School, Supplies

472301 / Pixabay

Back to school, back to the blog. I’m not sure if that is how it is supposed to go, but let’s just say that is how it works.

Why So Quiet?

It has been very quiet here on the blog — I’m sure you’ve noticed. Please accept my apologies for the extended silence. A few months ago, my father passed away. That was a year or so after my mother passed.

Then there was the usual end-of-school-year excitement that is par for the course when there are two teens in the house. Prom, exams, and so on…which led directly into summer camps (basketball, cyber-security, and good old ‘regular’ camp this year).

Which was followed by some staffing changes at the day job. Which triggered a cascade of shuffled tasks and responsibilities. Which caused the office, myself included, to run on adrenaline for a few weeks.

Now I’m catching my breath and recovering from the adrenaline crash.

Plus, it’s canning season: pickles, pie filling, and (hopefully) soon tomatoes.

And already it’s almost time for the kids to go back to school. We’ve done our school supply shopping, except for clothes.

I always wait as long as possible for school clothes shopping. Especially for the boy who insists on outgrowing everything as quickly as possible…

I think if I can just wait one more week, that means he will get one more school week out of the slacks, before they become appallingly short on him.  Awkwardly short, I am willing to let him wear.  Appallingly short is where I draw the line.  That’s somewhere above the ankle.

So things are returning to normal. Note I said normal, not quiet or relaxed or any other adjective that would indicate calm orderliness.

What all that means is you should start to see more activity around here again.

I love back-to-school time, so we should make it fun…

To celebrate back to school season–and because I am sure you have all finished your summer reading and written any required book reports–I have several short sci-fi/speculative stories available free in the month of August. Here’s the schedule and links:

Library Friends, a speculative short story, free August 2-6 on Amazon

Plug 2.0, second in the Offworlders sci-fi short story series, free August 9-13 on Amazon

The Gresmingas Incident, third in the Offworlders series, free August 16-20 on Amazon

Gin-Nee’s Dance Bar, a sci-fi short story, free August 23-27 on Amazon

Though Plug 2.0 and The Gresmingas Incident are not the first in series, you can read them as standalone. The first story, Plug & I, was free earlier this year, and is still available on Amazon, just not free. It is more like a prequel than a first-in-series.

On August 21, the US will experience the big solar eclipse. I’m planning to be in Nashville for it. What’s your plan?

And then the teens go back to school and everything will be as normal as it ever is — which is to say, not so much.

I hope you’re having a lovely summer! Or, winter, if you are in the southern hemisphere.