Flamethrowers and Umbrellas

I kinda like that I'm reading enough now to do this on a monthly basis. Bless the library, bless reading while the kids read, and bless reading during Activities (TM).

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
I'd recently started following Caitlin on the Socials (TM) and she has a fun internet presence, so imagine my delight when I saw she'd written a book about an Evil Wizard who erases his memory and now he's trying to pretend he knows what the Evil Plan is while grappling with whether or not he's actually evil. Interesting premise, enjoyed watching all of his plans and pretense quickly fall apart, turned out to be a bit of a romance, actually? It was fun! I had fun. Felt like a precursor to Django Wexler's How to Become the Dark Lord (Or Die Trying), but a little more light-hearted and with eminently fewer quips and sex scenes.

Definitely a book that managed to do what it set out to do, even if I, personally, would've preferred a little less straight-forward "but I'm not actually evil!" from the MC. That's on me, not the book.


Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon
Pivoting to hard sci-fi, spacefarers can wear masks that enhance their senses in various ways. For example, a Rabbit mask helps you spot dangers and evade them quickly; a Crow mask helps you know the true value of an item (great for merchants); and an Ox mask gives you the strength to beat the shit out of people. But one experimental mask wasn't supposed to be released and our MC finds it on the body of a dead woman, a woman who turns out to not be entirely gone, as the mask has retained her memories, her personality, her... self?

This is a novella, but it still somehow grapples with what it means to be alive, what it means to be a person, self-determination, corporate greed, capitalism, self. It's also a love story.

If you read it and make it to the end and are like me, just going what, WHAT, WHAT, then rejoice: a sequel came out this summer!


Darkness of Dragons by Tui T Sutherland
Yes, this is Book 10 in the Wings of Fire series, and I'm including it because wow, for a MG (YA?) series, this pulls no punches. We've got our dragons, we've got our prophecy, we've got our (occasionally ham-fisted) themes about People is People Dragons is Dragons. The "evil" Darkstalker has been freed from his mountain prison and he's going to destroy the world unite all of Dragon-kind. Except one dragon saw through his charms and was able to shield his friends from Darkstalker's magic before getting found out. Now it's up to Qibl, a sand dragon who pinky-swears he would absolutely use powerful magic for good, not evil, if he just had a chance, to outsmart a dragon who can see the future, read minds, and perform any spell.

I really really appreciated the conversations about magic and how using it to make lives easier might seem like a good idea, but without careful forethought could end up hobbling creativity, innovation, and discovery (coughcough relevant to genAI coughcough). It also very clearly links the dangers between that kind of power and thinking you're better than everyone else / know better. Made for some great conversations with CG about power and responsibility and how we don't treat people dragons like things.


Plastic, Prism, Void by Violet Allen
I saw this billed as Sailor Moon meets House of Leaves, and wow. Yeah. I can see it. Not the complexity (or inanity?) of House of Leaves, but definitely a very jarring back and forth between past and present, with the past unraveling as the present proceeds. And the Sailor Moon comp isn't remotely joking: we've got a Moon Queen and her daughters who have various named powers (Death Hands! Sparkle Prism!) who fight monsters that were once humans, but were bent out of shape by their emotions.

Except our heroine is a supposedly reformed monster herself, and there's quite a bit of unreliable narration going on. Ostensibly, she and a guy from another universe are on a date -- their last date for the next 12 years, as their universes won't collide again until then -- and our MC is planning a big wedding as a base for a spell that will ensnare their universes and combine them. Well, yes, this is a fraught undertaking, and while she assures us -- the reader, her Witnesses -- it'll be Fine, we have plenty of reason to think otherwise.

So it goes in this very strange, and yet not really all that strange love story as we learn about how she and her mech boyfriend met, a real enemies-to-lovers deal. But it's also a story of messy friendships, our complex queer situationships, and how we keep showing up for each other, even when we no longer really know why.


