Just turned in my hp_halloween gift. I love that fest - I guess it's understandable why I totally forgot about it last year, but it's lovely to be writing again.

My sshg_giftfest entry is zooming along. I'm on the home stretch. It's a funny thing; I started it last week, and I'm sitting at 10K words. When did that happen? I know a good bit will go by the wayside once stgulik really gets stuck in, but for the most part I really like most of what I've written. I'm hoping that means it might be good and not self-indulgent wank, but I suspect the latter is in there as well.

I also have started writing in a journal nightly. This is something I haven't done in a long time, and it's just the most shallow, trivial journal. Just stuff that I did during the day, what I'd like to do tomorrow. A little section about positive things that happened on the day, etc. Nothing deeper than that. It's like I don't have the time or energy to write down all my feelings in longhand. I don't even go back and read it. It's just a brain dump at the end of the day. I hoped it would enable me to sleep better, but last night I had some really disturbing dreams. So much for the brain dump.

Work this week was dismal, but the next few days are going to be very busy. I've trotted out my few Halloween/Autumn decorations, just the opening ceremonies for Christmas, really. I always decorate early in November, but I also take them down bang on around New Year, so maybe in the grand scheme of things I don't have them up all that much more than most.

I'm also getting a lot of stuff in my head for the third and last book of the series. It will be called Silverbirch, and it's going to be more action driven than sex-driven. I'm hoping that means I can actually sustain people's attention long enough from smut to smut and actually say something someone wants to read. You get a little tired of thinking that the only thing people might want to read of yours is the sex stuff. I did get a beautiful compliment the other day on FB when I mentioned I was writing for the Gift fest. Thank you, worrywart1966, for that. She said: "If I received a piece of fiction from you, I wouldn't care if it were 1000 words or 10,000 words. I know that each word would have been chosen carefully and with love." That's about the nicest thing anyone has ever said, and something I can actually whole heartedly agree with. I do try and choose the best words. All 10,000 plus of them.

Hey, everyone! Let's get another awesome year of Halloween drabbles going with hp_halloween! It is quite possibly the easiest, most low-pressure fest out there. The maximum is 200 words, and it is one of my favourites. Because of all the stuff going on with TheHubs™ last year, I didn't get to participate, but I'm so looking forward to it this year!

Come on along and sign up for it HERE!

I've just managed to submit my hp_halloween offering this year. Yay! I actually contributed to a fest this year!

And  like the arsehole I am, I forgot to mention stgulik in my notes and thank her for the amazing help she gave me in this. I sent a second message to the mods asking them to add this to the author's notes, but if I screwed up and they can't, I want it mentioned here that Jules' beta work on this knocked it out of the park for me. And I'm sorry to be such a plonker.

Just blowing in to say hello. This week has been crazy busy - emphasis on the crazy. A 60-hour work week, and in between I got railroaded into being House Manager for a three-week run play at the local Community Theatre. I'm behind on everything, including Christmas knitting, housework and cleaning, I'm so stressed my ectoptic heartbeats are ramping up, and I feel totally overwhelmed. My first night off in a week, and what does TheHubs™ want to do? Attend a concert of Sweeney Todd at the local University. I will explain the situation on that when I can catch my breath - it is a lovely morality tale on how karma will bite your ass when you least expect it and most deserve it - it's a great story.

Still are having problems with drain flies.

The only good thing I've accomplished this week is that we recorded a fun Halloween podcast (sneaking in shameless pimpage is my superpower), so I would be honoured if you'd have a listen to Episode 11 - Halloween Edition of Teddy & The Bassman. I really hope you'll enjoy it.

Gotta run - those litter boxes won't clean themselves. More's the pity.

Oh, and Happy Halloween to all my dear friends! I wanted to celebrate the day by staying at home, vegetating and possibly eating junk food, but we'll see.

EDIT:

Crikey! I forgot all about mentioning my awesome hp_halloween gift from inamac, called Cakes and Turnips. The one I wrote for her is called Do We All See the Same Moon?. Please go and check out all the lovely goodies there - each one is a definite treat.

Sign ups are on at the most fun, stress-free fest in HP Fandom, hp_halloween. You can nab the sign-in sheet HERE. The rules are slightly different from last year, so have a quick peruse of them and jump on board. This is my favourite fest because, at only 200 words, it's so fun and I know I will have a lovely Halloween treat waiting for me.

Go on, then - what are you waiting for? Sign up today!

I hope all of my dear friends are having a wonderful Halloween. Ours is pretty quiet this year - with all the healthy eating, we didn't indulge in the too-tempting candy, so it's a quiet affair.

But my real treat came in the form of hp_halloween, one of my all-time favourite fests. It's the most fun, and all day long we get to read treat after treat after treat. My drabble was written by krissy_cits, who just delighted me to no end. Please read her awesome drabble HERE. It made me laugh out loud, and pushed all my happy buttons. Thank you so much, Krissy love!

I can't believe this will be my third year to participate in one of the most stress-free fests of the year - the lovely hp_halloween drabble fest. If you haven't participated, please go over and sign up - it is so much fun and so easy. All you have to do is write a drabble based on your given prompt. Max word count is 200 words - how easy can that be??

Please stop by and sign up - it's so much fun, and everything posts on Halloween, so your day will be full of treats.