![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/phone-1186-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHoly shitballs, I haven’t blogged since August? Oh dear. I do believe I need to hire an assistant to flog me when I’ve been a major slacker. See, this shit wouldn’t happen if I had a butler. Ah yes, I can picture him now: stuffy, British, elderly, bringing me tea and clearing his throat discretely and politely suggesting that I might consider keeping up on my duties. Ahem.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Cookie, my Desk Cat (who was also my Shoulder Cat), passed away in August. Certainly, she would have kept me on my toes. See how energetic and ambitious she was?<\/p>\n
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So what’s been happening over at Writerghoulie’s lair? Well, I’ve recovered nicely from surgery. I had to put off continuing studies in Criminal Psychology & Behaviour, which, as it happened, worked out to my advantage; the college teachers went on strike and it’s been five weeks since students have been in class. I’d have been right pissed if I paid all that money for school and been kept waiting while the college admins bickered with teachers. I don’t know what all the hubbub is, or what the strike is about, but I usually side with teachers in these situations. I know too many teachers personally to believe they wouldn’t have students’ best interests in mind. I hope they get what they need in order for students to return to class and get back to work soon.<\/p>\n
I’ve also had to take a season off of bellydancing (surgery healing), and I miss it very much. STIFF COMPETITION<\/a>, the newest Marnie Baranuik novella, was released by Pixiegrind Ink in September. I can’t believe I didn’t get my ass on here and blog that. Derp. I feel like a dinkus.<\/p>\n I’ve not had a chance to do a complete listen to the new Tantor Media audiobooks of Touched, Death Rejoices, and Last Impressions. I have heard narrator Amy McFadden reading, and oh man, I’m so hyper about it! She’s such a great Marnie.<\/p>\n Things are looking up in paperback news as well. Pixiegrind Ink Ltd is in talks with Ogmha Creative Media<\/a>, who wish to acquire the paperback rights for the Marnie Baranuik Files and pop those puppies into your local Barnes & Noble. Yeppers, that sounds that a dealio to me! Contracts are being shuffled back and forth so we’ll keep you updated on that.<\/p>\n Work continues on the sixth book in the series, KINDRED SPIRITS. Even more troubling than that news (heh heh) is the insistence of a certain fussypants character that another short story is in the works. Apparently, the author has no say in such things, or so his royal nibs is telling me. I keep telling Harry that I have other story lines and other characters in my head, but he has decided that my attention should be solely focused on him. The nerve.<\/p>\n I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying life. Onward and upward! xo AJ<\/p>\n <\/p>\n New to the Marnie Baranuik Files? Start here for book one, TOUCHED<\/a>, or read reviews on GOODREADS<\/a>. Catching up? The latest full novel in the Marnie Baranuik Files is BLIGHTMARE<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Holy shitballs, I haven’t blogged since August? Oh dear. I do believe I need to hire an assistant to flog me when I’ve been a major slacker. See, this shit wouldn’t happen if I had a butler. Ah yes, I can picture him now: stuffy, British, elderly, bringing me tea and clearing his throat discretely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3430"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3432,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions\/3432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/SC_cv_3-194x300.jpg\")
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