Saturday Nights in December

All That Is Dark and Beautiful

Autumn goes fast!! Sometimes it’s too full to keep track in words and posts, so here’s a quick cram session of all the things wonderful and a bit unbelievable that happened along with crunching leaves, bonfires, trick-or-treat, PTO Vice Presidency (shut up), soccer season, Apple Festival, a NINE YEAR Wedding Anniversary, a new legit job at A.L. Terry Jewelers, Back to the Future Pt 2 celebrations, reading amazing stories at Menacing Hedge…. you get the idea, things are booming!! In the midst of all that, there’s also this:

MORE!! At Booked.

Halloween means the annual Spookedtacular, and this year was a two hour NyQuil and beer fest of The Final Girls, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, urban legends, serial killers, and sincere love and vitriol splattered in all directions between Robb Olson, Livius Nedin, Jesse Lawrence and myself. Is a Christmas special coming, with the four of us? You bet! AND! At the beginning of 2016 while Robb and Liv take a Disney Cruise (or whatever it is they do when they can’t record) Craig Clevenger and I will be holding down the Booked. fort and co-hosting an episode ourselves. It should be hot. But more on that later! Click HERE to be taken to the Spookedtacular 2015,

Pantheon Magazine Winter Edition

A little sad, sweet piece of mine has been accepted at the lovely Pantheon Magazine. “Orphans” will appear in the “Hestia” edition. It’s a beautiful publication and I’m honored I’ll be found in its pages!

UPDATES for ‘Gutted: Beautiful Horror’ Table of Contents

If you don’t know what the anthology is about, click HERE to find out a little more about the depths of darkness and beauty coming from Crystal Lake publishing in 2016. It was incredible enough when I learned Neil Gaiman was on the roster, along with authors John F.D. Taff, Brian Kirk, and (one of my own) Richard Thomas – who needs a shout-out and huge thanks for tossing my name their way – THEN editors extraordinaire Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward announced on Halloween that along with all of us, Clive Barker will be including a story. It’s a bit surreal at this point, and I can’t wait to hear who’s announced next!  My story, “Cellar’s Dog,” is gangly and bizarre and pretty in its own way, and I’ll be forever grateful the editors could see what I saw when that black dog walked into those headlight beams.

So there you have it. The leaves are barely gone and already the Autumn is so full of goodness, I’m not sure where to go from here! Up? Or maybe I’ll just swim awhile. Float. Hug my lovelies and enjoy the laughter and the warmth. I think this is the top.

Thank you all so much for reading!

Amanda

The Christmas Ninja

Shutter Speed

Munchkin Visits Santa

The Tree (photos)

christmas stuff (photos)

delicately drawn holiday (victorian christmas images)

Snow & Santa & Flying (photos)

early a.m. ramble waiting for the “may cause drowsiness”

the christmas tree looks best in the middle of the night, when the lights are low and everyone is asleep and it’s the only warm thing in the room. huggable despite the white synthetic pine needles and wire branches. there are 4 metal bangle bracelets, a purple rubber Erase Hate bracelet, a pen on a string to hang around your neck, one of those plastic fake golf holes you put on the floor to put into, and a child-size stethoscope hanging from it, in addition to the ornaments.

this feels repetitive. i need to check my last post in case i mentioned this already – or if it’s just because i stare at the things adam has hung from the tree, looking for new things in the middle of the night, quite a bit.

nope. haven’t mentioned it. just a mind loop.

there are two nectarine-sized jack-o-lantern candles on the tv stand – the last of the halloween decorations i forgot to put away, i think. adam eyed them from the time they were placed there, and periodically asked to take them down and look at them. i let him. today i gave them to him – put one in each hand and said he could keep them. he was happy holding them, sitting on the couch half asleep with handfuls of orange candle, but at some point he put them back where they’d been. i wonder if i made some sort of tactical error, and he doesn’t really like them anymore since he can have them whenever…. or he just liked them there.

ten puppies on the porch, and one tired dog. she likes to lie in the sun by the dryer, away from them, and to play in the snow. she looks a little bored and a lot tired. she has that “this is my function”glazed look to her eyes. little mouths all over her. we make too much eye contact, i think. she’s waiting it out.

this is a ramble. i have no cold pills so i’m using benadryl to make the sleep come, and i’m going to type until i’m drowsy.

today we took adam to see santa. we picked him up from my mom’s at noon and headed in, he thinks snow boots make him ten feet tall, the child is invincible in snow boots. he was a little wary but went right up and hopped on his lap. said “i would like a fortress,” before he was asked and was ready to get down. then he stepped back to look at santa for a minute, and they made a little small talk, santa gave him a candy cane, they talked about bells, and adam had another go at the lap-sitting and was much happier about the whole experience. i got excellent pictures.

tomorrow i need to finish catching up on housework and try to get somewhat ahead, it’s “people are in town” week and i don’t want to think about laundry or clean floors. if eric and adam spend some hardcore playing time i can move around them, quietly productive, like a ninja housekeeper.

i think i will have most of thursday to myself, day-wise, and i think i’m going to turn off my phone and type until my fingers hurt. there will be no one else i’m supposed to be thinking about for a solid – well, from morning through about 3:40pm. i don’t know when the last time that has happened. the goal will be to keep the tv off and not spend the better part of the day napping and lying on my back like a bloated carcass, stinking and happy to remain at rest. if i can get my fingers in motion, they will be happy to stay in motion for the day… it will be a little christmas gift to myself. 6 or 7 hours of undivided attention to a world that only exists in my head. gluttony.

feeling a little sleepy i think. reptilian, but i always feel a little reptilian.  everyone’s moods are like little raw eggs. nothing can be maintained, it’s maddening.  circles and circles of assesment to see what everyone is feeling, what the moods are, what’s changed, is it the fucking barometric PRESSURE, i can’t control the barometric pressure… just trying to keep everything even and steady and not miss anything, not let anything get ruined. dance monkey, pour the tea, take the temperature, thumb in the wind, strngs on my fingers, bells in everyone’s hands, i need to stop passing out goddamned BELLS.

i’m not feeling grinchy. just, you know, like an uncooked egg, like everyone else. but i just bite down, or try to as much as possible. leak a little venom now and then and clean it up as efficiently as possible, throw some sugar over all of it to kill the bitter parts. leave no trace, you know.

maybe the benadryl has kicked in, i know i’ve stopped making sense.

just want the house clean so i don’t think about it. just want a little of the tension to ease out of everyone – this is a tense time of year, and that will never stop being bizarre. just want thursday to write. just want h- to go fuck herself for not even bothering to send so much as a TEXT since she woke up her first morning in louisiana. if you read this h-, merry christmas. just want an afternoon to myself. just want everyone to be happy for longer than ten minutes at a time. just want the kid to have a happy christmas – to be happy, excited, to enjoy himself. because after age 7, i think, it begins that descent to where i am now – maintenance. maintenance crew. and the maintenace crew just wants this to be over. just wants to SLEEP.

Christmas Trees, Party, Puppies (photos)

Christmas Parade

saturday, december 4th

eric’s birthday & adam’s letter to santa (photos)