Had our first Jehovah’s Witness come to the door today. I guess that means we’re officially homeowners now!

I actually ended up having a fairly productive day, considering that I’ve been mostly out on my ass with this stupid head cold. I sniffled my way through re-staining a bench (good thing I couldn’t smell the fumes, I guess), working on a new section of the website (more later), and finishing a new story.

"Gone"

2,231 / 2,231 (100.0%)

This one is for Apex’s Halloween contest. Once Kat reads it, picks an ending (I gave her two options), then I’ll give it a quick polish and send it off.

I found out that Touched by Wonder is now available for pre-order. Part of the proceeds will be going toward Breast Cancer Research, so be a lamb and pick up a copy.

Also, the editor of All Hallows e-mailed to say I would soon be receiving a proof of my story, “The House on Ashley Avenue,” which will appear in either the next issue or the one right after.

• Currently reading: "Ironwood Station," by Louis L'Amour

Sent off “Swing” as my entry in this year’s Trent University Short Fiction Contest. I also mailed the signed copies of my contract with Dead Letter Press for the Bound for Evil antho. Payment within 30 days is a pleasant change from the usual payment on publication. Not that I’m complaining. It’s nice to be getting paid anything at all.

I also happened by Cemetery Dance’s website and saw that Issue #58 is at the printer and will be shipping next month. They included an image of the cover, but it’s kind of small. Turns out this issue will be a tribute to Charles L. Grant, which makes me even more glad to be a part of it since Grant is one of my favourite writers. A table of contents is supposed to be posted soon.

Not sure how much writing I’ll get done this weekend. I’ve caught Kat’s cold and I don’t plan on doing much of anything except catching up on e-mails, reading, and keeping the couch from hitting the ceiling.

Off to find some liquids…

• Currently reading: "War Party," by Louis L'Amour

What better way to celebrate our finally getting a telephone and internet access than by finishing a new short story.

"Swing"

1,167 / 1,167 (100.0%)

This one is a shorty, because the word limit for the contest I wrote it for is quite small. It marks the first in a series of stories I plan to write chronicling the life of a man named Felix Underhill. Each story is a vignette taken from some important moment in Felix’s life. This one is about a conversation Felix has with his potentially dangerous next door neighbour while they sit in a hammock.

As I was saying, we finally had our telephone and internet hooked up today. It was one of those things where the company says they’ll be here between 8 a.m. and next July. The guy showed up around 4 p.m., which meant that I could have taken a half-day off work instead of the whole thing, but I wasn’t really complaining. It gave me a chance to finish the aforementioned story and get some reading done. I also stained a bench that will be going in our hallway. I was one productive puppy today.

Speaking of which, here are some pictures that I took this past weekend after we officially moved in. I haven’t include pics of our new bedroom set and den furniture because, well, we haven’t got it yet! Now we’re being told next Monday. Uh-huh. I’ll believe it when I’m sitting on it.

I’ve also been catching up on e-mails, and I’ve been told by the editor of Touched by Wonder that the antho will be premiering this weekend at ConText. Contributor’s copies are supposed to go out next week, and I presume the book will be available for sale at that time, too.

Anyway, onto the pics…

• Currently reading: "You Never See Apaches..." by Elmore Leonard

I am still sans telephone and internet at home. Cogeco, our cable/telephone provider, has promised they will be out on Thursday to drop the aerial line and install our phone and internet. This after an ordeal yesterday in which they originally told me it wouldn’t be done for two weeks.

Me: Yeah, well, on October 1st, new people are going to be moving into our old apartment, where our telephone line is still currently installed. So what happens when they move in?

Cogeco: Oh, well, if they don’t call to have their own telephone line installed they would have access to yours.

Me: Riiiight. And you have me scheduled for, what was it, an October 8th installation?

Cogeco: Uh… yes.

So it went from there until they realized the consequences of what could happen if they don’t have our phone installed before the end of the month. A little slow on the uptake, but they’ve sworn to have everything fixed by Thursday of this week. Of course, they’ve said that before, so we’ll have to see what happens.

Although I am able to post these little updates to the website, I must reiterate that I don’t have access to my ian-rogers.com e-mail, due to our particularly potent firewall here at work. As such, I haven’t been able to read, much less respond, to any correspondence since last Thursday. So if you have written me and are wondering if I’m just too good to write you back, the answer is yes, of course, but I’m also experiencing ISP difficulties.