A Dubious Clamor by Marissa Lingen
Well, your bestie keeps magical swords in his umbrella stand, unfortunately, and one of them has started putting up a fuss. You've made a name for yourself as a magic detangler of sorts, so the sword (literally) falls into your hands. Except it's a dubious sword -- it can't abide certainty -- and it's rather angry about something going on in Parliament. So, you set off -- not to break the sword, but to sate it.

Another novella, another density that I could spend days untangling. I love the idea of uncertainty as a virtue, that we should not hold so hard to our convictions as to ignore reality, that questioning shit is good, actually. I don't think I've seen this explored in fiction before? I could be wrong, but I swear MCs usually grapple with uncertainty before aligning on certainty, and That's a Good Thing.

Here, the gov't would like everyone to be very certain of their roles in society, plskthx. Unfortunately, this is more than a bit, ah, fascist, and of course doesn't account for outliers, for people who might have mixed roles, and for people the gov't doesn't consider people at all. So our MC follows the sword to undo this, running into all sorts of expected and unexpected barriers, one of which was heartbreaking as much as it was so very real.


There is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
This is giving The Rook vibes -- a secretive gov't organization that deals with entities that would break the minds of lesser mortals, all while dealing with memory erasure. Basically, memes are ideas that go viral. And antimemes are ideas -- or creatures -- that refuse to be perceived. One very dangerous antimeme could destroy everything/one if too many people are aware of it.

So how do you fight something you can't risk remembering?

Despite a density of ideas, it wasn't a dense book. More like a series of vignettes with a love story ultimately tying it all together (is everything a love story?). Which makes sense, considering this was originally a web serial published over a half decade before being collected into a whole book.

Anyway, another rash of good books. :) Here's to October.

It is the end of another school year, so we went to the Beach.

I think this is officially our annual tradition now: as soon as the kids are out of school, we're off. It just works so well with everyone's schedule, what with it generally being chill at my dayjob and it being between spring and fall semesters for Dr Lady, and the gap in childcare for the kids.

5yo spent several days telling all of his friends and teachers he was going to a HOTEL, lol. This age is so great. Meanwhile CG is old enough to understand the trip is more than the hotel itself, and was excited about, you know, the actual beach. And both kids are old enough to play on the switch or watch a video in the car instead of crying or asking for stuff every 5min or fighting which is awesome. After a solid chunk of years where we couldn't go anywhere further than 20min away without an absolute nightmare in the backseats, it is so refreshing to be able to focus on the road and listen to music and talk to my wife.

A cold front rolled through the day we got there, which meant cloudy skies and a slight chill to the air in the mornings. I could tell some of the other tourists were disappointed, and also not from Florida, because I was like YES GREAT, NO SUNBURNS. We applied one layer of sunscreen and then we got to stay out as long as we wanted.

Which ended up being a lot longer than I planned for! The sun was usually the reason we took and break and went back before, but without the need to re-apply sunscreen every 2 hours, we didn't really have to leave. I brought snacks down for the kids because I expected them to poop out before we needed real food, but they cheerily ate their snacks and kept going. Hah, learned me. I had to drag them away when everyone started getting cranky from low blood sugar. 5yo was having so much fun building sandcastles.

After last year and trying to keep him from running away and back to the hotel, it was a nice turn-around. So next time (maybe later this summer?? if there's time??) I'll have to bring enough food and snax for lunch because once we go back up to the hotel, that's it for a while.

I got some lone swim time in, too, which was nice. While they played and on the last morning, while they were still asleep I did a sunrise swim up the shore. The water was the perfect temp and the clouds were gorgeous and the beach itself was still quiet... ahh.

I do have one quibble: the town itself was very touristy. At times it felt more like a themepark than a real beach. I'm not sure quite how else to describe it. Probably all the people selling touristy crap and the feeling that no one actually lived there. Plus, it just felt off, part of which I realized was the absolute lack of any rainbows or Pride stuff anywhere. We arrived and I was wearing rainbow earrings and I just felt... idk, not watched, but I was a lot more self-conscious about them. Usually I don't even remember I'm wearing them, but that was the vibe: like driving through a rural town with MAGA signs on every storefront (and some of the stores there did have them, so maybe that was what I was picking up). Needless to say, there are plenty of other beaches in Florida, so we don't need to go back.

