Withersin, Wood, and the Aussie

I have been neglecting my keyboard. I traded it in for just plain boards.

The past week has seen the upstairs floors of my home torn to bits and reconstructed. It has seen me be a large part of that process.

Two rooms upstairs used to bounce. Like stiff trampolines. I'm sure it wasn't good for the house.

I'm not that handy with carpentry.

My lovely wife's attitude about home improvements is--hire someone.

I've been working on figuring out what I need to fix the floors for about four months. Finally, last month I got smart and asked a friend of mine who's always talking about the rad carpentry stuff he's up to if he could tell me what was wrong with my upstairs if I described it to him and sent pictures.

Then I asked him if he'd come fix my floors.

And he said yes!

So I met the Aussie for the first time in real life. We've known each other online for a few years, and it was cool to stand in the same room and hassle people together in real life. He's just like I thought he'd be. (only even better at laying floors!)

Brian came from South Dakota to show this Yank how to tear up hundred and twenty-year-old wood planks and replace them with gorgeous, strong new ones. He taught me how to use the new tools I had to buy (LOVE the mitre saw!!) and gave me an excuse to get a shop vac, and helped me get perspective on my ten-year-old, and cracked my ass up all week long.

And check out the floors:

Brian rocks. Even if he burns the ears of comic book store proprietors with sinful words like shit-hole.

Replacing floors rocks, but it takes time and effort. It takes time away from writing, my latest art project, reading, and being socially responsible. And from blogging.

All in all, the time spent is MORE than worth it. Much more. We have solid floors in most of the upstairs now. Terri and I are one step closer to having a bedroom. It's only been two years since we moved in.

So if I haven't written back, or read your story, or your blog posts, or just vanished suddenly from your radar, that is why.

Hopefully, I'll be back around cyberville a little more, I'll have time to write, and paint, and talk to all my pals. But I still have a lot to do with the floors. Brian could only stay so long and Terri and Zane had to come back from Milwaukee sometime.

When Zane isn't sick (yup) he'll be my helper as I pound all the nails below the suface of the boards. Caspian was our helper for the week we put in the floors. He was a tremendous help. It was awesome. Yay, Caspian!

While settling back in to my life not doing carpentry, I received the latest issue of one of my favorite magazines of all time, Withersin. It came a little early, it's not really out until the 21st, but I think that's because my story, Red and Black, is in it.

(clicking this will take you to their site)

I'm pretty excited about my story coming out in Withersin. I've subscribed to the mag for over a year--in fact, I'd best renew my subscription soon. It never fails to entertain me. From fine-tuned fiction, to unedited true stories, weird recipes like dried shark and sinister meat pie, interviews with dark delights like Chainsaw Sally, Morrigan Hel, and rock and roll scream kings, Withersin is chock-full of strange things. I love it. I'm happy to be included.

Red and Black is based tightly on the end of an intense relationship between a lovely, ruined woman and me. I'm calling it frenetic, after reading it again.

If you read it, please let me know what you think.

That's the news and I'm stickin' to it.

Thanks for reading!