In other house news, Kat called to tell me we received our refrigerator today. You’ll recall last week’s episode when the original fridge arrived only for us to discover that it was too tall and didn’t fit under our kitchen cabinets. We had to send it back, pick out a new one, and have it delivered. We are still waiting on the rest of our bedroom set, the two couches for our den, and a coffee table we ordered from a local store call Knock On Wood.

Despite all the technical turbulence and furniture follies of the past few days, I was able to give “Temporary Monsters” a final polish and send it off to the Hardboiled Horror anthology. The editor, James Van Pelt, was kind enough to consider it even though it’s more than a few thousand words beyond the posted word limit. He made no promises — in fact, he said it would have to be pretty damn good considering it was pretty damn long (my words, not his) — but I’m just glad the story still has a chance. Even if it turns out to be too long, my hope is he’ll still have enjoyed reading it.

• Currently reading: "The Farewell Murder," by Dashiell Hammett

First, my apologies to all for not posting or replying to e-mails in the last 72 hours or so. The move went off pretty much without a hitch — and pictures are coming — but I can’t say the same about our telephone and internet hook up.

The guy came by to install everything on Friday afternoon only to find that the existing cable line, which would be running our phone, cable TV, and internet, wasn’t strong enough to support all three services. It turns out the people who lived in the house before us had satellite, and therefore didn’t use their existing cable for much of anything. The cable guy showed me the line and it looked like a dog had been chewing on it.

So, he had to put a work order in to have something called an “aerial” installed on our cable line, which will take a few days. And then I can call to make an appointment to have the internet and telephone installed.

Until then we’re on string and tin cans. So please bear with me until we get on our feet. The house is great! Tons of space and everything looks so nice. We’ve been able to unpack lots of stuff we got from the wedding that we forgot we had even received.

Anyway, I’ll be back soon with a full report and lots of pics.

• Currently reading: "The Main Death," by Dashiell Hammett

What better way to celebrate the eve of moving into our house than by finishing a new story!

"Temporary Monsters"

12,775 / 12,775 (100.0%)

This turned out to be a long one — the longest story I’ve written besides “Deadstock” — but I’m extremely happy with it. It’s way beyond the word limit for the Hardboiled Horror antho, but I’m still going to query because it doesn’t hurt to ask, and you never know, the editor might like it so much that he’ll end up accepting it anyway. It could happen!

The stories I’m working on now all have set deadlines, but it’s nice to have this one done because I knew it was going to be the biggest of the bunch. The others will be significantly shorter because the word-limits of the contests I’m writing them for are smaller.

But I won’t be able to get to work on them until after I move my computer over, which should be taking place tonight. I’ll be offline until tomorrow afternoon sometime. But I’ll be back with a full report and plenty of moving day pics.

• Currently reading: "The Whosis Kid," by Dashiell Hammett

Received our new fridge today only to discover that it is about half an inch too tall to fit under the cabinets next to the stove. So we’ll be sending that back in the next day or two and ordering a smaller one. Funnily enough, it was the one piece of furniture we didn’t bother to measure.

In other moving news, I finally finished sending out my change-of-address to all the various places, including publishers of books that I have preordered, and editors who are currently considering my stories. Lots of fun. I’m pretty sure I got a hold of everyone — thankfully, I did this just over a year ago, and now I’ve become something of an expert.

Also, the latest issue of Writers Post Journal, featuring my Cape Breton fantasy story “Autumn Burns,” is now available for sale.

You can pick up a copy on newsstands wherever the mag is available, or you can order it directly off their website.

As I already mentioned before, this one is extra special for me because it’s the first time my name has appeared on the cover.

One of those things that will become a collector’s item if, you know, I get rich and famous and stuff.

Just a thought.

• Currently reading: "A Gift from the City," by John Updike

I thought I’d take a moment to mention just how cool Kathryn is.

I’ve always known this, of course, but in my horror writer guise I only truly appreciated it the other day when I saw Kathryn reading The Association, by Bentley Little. This was the book she picked up this past weekend, on the same day she saw Blue Velvet for the first time.

Now, a lot of ladies aren’t into horror or Lynch, and I can’t understand that. But for those that are, it makes them that much more attractive to someone like me. So thank you, Kat, for having such an open and twisted mind. You rock my casbah.

Oh, and to all you single guys out there, you might want to wait until after you’re married to introduce your significant other to Blue Velvet. There’s simply no way you can put a good spin on dialogue like “He put his disease in me.”

Sad but true.

• Currently reading: "His Finest Hour," by John Updike