Newsletter: From Scotland

In which Karl praises snowflakes

The World Transform’d

Snowflakes are beautiful (whatever bigots try to tell you). Intricate, amazing, icy crystals that drift downwards and change the appearance of the world. I woke today to flat grey skies. Yes, I know I live in Scotland and that’s normal, but there was also white ground, and feathers falling from heaven. Snow had come again.

Dolly (my cat and best friend) was reluctant to venture outside at first (hey, it’s cold in bare feet - I tried it myself and left toe prints around the berry bushes!) but eventually decided to explore.

I followed her down the stairs on an adventure …

After checking things out for a bit, and realising the pond was iced over and couldn’t be drunk from, she decided it was better to be warm inside; thus, dear reader, we retreated.

Thanks for everyone’s well-wishes. She’s had a few ups and downs so we slightly increased the amount of insulin we inject. Her next checkup is in a couple of hours and we’ll see what the result is.

Here’s a little story about how clever Dolly is.

She gets her evening insulin jab on the table, where I can more easily see what I’m doing, usually around 8pm. Although Dolly uses the table as part of one of her key routes (Karl’s chair > table > through hatch to kitchen > along sideboard > to her water bowl in side sink) she never sits there of her own accord.

The other night I saw her sat on the table, exactly where she has her jabs. I checked the time: 8pm. She had put herself there ready for it, making sure we didn’t forget.

And, although she isn’t keen on needles (though copes with them far better than I do), she headbutted my chin afterwards to let me know I was forgiven for injecting her every day.

Then she curled up on my lap and went to sleep while I played computer games (SteamWorld Dig, on Linux).

I raise my glass to her.

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Another Hardback

I continue with the store experiment I began last time. I have now added Chasing Solace, the Lost Solace sequel, to my site.

And that includes the first ever hardback edition of Chasing Solace - this one with Athene on the cover!

Since this is a trial, I want to offer a small discount to anyone who tests the site out - enter the code JanuaryNewsletter at checkout (or go via this link) and you’ll get 10% off the order. Thanks! If you run into any issues, reply to this email and let me know. (Of course, you can reply to this email for a chat any time - I’m not some big planet-destroying corporation, I’m just a normal, friendly person trying to get by and create stories in the process.)