This is my post for the ‘Celebrating the Small Things’ blog hop.

T0day is the first day of July, which means that we are that much closer to the end of the really hot days and the beginning of autumn, my favorite season.

Things are settling at last.  My mother is in her new home and is, somewhat against her own expectations, rather happy.  People greet her, ask her to play bridge, come by to chat…  And she is walking better, as well.  I can’t ask for more than that for her.

The Jaws of  Death

For myself, I’m getting used to a new puppy:

This is Chester (or ‘Chet’ for short).  He is now four months old.  I had become spoiled by my old fellow who died three months ago.  I had forgotten how manic puppies are.  I think they could power a medium-sized city for a week on one day’s energy.

Based on Chet’s dentition and propensities, I’m thinking that he could be best depicted as a set of dentures that bounces around the house trying to ‘nom’ everything from food set near the edge of tables to used paper tissues (thought to be safely) discarded in the trash..

For Labrador Retrievers, apparently, the world is their trash bin.

Finally, I have a long weekend coming up.  Five days away from work.  And as it happens, I have to choose between three manuscripts to actually finish and set out for Beta-reads.

It has been too long since I published anything, and while I have some good excuses for standing idle,  it is time.

This means that I have to make a choice:

—Fantasy/Fable novella that fits in with my ‘Memphis Cycle’ or the Second installment of my ‘Orphan’s Tale’ trilogy.

Fable set in Egypt

Second installment, Paris 1834

The third one is a collection of shorts from different projects.  Vignettes, chapters.  Something of a smorgasbord.  I have one piece in which an elderly High Priest tells of the day that Akhenaten (Tutankhamun’s father, who shut down the worship of the various major gods) comes to the great temple of Amun in Thebes (you can say ‘Opet’ or ‘Waset’ if you prefer) with the aim of destroying the great gold cult statue of the god.  This scenario lies behind one or another of the Memphis Cycle stories.

Decisions, decisions…  But it’s nice to have options and a good, long weekend to mull them over.