And the hotel was... fine. No roaches or mold, but let's just say, deferred maintenance was a theme. And the elevator certificate had expired in 2024, so, uh, yeah.

Aside from that, it was lovely. I got to relax, even if I didn't really get to read or write. I worked on the 2026 Queer SFF booklist when I had time in the morning -- I guess I am doing that this year after all.

I do have some pitches to write up for my agent, though, so I guess it's back to work. At least we still have the weekend. :)

Some days, I'm so very very grateful folks stopped trying to convince me I'd want kids some day when I came out as gay. It was a constant refrain as I was growing up, that of course I'd want kids, and that sure I said I didn't now, but I'd definitely change my mind.

This, naturally, was the worst thing to say to a kid with a stubborn streak the size of Montana. When I was four, I said my favorite number was four; my brother scoffed and said it was only because I was four, and that it'd change when I was five. Well guess who has pink hair and whose favorite number is still four? When I was in middle school, my best friend went vegetarian. I went vegetarian with her in solidarity. Again, my brother said I wouldn't last a week. Well, guess who was vegetarian for ten years?

So yeah, call it spite, call it stubborn, I definitely wasn't going to have kids if everyone kept telling me I'd change my mind. It was only when they stopped and I was given room to actually think about it that I went "okay... maybe...?" And when I met my SIL's baby for the first time, I had the space to go "I get it now."

And I'm grateful for that because dang, I love these kids. CG cackling after telling a bad joke and all of us groaning. 5yo giving me a blanket when I'm lying on the couch, sick. The two of them playing so well together that I can actually have space and time without having to close myself in a back room. CG frustrated because she's already worked ahead through all the extra fraction math her teacher gave them. 5yo excitedly showing her the new dinosaur series he found in the library. The two of them geeking out over Dog Man together.

Babies were cute, but hard. Kids, though. Kids are great. I love watching them grow, watching them become more and more who they are, watching them make their own choices. So many times, I just watch them and can't help but smile.

...I wrote all that on Saturday and then on Sunday we went out to the lake and CG and I had a fantastic time flipping the kayak. ^^() Life skills, I guess? But again, her cackling as she jumped off the end of the kayak, flipping me into the water, was golden. And then working together to flip it back over again. Ugh, I love this age.

I should be at Crossfit, but the fatigue has risen up and consumed me this week. I could feel it approaching on Monday, and Tuesday it hit me like a truck. I'm trying to just ride it out and allow myself to rest, although some anxiety seems to be wound up in it. I just keep reminding myself I've been here before and it was better for so long, and I know what to do to make it better again. That I'd noticed my food choices slipping since November and even remarked to Dr Lady last week that I wasn't eating much meat again.

It feels silly that apparently I need meat to avoid this fatigue, but I haven't been able to get enough iron/B12 on a vegetarian-adjacent diet, even with supplements. Blrgh. But I also need my energy back; I truly felt like my old self for a while there. I was PRing lifts and being a boss all summer, but I feel like I've been barely keeping up since fall.

Definitely 90% of the blame can be placed on the stress in December. I thought I'd got out of that relatively unscathed, but I guess I'm finally paying for it. I did try to take January easy, and I've been alcohol-free for five weeks (hoorah), as well as consistently exercising. I need to prioritize getting outside again and there are a few other things I could dial in.

Unfortunately, it looks like there might be another crunch coming up at work in March. I've already warned them I'm not working outside of hours and this crunch is entirely because other people don't value our work ("we want training on this process, but we haven't finalized this process, and we're launching in May no matter what" r-e-a-l-l-y). It doesn't help that boss-boss keeps telling us to just "use AI." Ma'am, I don't think that's going to help when folks still don't know what they want their users to do.

