Can someone who read the longer version of _Unwanted Child_ in the anthology "Murder at the Shapeshifter's Ball" let me know what they thought of it?

I not only put more things I wanted in the longer version, I put some of the things from readers' comments about the shorter version.

I'm a bit surprised that no-one speculated on the Kubiac family from my latest Masks story:

http://tinyurl.com/4amnfftr

Yes, the name came from Parker Lewis Can't Loose.

I'm having electrical work done on my house tomorrow. There may be a delay in posting the next part of Masks 27.

So much for sleeping in this morning. I was awakened about a quarter after 7 (yes, AM) by a series of muffled bangs, and the Shark AI repeatedly telling me it was charging (there's a distinctive set of chimes). I looked at the alarm clock, and it was dead. Power was off, and after several attempts to come back on was staying off. For a large part of Frankfort. After waiting a while with no restoration, I walked to the end of my street and could see that the traffic signal at the intersection of US 60/US 421 was not only out, there was a city police van parked there with its blue lights on.

Note that this describes the death of a pet.

The story is over halfway completed, now, but still coming along slowly. It covers one of the adventures of Aaron/Malak during WWII. Yes, there are extradimensional monsters. :-) They are a relatively minor problem, though.

Life is currently proceeding slowly here. Silly me, I forgot to wear a mask when mowing my back yard last week. The dust and pollen I stirred up gave me a persistent case of bronchitis. The Canadian smoke isn't bad in this area, but is adding to the ozone and continuing pollen attack. I feel for the two crews putting on roofs in my neighborhood.

Fortunately, the lack of rain means the grass isn't very high yet, except in a couple of places. Hopefully, I won't have to mow again for a while.

I'm a few thousand words into this story, which is about an adventure Aaron (Malak) LaBelle had in northern Germany in WWII. I know the plot; it's just a matter of filling things in.

I left a bunch of flyers for Masks 18 (the latest one out through Doppler) at the Frankfort AnimeCon yesterday. There may or may not be an increase in sales following this. We'll see. The con was literally just on the other side of the river from my home.

The folks who manage this site keep track of what has entered public domain:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/

and even reprint what they consider significant.

That last of the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories is now included.

Posting the first chapter of the new Masks book has driven home that I have not done this in a while. I'm having to re-learn stuff I should already know. I hope folks - including those who manage this site - bear with me.

I've been under the weather the past two or three days. I thought the cough I had was due to the damp weather combined with the dust raised by the work I'm having done in the basement. Said coughing was bad enough that I had to use my inhaler a few times.

I just posted a story in the mood of the season. :-)

From the next (currently being written) Masks story:

"We occasionally tell people that this island was used as a base by the Dread Pirate Roberts, centuries ago," said the Commander, straight-faced. "That the place was built-up and maintained by the descendants of those left behind to guard the treasure. It's amazing how many believe that."

Sixty-four additional convention photos uploaded to Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116299515@N07/

For some reason I can't post to the BCTS Discord.

From near the end of the next Angel of... story. After WWII, three of the superhumans who helped the Allies win are discussing their plans. Two decide they're just going to get away from it all:

"We're going away," said Sutter. "Marie and I have found this place, in Puerto Rico, not far from an old Spanish city but out in the country. It has this bowl-shaped valley. We can lie in the bottom of the bowl and watch the stars go by overhead with no interference."