Today's a good day. Hurricane Irene passed through town and by sheer luck I never lost power to my home. Over 8 inches of rain fell but no power loss, and no flooded basement either. If that's not enough to be cheerful about, my book sales continue to trickle in thanks to the availability of electronic versions on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I'm glad readers are interested in reading more like The Monkey's Paw. Then there's the news from Amazon. The company has found a way to dance around the maximum security compound that is Apple. Amazon has setup a book reader in the burgeoning cloud. This means that iPad owners can access Kindle books through a browser instead of being shut out by Apple. Try not to read this as Hoo-ray Apple takes a hit, because I love the products. But ANY product that limits the availability of books is going to have a tough time being unconditionally loved by this guy. Finally, and far less significant than having no issues to worry about following a hurricane, is the fact that a slip of inspiration has struck again. I'm working on a new short story.

Similar to The Monkey's Paw short story, which inspired my spin-off stories, I'm reaching back to a well-known classic for this one. It too will be a companion piece to the original. The entire story, name withheld for the moment as it will give away too much, is plotted. I've also managed to write the first 4 pages. I'm generally a very slow writer. I can plot things within a few hours, but the writing takes forever by comparison. The cover is also completed, and that has me wondering if maybe I'm a frustrated graphic artist at heart having spent the better part of a day completing it. I'll post the cover once I'm close to finishing the story. I'm hopeful that will be ready to go come the new year, 2012.