All the more reason I got to get hold of this fatigue wave while I can. I wish there was a simpler solution; I feel like the older I get, the less forgiving my body is. I also feel like I'm not old enough to feel this way, lol. My body should not hurt like this, I should not be this damn tired.

But it does and I am, so here we go.

It's 20F outside right now; even Florida isn't getting away this time.

The front came in with strong winds yesterday afternoon, to the point where, when I went out to get a new heat bulb for the chicken coop, I was legit worried about driving. Thankfully our car is heavy enough that it didn't actually get blown off the road, but I always flash back to my little red 90s Saturn and how even a mild breeze felt like I was going to get blown away.

Anyway, I found the bulb to replace our cracked one, so the chickens should be fine. Honestly I'm probably coddling them a bit, because their coop is warm enough. When it's light out, though, I'll have to defrost their water because that will definitely be frozen solid.

Back to yesterday, with the wind and the temps dropping 20 degrees in an hour, I kept seeing these flurries of white, here and gone almost as quickly, and I was like "...no, that's just leaves/debris/dust kicked up by the wind." But then we were finishing up covering the plants (pour one out for my poor elephant ears that never had a chance after the last 25F snap), I saw the flurries again. And this time, there was a lot more. I ran outside and put my hand out and--sure enough--a little bundle of snow melted on my hand. Snow!!

It only lasted for a few minutes, but we definitely had snow flurries here in North Florida. CG went out and chased them without a jacket and I had to text all our friends in town so they could see it before it vanished. I tried to take a picture, but there just wasn't enough that it would show up, and by the time I remembered I could use flash to capture it better, it was gone.

It's supposed to be 20F again tonight, then gradually warm back up to normal temps. Getting to school tomorrow is going to be... interesting. We walked instead of biked all last week because my cut-off for biking for the kids has been 32F. I guess we'll just have another week of walking.

We're into February now; the shortest month and looking to be a busy one. 4yo becomes 5yo next (not this) week, so we've got a strawberry-picking party planned. Of course, now I'm wondering if there will even be any strawberries after all these freezes; they really need a proper warm period to grow big and tasty. The frost does make them sweeter, although I don't know if I'd call 20F "frost," lol.

Otherwise, we've got a 4 day weekend coming up that we should do something for, because it'll be the last proper time off until summer break (I'm going to Sirens for spring break, so that doesn't count). Maybe we'll go see the manatees? Do a day at St Augustine? IDK. I'll poll the family and see what they want to do, but I don't want to sit around at home for four days while everyone slowly goes insane.

All right, I'm going to cozy up with these cats and see if I can't finish reading Kate Elliot's THE NAMELESS LAND.

It's Done.

The work project. The year. Anything else that I wanted to do in 2025, I guess.

Goodbye 2025. You weren't all bad, but you sure were stressful.

I forgot to mention in my round-up post that we did add a cat to the family this year, bringing us up to a perilously dangerous ratio of animals to humans. Nova is almost nine months old now and fitting in well. She's stopped eating toes, at least.

Hello 2026. I'm not placing all my hopes in you, nor am I really setting a lot of goals/resolutions. I just want to... maintain? I have a workout routine down, I regularly practice piano, I'm clearly writing and reading. Keep all that going into my 40s and I should be good.

I want to learn guitar, or at least get as good with it as I am piano and bread: that is, able to pull it out and play a song or two. I have an app and a list of video lessons that reddit recommended, so my goal is to do those somewhat regularly.

My only really big, lofty goal is: I want to write a song. Nothing fancy, but enough to show that I understand music. Playing instruments, putting together lyrics and a melody and a beat, all of that is a lot like bread was for me: indecipherable. I mentioned recently that writing feels as easy as breathing and it's difficult to wrap my head around the fact that some folks just can't write. Well, music has always seemed completely magical, and something I could never do.

Now, I don't want to become a musician. Far from it. But I want to better understand the craft and care. I want to listen to a song and maybe get what they're doing, what they're crafting, instead of just going "this sounds nice and I don't know why." I want to appreciate the skill, I guess, and to that end I have to at least dip my toe in a little.

