Today’s the day! If you pre-ordered, your copy magically appeared on your device around midnight!
If you haven’t pre-ordered, well, now you can regular order! And You should.
I’m really happy with how this one came together.
As the Beastie Boys say, “No Sleep, til Brooklyn!”
I’m almost done with my loose outline for the 3rd book of the Grand Human Empire series. I’ll be starting the first draft in a few days! If you haven’t taken a look at that series you should, I think you’ll like it :)
I’ve been thinking a lot about grief the last few days. Winston’s sudden and unexpected passing was a gut punch like none I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve been lucky (as such) that my grandparents all passed expectedly. They had health issues, were old. The grieving process was protracted. Months in most cases. So when the end came, it was a mix of sadness and relief. Their suffering had come to an end. My parents are healthy and well, and I look forward to many more years with them.
Terrance and Philip, my best buds, each passed similarly. Both grew old, though not old enough IMO. Health issues came upon them, and when they passed (with an appointment at the vet), the grief wasn’t as sharp. I’d prepared myself. I’d said “goodbye” and “I love you” a lot and knew both were not having a good life any longer. Their ends were as much a relief as anything else. Their suffering was over, they were one with the Force.
Don’t get me wrong. I cried in all these scenarios, a lot.
Winston was different. Earlier that day, he and his brother were piled on my lap for cuddles and petting. That night he laid on his pillow near the kitchen island and watched us eat dinner. As we were watching TV he got up and went outside to potty, and came back in. Then he died. In the span of two minutes, he went from getting comfortable next to Nicole to making his last noise, a drawn-out groan/whine. Then he was gone. We still raced to the ER, but he was gone. I was next to him on the couch when his last breath came. My heart shattered.
The next day was the worst in my life (to date). I suppose second worse, given the night before. I cried, a lot. So much I gave myself an allergy attack or something so I was crying and sniffling and my nose was a snot faucet. Good times. It wasn’t pretty.
That night I turned the TV on, and the episode of Bull we had started the night before started playing where it left off. When Winston made his noise, I hit pause, and the rest of the night was a blur. By the time we got home, the TV had turned itself off.
Winston wasn’t that old; as far as we knew from his vet, he was healthy. His departure wasn’t planned or hinted at. There was no mourning him in advance. I never said my “goodbyes” and “I love yous” in advance. I know he knew we loved him. He had a good life full of treats and hugs. But still, I’d give anything for 5 or more years so I could say it a lot more.
The second day was better so far. I still expected him to walk by my office on his way to lay in the sun on the back patio to zip out and back in from going potty as fast as he could because it’s cold out. He hated being outside in the cold. His food bowl is still next to the water dispenser thing. It might be there a while.
This post is about me, writing about it helps get the pain out. I know it’s worse for Nicole. Winston was her little man.
I know with each passing day that will fade. My mind will get used to his absence and no longer expect to see him; I both look forward to that time and dread it because then he’ll really be gone.
We met Paco and Winston about 10 years ago when we became their forever parents. Pet ownership is never without challenges but it’s been an amazing 10 years with two delightful little souls. Their energy and curiosity have lead to a lot of laughs.
Brothers, we adopted them both when we met them. How could we not?
While we had to rush to the vet once or twice when they decided to re-enact their favorite scene from Mad Max, I wouldn’t trade the time we had with them, even though Winston was great at starting shit he couldn’t back up.
He loved his brother mostly, but in the words of their daycare, he was “Socially selective” with other dogs. But offer a lap and he was yours until you got bored, because he never got tired of sitting on laps.
Last night, Winston passed away. It was sudden and without warning. We were watching TV, he came in from outside, hopped up on the couch to snuggle with Mom (Nicole), and just… just died.
We’re going to miss him a lot. With Terrence and Philip they grew old and we had time to see their decline and be with them. When their times came we were ready, so were they. Winston was there, snuggling, then gone.
I’m glad that earlier in the day both little monkeys as we call them wanted ‘dad time’ joining me in my chair for a dog pile of kisses and wiggling. Well, kisses from Paco.
Winston was our little gentleman. He was stingy with kisses. Any day with more than one kiss from Winston was a banner day. He’d snuggle all day long, burrowing under the blanket with you, but kisses, those were for special occasions.
