Slay Bells Ring...

Yes, I know, it's a misspelling of "Sleigh". It's a pun. I apologize.

Finding out there was still room in the Northern Haunts anthology over at Shroud Press, I decided to submit another piece. Once again, my father served as a bit of inspiration. For those who don't know (all two of you), my dad went to Harvard Law up in Boston. As a kid, we would hear stories about the winters up there every time we complained about the cold, and one in particular about how once a big snow settled in. A snow plow, according to my father, had piled snow at roadside to create a wall blocking the sidewalk from view. On the other side of the walk, snow had been shovelled or blown into another wall. He talked about how, walking to his classes, he was in a tunnel almost the entire way, and that tunnel was made completely of snow.

So I wrote a story featuring a law school student, tunnels of snow, and a certain red tinge that coats those tunnels.

Revised and sent it in less than two hours. Now I play the waiting game again. I think I'll just make a submission for each of the anthology sections as long as it's still open, and if I can think of another campfire story idea.

In other news, we now have a house. Nice little 3-bedroom, big backyard, two car garage, full basement. Water and power are on now, Cable guy comes on Tuesday. Rent is reasonable, about $750 a month, and my new job lets employees ride the TARC (our public transit bus system) for free. So, I'll have to get up at 5 a.m. to catch the 6:30 bus and be at work by 8:00 , but I'll save a good amount of money in gas and parking.

We're moving this week, Desi and Sophie (and friends) packing while I move stuff after work, and then Saturday we plan on moving the rest of the furniture with a rental truck. We hope to be moved in, if not unpacked, but Saturday night, and unpacked by my sister's wedding next Friday.

Peace,
J.C. Tabler