C. S. Thurman

Yes, it is that time of the year again when some people take down their fall decorations and put up their Christmas lights. And of course, my family fits into that mold as we already have our tree up and decorated. We had to take things slow since our oldest son has a harder time with change. Instead of doing it all at once, we set up the Christmas tree first for a week to let it sink in that we were doing this, and then just yesterday we decorated the whole thing with each child getting their own Christmas ornament to put on the tree.

Of course, during the decorating we turned on the Christmas music to help invoke that Christmas spirit as we went. My wife loving laughed and joked that this wasn’t the first time they had listened to Christmas music this year and had been listening to it for weeks. Yes, she was listening to Christmas music in October, but watcha gonna do?

We did have a great Halloween though. My son dressed up as Harry Potter and my two girls were dressed up as Elsa and Anna from Frozen (coincidentally the exact same as their Christmas Ornaments too) and they absolutely loved every second of Halloween. But I was shocked when they kept asking “Are we done yet?” Took me completely by surprise. I was not expecting my kids to want to be done so quickly, we hadn’t even hit fifteen houses before they were asking to be done. But we weren’t close to home yet, and we still had some daylight left so we just trick or treated our way back home. It was a good thing too; I was beginning to get annoyed at all the high school/collage age kids showing up trick or treating. I’m not annoyed that they were dressed up, I’ll always love to see more adults dress up and enjoy time with their kids. No, I was more annoyed that they were out trick or treating and taking candy that some other little kid is going to miss out on because they took that spot instead.

Anyway, I better stop there before I rant on about it. I tend to feel passionate about that now that I’m a parent. If they want Candy then they should just go buy some, leave the trick or treating to those who are still too young to have a job.

This month has already had its ups and downs for writing. I am unofficially doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), this year and I’ve done well but I’ve also been sidetracked a lot. I’ve written just a little over ten thousand words already, which is half of where I should be and a good chunk of that was for the next short story that I plan to release next month. So no, nothing new for short stories this month, but I will post one of my poems that I wrote a while ago. But this means only about five thousand words has been written for The Necromancers Deceit, and that’s only about a chapter or two. It’s a little depressing at the speed I write, but it is off to a better start than if I wasn’t writing at all. I am hoping that I can add much more to that as the days go on and that I can get closer to finishing the book by the end of the year.

However, after working on the short story, it left me wondering if I should change up my short stories and write something different, or if I should keep them up and continue to write stories about Garm and Muldrix. I’m still thinking it over but perhaps with the new year it will bring a new perspective.

Before I get to showing you my Poem, I figured I’d write a little review for a book that I just recently finished. Return of the Dragon Slayers by Brandon Mull was an excellent book and I really feel that he ended the series well. I have been following these books for quite a few years now and have read the Fablehaven series many times and they have become a classic for me just as much as Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. If you haven’t ever read these books, I highly recommend it. In Return of the Dragon Slayers Kendra and Seth must face greater perils than they have ever known, but now they don’t have each other. Because of the mistakes that Seth has made he doesn’t feel he can turn to his family and friends for help, and Kendra must go on a journey to find more Eternals, or the legendary Dragon Slayers to help stop the Dragon War, if only she knew where to find them. Brandon has done well in creating great arcs for both Kendra and Seth to follow and have shown how much the human heart wishes for love, and forgiveness. An amazing book to what could be considered a 10-book series! Again, if you haven’t read the books before then start with Fablehaven and work your way to the end. It is completely worth it.

Here is your bi-monthly poem! I know that Winter hasn’t technically come yet to Utah, but I couldn’t resist, and it is close to that time of the year so, enjoy.

The Winter Dragon
Soft little scales drifting down sparkles in the light.
A breath of frost covers the trees, grass, and leaves.
The flap of wing brings winds of cold and might.
The lash of a tail causes avalanches and covered homes.
Crystal claws hang from windows and roof tops,
And jagged jaws are met beneath each frozen water pipe.
Winter is here in all her dangerous frozen beauty.
If only I could see her all year round, I think I would be content.