Winston’s ideal day was sitting curled up next to Nicole on the couch. He hated getting dirty. He hated leaving our side, well mostly Nicole’s I was optional most of the time.
Winston had no interest in being alone, unlike his brother who we think might be a cat dressed as a dog. Every night Winston came upstairs with us and waited for his teeth to be brushed before jumping up on the bed. He was Nicole’s “little spoon”. He’d sleep between us, his cute little head poking out of the covers between our pillows.
Sometimes he’d wake us up in the middle of the night while having a particularly awesome chasing a thing dream.
Winston was an awesome road trip buddy even though he hated the idea of leaving the house. He would lay down with a resigned sigh, like, “Fine, I’ll go. Let me know when we get there.”
I’m going to miss you a lot little man. Like a lot. Paco misses you and doesn’t understand why we ran out of the house last night in a frenzy, leaving him all alone, let alone why you didn’t come home with us, or why we were crying so hard.
I’ll never forget your goofy underbite or how angry you got about being expected to fetch things just for us to throw them again.
Goodnight, Winston
I really need to put a reminder somewhere to do these posts!
Everyone places their order and the waiter ambles off, his long arms swaying as he walks.
“If we pick a name, Bennie will have a bull.” Maxim says.
“Cow.” Wil corrects.
“Aren’t the same thing?” Cynthia asks.
Wil inhales, “Oh, man.”
“I’m kidding. I’ve watched enough of your archive to know what a bull is.” She turns to Maxim, “The boy cow.”
Zephyr makes a face, “So what’s the female called?”
Wil groans, “Can we get—“ The waiter returns with their drinks. Everyone orders and the bark-skinned man departs. Wil tries again, “Can we stay on task here? We need a name. Something to hang above the door of the warehouse.”
Maxim opens his mouth but is interrupted by a commotion at another table, near the forward-most section of transparent bulkhead. The four Ghost crew members all turn to look. Bennie is fending off the rapid-fire slaps of an angry pale green Brailack woman. “You said I mattered to you!” She screams as the flat of her hand impacts the top of Bennie’s head.
Maxim winces, “That probably hurt.”
I still love the dynamic between the team no matter if it’s all of them together, or any combination of them off on separate adventures. As I work on wrapping up Space Rogues 9, I wonder where the team goes after this. There’s for sure a book 10, but then what? I haven’t decided.
We’ll see what the future holds for Wil and the crew, together. :)
On a lark I designed my own skin for my kobo Clara HD. Nothing overly fancy just a little Star Trek PADD vibe.
I dig it, it’s fun and makes reading just a few percent more enjoyable than it already is.
To celebrate ‘Side Hustle Tango’ going off to beta readers this Monday I wanted to share a little more of it. Jax and Noami’s partnership is still being fleshed out. As you might expect it’s a lot of learning on the run.
“So… who are you?” The man with the spray bottle asked, his hand lowering, the spray bottle resting in his lap. They’re in a room that’s about three meters square, empty except for the two currently occupied chairs. No table or anything else. “No one.” Jax replied. The other man cocked his head, “No one? That’s not good. Nobody misses no one’s when they don’t come home.” Jax nodded, “Fair enough. My name is Michael Keaton, I’m—” He didn’t finish because a stream of water hit him in the face. “We have your gPhone.” Spray bottle man reminded Jax, withdrawing the device from his jacket with his free hand. Jax thought hard about the ident he had last used. He was sure it wasn’t his real one. “Fine, fine. My name is Leonard McGarry.” “From?” The other man a go on motion. “Here. I live down—” More water. Jax rubbed his face, “Cut that out!”
I really like the spray bottle to get to the truth… trope, almost. It adds playfulness to a serious situation. Bonus points to you if you can identify Jax’s alias.
‘Side Hustle Tango’ comes out in May. The first book in the Grand Human Empire series, ‘Any Job Will Do‘ comes out next week. You can pre-order it now, and if you order from me directly, you get it a few days early as a bonus for buying direct. I hope you’ll take a look, I’m really excited to tell this new set of stories. This series is a mix of some of the same (Space Opera) and something new, (no aliens, a diverse cast, and more) stuff you (I hope) you like in my writing.