Going to that concert last spring really re-awoken something in me. I like live music. I know this town has some really good bands, and even hosts an internationally-known music festival. I want to take advantage of that. Lady isn't really a big music person, and I've let that steer me away from it as well. But I like it and the kids are old enough that I shouldn't feel bad about leaving her on her own with them. Heck, maybe I could bring CG with me.

Maybe I could commit to one show every other month or every season. That would be easy enough. Either way, I want to do it and I almost feel like I need to.

So yeah: write a song, for which I just need to finally understand the basics of music. No biggie.

While things might have been an absolute mess at dayjob, writing went unexpectedly well this year. 4yo has clearly fully transitioned away from his 4am/5am surprise wake-ups, as well as sleeps through the night, every night now.

Just knowing I will have the hours before 6.30am to myself make a huge difference, mentally. Back when he would randomly wake up between 4 and 7, I was always on edge, waiting for the creak of his door. It was hard to sink into the mindspace for writing, which inevitably meant I just wasted that time futzing around instead. I wonder, now, if that inability to get into the flow was why nothing I wrote was good enough.

And mornings are the only time I get, so if he's awake, they're over. In another year or two he'll be more like 9yo: either sleeping in or happy to go do his own thing so I can keep writing. I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like.

...or can I? Well, maybe I'll get back to that.

I kept up my goal of reading a bit every day, although I certainly fell off it from time to time. That said, I did read 24 books which probably seems incredibly low to some of you, but previous years I struggled to read 15. I would like to get back to a book a week, at least, and I can see that coming. Although... that number does not include all the children's books I read. If we count those, we're easily over 100, hah. I read at least 20 Animorphs books this year (we're on #50 now, ie the final stretch), all of the Alien Nextdoor books, most if not all of the Princess in Black series, some of the Kitty books... and those are all chapter books, I'm not even counting picture books.

My MIL got me a new ereader for Christmas--the old one won't even turn on anymore--so here's to more reading in the dark before going to sleep.

Anyway, back to writing. I finished writing catastrophe!WIP last winter, edited it over the spring, gave it to betas early summer, made more edits over the summer, and finally started querying it in August. Reading the entries around that book are such a wild ride, because I clearly loved it while I was working on it, but as soon as I started querying, all my confidence in it evaporated. To the point where I think I only queried 20 agents total, which is such a drop in the bucket.

Almost all of them have passed. Three requested fulls, and two of those have already declined, one of which at least offered some suggestions for revision and was open to a R&R. I'm still waiting on the third, and then I'm going to let it go. It is a weird project, one that doesn't fit neatly in a sci-fi or fantasy or horror bucket but is a little of each and I think all of publishing is skittish about things that don't fit right now.

My current WIP has a clearer hook, and therefore a better chance, I think.

Which brings us to those wild six weeks where I fever-wrote about vampires, of all damn things. A book I was reading tweaked something in my brain and I literally put it down and banged out 10 pages of a new idea. And then I was off, writing 2k+ every day with ease. I would write 300 words in the 20min before crossfit in the morning and write 300 words in the dark before going to sleep every evening and another 1 or 2k inbetween. It really was like a possession: any spare time was spent writing.

It was such a freeing feeling, like an unblocked sink, like being able to breathe after a long cold, like finally getting to the top of the biggest hill in town and then rolling back down.

And now I've been editing that WIP for the last few months and it's weirdly... not even in first draft shape. More like second or even third draft. To the point where I'm wondering if I'm still too close to it.

But I like it and I've already got half a query written and a first draft synopsis. It's urban fantasy, so that opens me up to different agents. I plan on querying come January, when agents open up for the year.

And honestly, if that doesn't get any bites... I might be done. At least until I retire. Publishing seems to be going through another tightening belt phase and even strong midlist authors are struggling like they haven't before, and with my publishing baggage, I know my books are just going to be a hard sell.

