Hello lovelies.

This is the first year Z’s really been excited about Halloween, and we are rocking it hard core. She wanted to decorate, so we put a few tombstones in the vegetable garden and have been creating “mosaics” with bats and witches and other spooky things to hang indoors. In related news, I am now the proud owner of an adult sized unicorn onesie, complete with wings and tail.

1. I love you all. Thank you to everyone who read the last post and reached out. One of the things that helps me is connecting with other people, even when it’s just an internet wave from across the planet.

2. Viscous Cycle. It’s that time of year again – the time where my child turns into a mucus-spewing device and I spend the next three months in various stages of sick, ranging from hmm, maybe this tickle in my throat won’t turn into anything at all to my head is stuffed with cotton to becoming a mucus spewing device myself to I finally feel better but hey look, Z has a runny nose again.

3. I voted. It took a few hours to wade through all the various ballot proposition nonsense, but I did it and mailed my ballot this week. Since I completely missed the deadline for the midterms, doing this felt even more important than usual.

4. There and back again. I’m on the East Coast again this week, in Tuesday out Thursday, and half looking forward to half reluctant to being done with the bicoastal life.

5. Crit partners / beta readers wanted. I keep saying I want to write more and not doing it, so I’m hoping having external accountability will give me the push I need. I’m looking for someone who can read a chapter (4000-6000 words) about every two weeks, and I’m happy to do the same for you. The novel I’m working on is about a middle aged woman who needs to make it from West Virginia to New York – on foot and with two children she’s just met – before her husband, President For Life of the New United States, finds and kills all three. Tag me if you’re interested.

Links & Things

Parenting from a position of trust.

When you’re holding a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. In my particular case the hammer is my job as a white collar defense lawyer, but boy does this make my money laundering spidey sense tingle.

The Blockbuster video stores I worked at in high school and college were nothing like this. Maybe if they were, I’d still be shelving new releases every Tuesday.