Check in and NTS Annotated Reread chapters 13-15 (Patreon)

I unpacked my books! I have...too many books. The last two-three weeks have been bananas. Packed everything up, painted many walls, had new floors put in, and now we're putting everything back. Oh, and my son had his tonsils out and I had a book come out. I'm tired.

The book coming out has been an interesting experience. I mean, really, I have no idea what I'm doing, publishing a book myself. I'm also a big fan of doing things I don't know how to do, because that's how you learn. Still, we had some issues with the printer which ended up with the book printing late (just showing up in a few bookstores this week). Then we realized that somehow a handful of them were printed using an older draft--nothing too drastic, but missing one of the many copy edits we did. Which bothers me a lot, though I know most readers won't notice or care. BUT if you ordered a paper copy and want to see if you got one of these, message me here or email me and I can tell pretty quickly. I can also replace it with a proper copy if you'd like.

All of this made my partner in crime, Vlad, realize he'd uploaded the wrong draft for the ebook. Vlad felt terrible, but honestly he's made this journey go so much more smoothly for me. (He did the internal design of the book AND designed my bookmarks and stickers for it!) Besides, we fixed it quickly. So if you got an ebook, I think it will update itself, or you can redownload the book and it will adjust to the proper version.

Can you see why I'm tired? Despite all of the madness, I fit in some fun things, too. I went to Drag Queen Bingo at a local senior center. It was a ton of fun. I didn't win anything, but then I never do. I got to see Christopher Moore speak, which was fun. I went roller skating for the first time in years and didn't break anything. Oh, and I finally got to see Everything Everywhere All at Once, which was amazing. Seriously don't remember the last time I laughed and cried so much during the same film. It was deeply weird, funny, emotional and powerful. Just A+ all around. All the actors did an amazing job, but Michelle Yeah...wow. And it was really good to see Ke Huy Quan back on the big screen.

But getting back to the whole "I unpacked my books!" thing--that means I got my copy back of NTS, so we can keep going. (And if you want to see my bookshelves, I posted a TikTok/IG reel of them coming back together. Yay, books.

Okay, Chapter 13 has a lot. Summer Time--there are a lot of versions of this song. I love the Sam Cooke one as well as the Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies version. 

James checks Sam's hydration with a skin pinch--my mom does this. It's a nurse thing. Ha! But it's accurate.

The gnome names! I had a ton of fun naming the gnomes. Many of the names were taken from suggestions from friends, who are all named in the acknowledgments.

A fun fact about Taco--my editor was so tired and overworked she admitted that at one point she spent like 30 minutes googling chupacabras to make sure I described Taco accurately...before remembering that chupacabras are made up. We both laughed a lot about that. (My editor on this book was Noa Wheeler. She is an amazing editor and I miss working with her.)

Taco's naming--so this was patterned off the time we got my cat Kitty Pest. Kitty Pest was left behind by her owner when they evacuated for Katrina. My aunt and uncle ended up renting her house after they evacuated since their own house wasn't habitable. (My mom and aunt's town was basically wiped off the map.) So at one point, the woman told my aunt she wasn't coming back and could just keep the cat. The cat, which my aunt had been calling Bubba, was about six months old and was really sweet, but my uncle was allergic. When one of the neighbors suggested we just shoot the cat as his first option for dealing with an unwanted cat, I said "Nope. No. Cat's mine now. I'll take the cat." That's how we found out that Bubba was actually Bubbita and wasn't fixed like the previous owner had said, because she went into heat shortly after I got her. 

That was a long week. Anyway, I was living in a house with my mom, my boyfriend and our almost two year old, and my roommates Ben & Jeremy, as well as a few random friends who were helping gut houses and whatnot. A big debate between all of us went on as to what the cat was going to be named, because Bubbita was a no go. I eventually overruled everyone and said I was calling her Tempest, which was quickly shortened to Kitty Pest. My roommate Jeremy--who wanted to call her Stalin--continued to do so, which suited us fine. Kitty Pest picked up names. At one point my friend started calling her John Leguizamo.  We also called her Pig Pen because she liked to roll in the dirt. She was an amazing cat and it sucked to lose her last year.

So that's where Taco's naming scene comes from. 

Murder, She Wrote was another remnant from our evacuation days. I was often left alone with my son for days at a time--with no car in rural Mississippi. My mom was working at her hospital 2 hours away and sleeping down there during her work week. My boyfriend and roommates were gone for weeks at a time gutting houses. So just me with a toddler not talking much yet in an empty house. For days. Sometimes I'd leave the TV on for noise and for awhile it was Murder, She Wrote. At first it was just to see if they ever explained why Jessica Fletcher was allowed to go into active crime scenes. (They do not.) Then my boyfriend made fun of me for watching it one day, so I doubled down, because that's what I do. I watched a lot of Murder, She Wrote. It really is kind of soothing. There actually is a crossover episode between Murder, She Wrote and Magnum, PI. It's real!

As seems to be the case, I had a ton to say about chapter 13, and like nothing for 14 & 15. Chapter 14's song is of course by David Bowie. This chapter we also see the return of Dunaway. 15 is from Take it Easy by the Eagles and is all about Brid and her brothers. I always did love Brid's family. So much fun to write.

Okay, that's it for today! I'll try to do another post this week so we can catch up quickly and get back posting more of Bit Trouble, Little Necromancer!

As usual, any questions about these chapters, the books, or anything else, just post in the comments!

-Lish