Maybe I'll try selfpub. Maybe I'll just write for myself and steadily tuck books away. I definitely won't stop writing, but it's harder and harder to ask other people to read what I write. How does my stuff stand out when there are such amazing authors out there, so many amazing books? Why should anyone spend their time with the thoughts in my head? I don't have an answer to that, so.

So yeah, a pretty good year for writing, despite the political distractions, despite the chronic fatigue, despite dayjob creeping further and further outside of it's box. If I finish edits this week, that'll be two books done in one year.

I'll take it.

We had a lovely Solstice. Every year I try to make it a little special, because while Christmas is all about family (and presents), I want the kids to also be in tune with the changing seasons and why they happen. My pagan days are long past, but you don't need to be religious to appreciate the return of the sun.

I made sourdough pancakes (trying to wake up my starter for bread and bagels later in the week) and we had a late breakfast, then headed out for a hike. There's a place where the Santa Fe river goes underground for several miles, and then re-emerges again, and it's a pretty short hike out to the river rise and back. I'd never been there before and I thought it was short enough for the kids to handle. We brought our binoculars, some snacks, and water and set out.

I'd previously taken 9yo and 4yo on hikes, but separate, and they'd both lagged and complained after about a mile. This time, they egged each other on and did really well. I carried 4yo a few times, but only for a few minutes each, and he never complained about how far it was. I'm hoping this means we can do more hikes, because that's something I really miss from pre-kid days. Granted, it was also easier to hike in AZ and WA, where the terrain is a lot more rugged but rewarding. Florida hikes are very... samesie. There's only so much scrub and pine you can see before you've seen it all. ^^()

Which is why I wanted to go on this hike: sure, the river rise ended up being somewhat anti-climatic (it looks more like a lake than where a river dramatically exits the ground), but we got to talk about how it goes underground through the limestone and then rises back up like at the springs we visit in the summer. Also, we got to see horses, since apparently it's a popular equestrian trail.

Anyway, it was lovely, and I hope to do more of them. My plan is to get the kids comfortable with mile + hikes, because we're going to the Grand Tetons this summer and, well, I want them to get more out of it than just hanging out in the lodge.

I still have to work today and tomorrow, but my heart isn't going to be in it. We may go out to my parents' today so my wife can make jam (our canning pot isn't induction-friendly, unfortunately, so we'll use their stove). I'll bring my laptop and work, but it'll be nice to be around family instead of on my own, even if I still have a lot to do before Thursday and I'm starting to panic (marshmallows, sweet potatos, bread, wrapping the last few presents, cleaning bathrooms, picking up, holiday cards, etc etc etc).

The first day of winter seems to also kick of Introspection Week for me, so I'm thinking back about my goals and plans for 2025 and what went right, what didn't, etc. I'll put those thoughts together in a different post, because it's good to give them space and get them out, but also 4yo just woke up and I should get him to daycare before I start work.

Happy Solstice! May your days be brighter, warmer, and kinder <3

It's been a hot minute. I feel like I've been possessed. I picked up that story thread four six weeks ago and then just didn't stop. It's been a wild ride and I hit 73k this yesterday morning and a fairly firm "the end."

73k over 42 days... that's an average of 1,700 words a day or pretty much the pace you're expected to maintain during NaNoWriMo. I haven't been able to write that fast/consistently since college, easily. I remember trying to write TPA at NaNo pace, oh, nine Novembers ago (hahah omg what) and barely managing 500/day. And that was with only one kid and while on parental leave. TBF, CG was a lot as a newborn, but I probably had the same amount of plot in the beginning and a tight deadline.

I did squeeze out a workable draft of TPA in three months, which wasn't bad at all. And since then, I've been lucky if I can write a draft in six months.

