January’s been an interesting month in a lot of ways. Pressures at work on a specific project have forced me to take a bit more downtime than I would normally allow myself – in fact, today I’ve done nothing more than prepare a steak for dinner, print a few posters, and write up these blog posts, a rare silence for a Sunday.

Still, work proceeds! I’m on Chapter Five of my first draft for FAMISHED: THE COMMONS, with a firm commitment to have it wrapped up before the end of February. I’ve finished edits on my short horror western story, JESUS IN A CASKET, and completed a heroic fantasy short called THE FATE OF DONDALO which I need to get in front of readers soon.

Along those same lines, I’ve officially joined the Horror Writer’s Association in 2013! An auspicious year for that, don’t you think?

I’ve been reading quite a bit, from the excellent YEAR’S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR to OWL DANCE and THE FEAST. In between I’m working down THE ORKNEYINGA SAGA, which tells the history of the Vikings in northern Scotland’s islands, and my writing group’s got three pieces up for review that have been a lot of fun.

I completed one commission in leatherwork and picked up another one, and in terms of cooking, we’ve found that the Le Creuset cookware I picked up for the holidays makes a killer loaf of bread – no kneading required! The meal of the month has to go to a Thai curried salmon that L whipped up, though.

We’ve seen more movies than usual this month, finally getting around to watching THE AVENGERS as well as a fun evening of SOLOMON KANE and JOHN CARTER. Not Oscar winners, mind, but a lot of fun on a cold winter evening. In games, I’ve finally been sucked into Minecraft in between missions of Assassins’ Creed III, and am looking forward to running a tabletop game of Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World for my local friends.

That’s January in an eggshell. Hope all is well with you, and looking forward to the coming months!