'Tis The Season...

... to be jolly, fa la la la laa, la la la laaaaaaa...

My Christmas tree is up. It actually went up a few weeks ago. It's not a REAL Christmas tree. I mean, it's real ENOUGH. It's not IMAGINARY. If you threw it at someone, it'd hit them. But it's made from assorted plastics and stuff. Also it's black. It looks awesome, but lacks that Christmas tree smell. But I don't mind that. My folks have a real Christmas tree up, and that's where Christmas happens anyway, so who cares if my house doesn't smell of pine needles? Not me. Not really.

Not... really...

Anyway, yes, the tree. It's up. The presents are bought. They're not wrapped, but they're bought. Most of them. Okay, I haven't a clue what to get my dad, but he's a dad. He'll be happy with socks. Fathers are simple creatures. 

So... tree up. Presents bought. These are things I set aside time to do, because I needed to set aside time. I've been so busy lately that if I hadn't set aside this time, I just wouldn't get around to it. There are loads of things I just didn't have time for, like sending out Christmas cards. I love sending out cards. I try to combine it with answering all the letters from readers, so when I send off a reply, they get a Christmas card too. How lovely! But not this year. Answering all those letters, sending all those cards, would take two days at a minimum, and they are two days I can't afford to take off writing. 

The writing is going well, by the way. I've been focussing on short stories these last three weeks, building up quite a collection of new stuff. Each of these stories will be told in a different "voice" than the one you're used to. You'll see what I mean when you read them. 

One thing that I haven't decided on yet are the Christmas Skype calls I was planning on making. Essentially, I was going to take an hour one day and just fit as many three-minute Skype calls into that hour as I could. It seemed like a lovely idea at the time, but I'm not so sure anymore. Not everyone who wanted a call would be available on that hour, and so I'd have to field quite a few complaints. Then there'd be the people who'd want a one-on-one chat, when I'd only be comfortable chatting if there were two or more people in the room with you. Basically, my idea would end up causing a whole lot of hassle that I could really do without, so I just don't know. 

Okay then, enough jibber-jabber. I have work to do. 

Be cool, my Minions.