Briefly surfacing with a few updates

First, Happy True Beltane–today is the solar cross-quarter point, when the Sun passes 15°00′ of Taurus and is exactly halfway between the Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice. That’s what the “cross quarter Sabbats” are all about, really–each one falls in one of the four fixed Zodiacal signs and marks the exact midpoint of its season. Their “traditional” dates have gone all over the place with calendar changes and Christian appropriation and whatnot. It’s always a toss-up, of course, whether you consider the high holidays to be most significant as social/cultural constructs or as objective earth/cosmic measuring points. You could make equally valid cases for both, and nothing prevents you from celebrating both (if Christians have “Holy Weeks,” so can Pagans!). As a solitary practitioner and an astrologer, I mark the solar cycle by preference (and the lunar one, for the New and Full Moons). But that’s just me.

And, Feliz Cinco de Mayo for those who never tire of raising a glass for an Independence Day bash! 🙂

I’m finishing up the author’s edits for Blood Justice, which look great. Expect the release date and a cover image very soon!

I’d be done with that already but I’ve had meetings three nights in a row, which is quite enough, thank you! On Sunday, I attended church Annual Meeting. Since I served as the Chair of the Parish Committee last year, I needed to write up the Parish Committee report beforehand. To do that, I collected the minutes of the year’s meetings. In evidence of just how much changing computers, ISPs, and email clients scrambled my routines and habits, I had to retrieve all those minutes from four different places, both online and off! I also prepped pot luck food. We enjoyed a “Stone Soup Fruit Salad,” the leftovers from which have fed me for two days. 🙂

Pepperell’s Annual Town Meeting didn’t have pot luck food, but I did do considerable reading and prep beforehand to make sure I was informed about the issues. We ran for a full two nights, Monday and last night, and I’m very unhappy with several of the votes on Monday night. Turnout was disgracefully low and my respect for most of my fellow townsfolk is at an all-time low at the moment. Once again, the library got sodomized, with an amendment to level-fund its budget voted down. But at least we didn’t get held hostage for three weeks by some Me Party/Libertarian trying to rewrite the town budget on Town Meeting floor, like last year. I got up and spoke both nights, and I know I got a big round of applause last night; I honestly can’t remember if people applauded on Monday! But in both cases I was “preaching to the choir” and I didn’t sway anyone on Monday who wasn’t there to vote for the library to begin with (that’s what I spoke on, Monday night). My thoughts about the NMRSD school budget (which passed) are best left unsaid. :-p

Last night I did my Tarot reading for the new octave (calendar octave, I mean, the coming six weeks) and I’m not happy about it at all. I got up early to do my Beltane ritual this morning and then went back to bed, but got very little sleep either before or afterwards. All things considered, I’m not in a great mood at the moment. *sigh* However, I just had the most delightful talk with the Census taker, who came to the house because I only have a post office box and hence don’t get a form in the mail. I talked the poor man’s ear off and he’s interested in BLUM’s books and took one of my business cards. 🙂 He was a little alarmed by the chain saw sitting in the kitchen, I can’t imagine why! It’s not even plugged in! *wry grin* It’s going to be there for a while because at this rate, the next time I get outside to do yard work will be the fall raking. 🙁

I got a purchase order from Brodart that kind of surprised me: for a hardcover of Mortal Touch. Good thing I ordered a small supply of them, because I never expected that hardcover edition to be a big seller! Mortal Touch is growing “legs” in a way that is just astonishing me. I hope that The Longer the Fall will do as well, but, well…we’ll see. I’ll mention in passing that you can get personally autographed copies of both books if you order direct from By Light Unseen Media, and pre-order links for The Longer the Fall are up now! 🙂

I’ve closed down all distractions online for the time being, and I need to get back to edits! Almost done!