding material back for the book you’ll see a lot more activity on the blog. Speaking of which:
Dogs…
Senior Dog’s health took a nosedive just before the New Year and we made the decision to end his life in early January. Hate You Forever and Pitsenji were both inconsolable for days, and so were we. It’s taken a few months for our family to find a new dynamic without the old man keeping the kids in line, but we’ve finally settled in to a comfortable routine.
A lot of it centers around tennis balls. Holy wow, do these dogs like to chase ’em.
We’ve taught Hate You Forever how to throw a ball in our direction instead of just dropping it, and we’ve taught Pitsenji (whose prey drive is insane) to drop it the first (well, third) time we tell her. Usually without having to chase her.
It’s a step. A big one.
Zips…
…are back!
For those of you who aren’t on my Facebook list: Zips are a family of (it turns out) sparrows with slightly odd coloration and surprisingly communal behavior (for example, I’ve seen them go to great lengths to feed ailing flock members). Their behavior is so un-sparrow-like that for years I honestly thought they were a species I’d never heard of. The name ‘Zips’ was coined by my friend Jon Zech, who sadly passed away before I was able to confirm they’re just blonde-ish, very very loyal sparrows.
Our flock visits the Craphome most years, but when they didn’t show up last year I thought they’d found another place to camp out before nesting season. Perhaps one with fewer dogs, feral cats, and crazy women snapping blurry pictures with 1990s digital cameras.
Anyway, this afternoon I heard the brain-splitting screech of a Zip letting its whole flock know that the feeder is full. For over an hour, I had a flock of 20 or so Zips hanging around my tiny one-hole feeder as each bird took its turn to eat. Those little dudes are pretty rocking awesome. Blurry photos coming soon.
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