No, Dr. Evans, NO!

The cries of the hapless chemistry students when they realized their instructor asked me to sit in and help grade their presentations. 'But you ask HARD questions!' hahaha, yes I do. Your fear tastes like candy! Did I mention my muscle test made someone cry? heh. This is a good job for a sadist.

Take a plate full of steaming gravy on one side of a plate and a bunch of battered buffalo winged cauliflower bites on the other then tip it up and try to catch it and you end up with a burned hand and arm (and ankle where the plate lands because you did NOT catch it). Let's just say gravy sticks like napalm and the buffalo wing sauce just adds insult to injury. And ALL of it ended up on the rag rug evil_little_dog made me.

Me- My chicken sailed in an arc but a breast doesn't fly well without the rest of the chicken. It landed on the kitchen rug. I had to eat it anyhow.

Mom- Isn't that rug 20 years old?

Me - almost

Mom - has it ever been washed in all that time?

Me - maybe.

Mom - I'll shop for coffins. (also she has no pity for my burnt arm and leg)

I finished all my paper grading AND all my test making. Now to grade all the other things. Save me.

Thanks to evil_little_dog & silvrethorn for weighing in on the war story. silvrethorn pointed out what should be obvious but from what I've read isn't, it's not enough to just have the invader be 'evil.' (sort of my problem with Voldemort really. At least Palpatine and Vader thought they were bringing order to the empire).

I have that covered. I saw the invaders as being up in Iceland or the Isle of Skye, Orknies etc,you know those cold, hard little lands. The ultimate goal, the equivalent of France/Italy. Arable lands, warmer longer growing periods, better ports, etc. My faux-Vikings would be between them and I see them at the end of the Viking period when they moved from maurading and into a more stable lifestyle.

Then last night talking to ELD I had a flash of insight. I thought about the terror the Hillside strangler or Jack the Ripper instill in major cities. The same with the Salem witch trials or again, Voldemort. And thought what if they noticed a pattern in the biggest cities in Viking and South land of mysterious killers stalking the cities, killing at will? There would be terror, major distractions and resources spent on making the town safer. Eyes would be off the borders.

So I thought what if the would-be invaders had found a magic that could work like a lesion in the hypothalamus, bringing out the inner killer. They could be testing the waters with this not thinking the south and Vikings would ever team up after what the last king had pulled.

What do you think of that?

declutter day 308 item tossed-Brown and black high heels why kept-Worn why tossed-Can’t wear any more

well I was going to whine about grading giving me brain bleeds

But instead I'm going to give you a sneak peek at my news. I'm still waiting on the contract to sign but I just sold my second novel to Dreamspinner Press!

My 1930s demon hunters, Temple, Caleb and Agni along with their new, female partner, Jo will be suiting up to fight a demon prince in Pittsburgh while trying not to get outed to Temple's Knights Templar family fresh in from France.

Merry Yule to me.

And I needed that good news because the actual news has been so fucking depressing and a secretary who knows I write erotica (doesn't know it's gay because like 3 people know that in this backwater) got all pissy because I mentioned my holiday story was Yule and NOT about Jesus. Rolls eyes.

Also the characters seemed to like that idea I tossed out there last night and ran with another 1500 words so yay. Now if I could only corral a plot for the sequel to Kept Tears.

And I'm shocked at how much work goes into these things but how fun is this?

Watch on YouTube

And have a little of this. Christopher Lee sings heavy metal Christmas Carols No, it's not a joke!