Apologies for the Long Silence

[LauraJUnderwood]

It's been rather *busy* around here. I have sent Wandering Lark over to the publishers for them to do edits. I finally got through an edit of Thunder Hammer. I finished writing To The Flame.

Been sick more times than I can count on fingers and toes, and am hoping this bout of illnesses have finally passed.

Mom will have to have more eye surgery.

Been planning a trip to Disney in Florida (Mom's present).

The Book of Tentacles has finally been released by Sam's Dot Publishing and includes my story, "A Quiet Neighborhood." It's about noise, neighbors and...tentacles...

Found out that Esther Friesner's third supernatural creatures in suburbia anthology has been gifted with the title Fangs for the Mammaries... Also just sold my story "Inn Ho Stop and the Queen of Memphis" to A Bubba in Time Saves Nothing: A Bubbas of the Apocalypse Anthology.

But the Really Big News for me at this moment is that I am FINALLY Out Of Debt! My last creditor apparently decided to wipe me off the books, so I am FREE! This means I can start squirreling money away for retirement. Yes, I have a retirement fund with my employers, but I want to have More Money put aside.

It also means I can finally get the truck fixed. I have let The Black Beauty limp along, taken him in for regular maintenance, but he has this noise that no one can explain that annoys me. I suspect it is either the idler arm or the master cylinder or possibly the timing belt is out of joint in some manner.

But the money I have been collecting to pay my last debt is now being returned to me from the escrow account, and I am going to use it to get the truck overhauled...

And maybe buy something "special..."

Though more likely, I will put it aside for the Disney trip this fall...

Laura J. Underwood

[Teresa Edgerton]

It's good to see you back, Laura. (I was thinking about you just the other day.)

But I'm sorry to hear that you were sick. I always picture you as bubbling over with good health.

[LauraJUnderwood]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

It's good to see you back, Laura. (I was thinking about you just the other day.)

But I'm sorry to hear that you were sick. I always picture you as bubbling over with good health.

As a rule, I am. But my boss is a Typhoid Mary and every thing her family gets I seem to catch. I've had two bouts of flu, one serious sinus infection, a cold, and at the moment and fighting allergies.

But it is good to be back.

Laura J. Underwood

[Teresa Edgerton]

That sounds a lot like my last two winters. This one has been better, although I have a cold right now.

Nevertheless, I see that you are still getting a lot done, and that sounds more like you. Somehow, it's hard to imagine you languishing on your bed of illness. I picture you dragging yourself out from under the blankets, staggering to the computer ...

[LauraJUnderwood]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

That sounds a lot like my last two winters. This one has been better, although I have a cold right now.

Nevertheless, I see that you are still getting a lot done, and that sounds more like you. Somehow, it's hard to imagine you languishing on your bed of illness. I picture you dragging yourself out from under the blankets, staggering to the computer ...

Only got to lanquish in bed with the bouts of flu because the County insisted we stay home and not infect our coworkers.

The sinus infection and bad cold I had to work through.

Allergies--I am so used to them this time of the year, I generally manage to ignore them

Laura J. Underwood

[Teresa Edgerton]

Laura, perhaps you might put some of that overflowing creativity to work by entering our new monthly Writing Challenge:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum...irst-post.html

I'll bet the enforced languishing did you good, since you probably needed the rest.

[LauraJUnderwood]

Sorry, been off at a convention and am just now catching this...

75 words or less, eh...

Hmmmmmmmmm....

Laura J. Underwood