It's been so much fun to write freely again. Very similar to my halcyon days of staying up way too late to write 1000s of words of fanfic. Chasing that high until I either had to go to sleep or go to school, but daydreaming about the story all day anyway. Of course, it does make me wonder if when I re-open that word doc in a couple of days/weeks, it'll be that level of bad. ^^()

I'd honestly thought I'd left that level of writing joy behind, so if anything it's just... nice to know I can still capture it as an adult. Not saying that I otherwise didn't have fun writing these past mumble twenty mumble years, but certainly not in the same all-consuming way.

Which... to be fair, was a bit much. I kept waking up earlier and earlier, not because I'd set an alarm or anything, but because my brain was a cat at the door, scratching and wailing "Write now??" And I might have skivved off work a early a few times / taken longer lunches because I couldn't stop. By midway, it felt very much like I just needed to get this story out so I could breathe again.

So even though I kept telling myself there was no deadline, I didn't need to hit a 2k/day pace, I couldn't slow down.

But now it's done, as drafty as it is. I already have ideas for revisions, and I'll probably go through it at least once before deciding what to do with it. It might only serve its purpose of having given me joy in writing again. Proof that I can Do The Thing. That would be 100% fine.

It might be good to have an urban fantasy in my back pocket, in case I don't get any agents with the fantasy masquerading as scifi but secretly horror WIP. Or maybe I'll use it to test the waters of self-pub.

I don't know. I don't plan on finding out any time soon. I do plan on submersing myself in books and breathing again, though.

What I neglected to mention last post (because wow, I got overtaken by the Sad Cloud real bad), is that on Friday we adopted a 4 month old kitten.

So this all started because Lady got us a new cat tree, a much bigger cat tree, with many perches and hidey holes, and CG remarked that it could fit so many cats. And Lady joked that obviously we now needed more cats. And I, not so jokingly, went... "well... what if..."

Because I have really wanted a kitten ever since our old cats died, and while Maurice and Trixie are fine, and I'm glad we saved them from probably a lengthy shelter stay as older cats, they were already pre-set in their ways when we got them. And some of their behavior seems to stem from being in a small space with a toddler and unable to escape. They've slowly come out of their shells over the past four years and are much more willing to interact, but Maurice will still murder you if you look at her wrong and Trixie will hide if you try to pet her.

In the back of my head I kinda wished we'd gotten younger cats/kittens (even though we also had a baby and that would have been a bad idea) because at least we could help them learn trust. So when the whole family expressed an interest in another cat and wife and I looked at our home and space and whether it was even feasible and realized, yes, well...

I have to admit, I almost backed out, but by then CG and Lady were both on board. We tried to go to the shelter a few times over the last few weeks, finally made it on Friday, and fell in love with at least five kittens, hah. Although I'd told them both it would be best if we got an older kitten, already spayed, the 1-2 month olds really pulled us in. Thankfully, I stayed strong (even though one kitten went straight for my shoulder) and after much back and forth, we eventually settled on a black and white cat (tuxedo?) called Hectate. A sweet 4mo who let us pick her up and almost immediately started purring.

30min and some paperwork later, we had a kitten. Also, apparently, the adoption fees were waived that day, so we had a free kitten, with all of her shots and a major surgery already paid for.

We set up the back room for her and let her out. She let us hold her for a few moments, but then she ran off and hid. We checked in on her every few hours and she'd find a new spot to hide. Then I went in and just sat near her and she started purring. I dangled my hand so she could smell me and after about 5min, she slowly came out. I played with her and gave her all the pets and the kids even came in and got to pet her.

When we finally left, she followed us to the door and then stared at us through the glass, meowing. I felt like a jerk, but she needs time to get used to the space and the other cats need to get used to her smell. They stare at each other through the door but there hasn't been any hissing or other territorial signs... yet. Today I'll let them sniff each other through the door. The hope is tomorrow I can introduce them. Supervised, of course.

That's the nice thing about working from home; I'll be able to work on that all week.

We've cycled through about 20 names and we're currently testing out Nova. 4yo called her Milk (probably because she looks like a cow with her colors) and then CG called her Milky Way and we just went off on space-themed names after that. We'll see what sticks.