I SEEM TO BE a little behind this Christmas.
Last night, in the middle of a snowstorm, me and the Mustang slalomed around on the roads (which had six inches of rutted snow) and got temporarily stuck in a couple parking lots because I still had to finish my holiday shopping. Which, considering I only had to buy for three people this year, is kinda pathetic. But by 7:30 p.m. last night, I was home and having dinner… and looking forward to a nice 10 day stretch off work!
At the end of the year, I always seem to find myself cleaning up my office and weeding out long un-dealt with email. I did that last night, and in the process of catching up on email, finally joined a Chicago-area horror movie “meetup” group that my wife had sent me the link for weeks ago. She figured since she doesn’t like horror movies, I might as well go hang out with some people who do! So hopefully I’ll meet some fellow horror afficionados in the area over the next few months. It seems like everyone I know who is into horror is in another state, because I’ve met them on message boards.
Firmly in the spirit of horror movies after setting up my horror movie meetup profile, I finally caught up on another thing — I watched the cult classic Sleepaway Camp, loaned to me by my friend Lon at my signing last weekend. Unfortunately, I fell asleep during the last half hour, only to wake up right at the final shocking scene. Talk about killing the build up! I rewound and watched the leadup anyway. So… I’m 20+ years late to Sleepaway Camp, but at least I can now say I’ve seen it. I’ll probably watch a couple of the sequels this week.
Anyway, here it is, lunchtime on Christmas Eve, and there’s one more item I’m behind on — I haven’t posted my annual Christmas greeting to my friends, readers and family! So… if anyone’s still at the computer (or will be tonight or tomorrow), I offer “Christmas, the Hard Way” for your holiday reading by the yule fire of the monitor. I wrote this short fantasy tale about magic and Christmas more than a decade ago as a gift for friends and family and I’ve now posted it on my website. I hope some of my friends and new readers will enjoy it for the first time this year.
Another tradition for me is to post one of my holiday songs. I used to write and record a new original Christmas song every year… it’s been a few years since I played with bells in the studio, but for those who’d like a rockin’ Christmas Carol to go with their reading, I’ve added “Show Me Christmas” 
, one of my favorite songs that I’ve written, to my MySpace profile and this site. Just click below to listen!
I hope all of my friends, readers, fellow writers and meandering ghosts have a great holiday tonight and tomorrow. Merry Christmas!
