Let's All Have a Merry Christmas!

I'm a week late, but here is my latest Sanford News column. It's about the YMCA and how I enjoyed it so much as a kid, but now it's not so fun. Read, enjoy, marvel at my descriptions of archaic workout equipment.

Rock Star is almost ready to be released. I should receive my proof copy within the next few days. If there are no errors, I'll have it for sale within a couple of weeks. I'm excited about it. I really need to get to work on a new novel, though. That's one of my New Year's resolutions.

Another resolution is to do a lot of freelance writing work. This is the year my writing career really began, at least as far as freelance work. Here's one of my articles from the ModernMom (yes, ModernMom) site.  Demand Media Studios is closed for the next 2 weeks, so that gives me time to find other places to pick up some work. Hopefully, the money will start rolling in. Any minute now...any minute...

I really need to finish my Christmas shopping this weekend and, of course, wrap the gifts. I always like Christmas, it is my favorite time of the year. Of course, then there is the frozen wasteland of January and February ahead of us, but let's not think about that just yet. Let's all have a Merry Christmas!

My novel, The Auctioneer, can be downloaded for free all weekend long at Amazon.com. Oh, please, no thanks are necessary. After all, Christmas is the season for giving, right?

We used colored Christmas lights on our tree this year for the first time. It's nice - brings me back to childhood - but I do prefer the white lights. I think we'll go back to white  next year. It was kind of nice this year, the kids did most of the work when putting up the tree.

This morning, I took Sam to the library to get the Superman II DVD and they were offering Christmas ornament decorating. We took part, it was fun. Going to the Christmast parade, putting up the tree, making ornaments - I guess I'm getting pretty crazy in my old age.

Demand Studios, Rock Star, Holly Daze

My new novel, "Rock Star", will be available as an ebook and in print in January 2014. Pretty exciting stuff. The cover is finished, although I may have to change it a little, compress it because of the size of the book.

I absolutely love this picture, it fits perfectly with the story. It was taken by a high school student, which makes it even better. I told her that she would be listed on Amazon.com and in my book for the cover photo, and she was very excited. She hopes this will make her famous. So do I.

In other writing news, I've been writing a lot for Demand Studios. It's going very well, but they are closing for three weeks at the end of December-early January. It is definitely going to hurt to lose that income for three weeks, but I'll have to manage.  Here is my first article to appear on eHow - How to Fix Pipes That Have Rust & Low Pressure. I did not write the clunky title.

I got my first fan letter for my newspaper column today. A woman read my most recent column, about facebook, and sent me a religious magazine. Not exactly the sexy pictures I was hoping fans would someday send me, but it's a start.

We are off to the Holly Daze parade tonight. After the parade, Santa lights the Christmas tree in the park. Our Christmas tradition is to put up our tree after we get home, so this should be a very fun night.