Friday, My Friend!

Last Friday was one of those spring days you want to last forever. Blue skies, warm sun, cool breeze. Chickadees chasing each other through the budding apple trees, turtledoves cooing.

Today looks like a plugged sink. The sky is gray, the rain is gray, the sunlight is in some other state, leaving us with a thin gray smear of illumination over everything.

What I’m saying, is it’s Oregon here today, and (here’s a little secret) I love these gray rainy days just as much as the blue sunny ones.

I had big goals to finish Hell’s Spells last weekend. That didn’t happen. So I have the same goal for the weekend: finish the book!

Just for fun, here’s a sneak peek (uncorrected, unrevised) of Hell’s Spells. In this scene, Delaney has stopped by Than’s (Death, on vacation) house after a really bad day and equally bad night.

***
Than wore striped pajama bottoms with matching stripped button up pajama shirt. The spider slippers looked even more alarmed than the last time I’d seen them.

“Is this a business call?” he asked.

“No.”

That thing traveled across his face again. Something like interest? Delight?

“Then this is a social visit?”

“Yes.”

“In the middle of the night?”

“Well, what’s left of it, yeah.”

“You are staying?”

“I thought you said I could?”

“Until morning, Reed Daughter.”

“Delaney,” I automatically corrected. We were still standing in the front entryway and his couch and the tidy throws draped across it were looking pretty appealing right now.

“Since morning is only a few hours away, yes,” I said. “Until morning.”

“All night,” he mused. Then he stilled. “This would be considered a sleep over?”

That’s when my muddled brain clicked together the clues. The look of anticipation he quickly smothered, the gleam in his eye, the slightly elevated breathing.

He was excited. This might even be what giddy looked like on him.

“Maybe,” I hedged, trying to look stern. “Do you have hot cocoa?”

“With pink mini marshmallows.”

“Then this, Than, is a sleep over.”

He shifted his stance so fast, the slipper spiders waggled their legs in panic. Than bowed slightly and extended his hand toward the interior of his home. “This way, Reed Daughter. I shall fetch a bottle to spin.”

***
There you go! I hope you enjoyed that little snippet! The plan is for the book to be out in May.

Now for a non-knitting project: masks! I made a bunch of the kind that fold like an accordion, but family and friends told me they aren’t as comfortable on the nose. So I gave the “Olsen” style mask a try. Not too bad for my first try, and much nicer for noses!