The Red Cedar River, MSU. By Chris Galford.
Checklist for a Michigan Winter:
1. Thick coat. Get your dang Northface out of here.
2. Boots. Preferably fluffy. Leather also good. Steel-toed = best.
3. Thermal socks. Because your normal whities just aren’t gonna cut it, sweetheart.
4. Scarf. Because that floppy little hood you’re wearing is just the wind’s plaything.
5. Hot Cocoa. For the kid inside. And also that numb sensation you seem to be experiencing.
6. A car that isn’t a Ford Taurus. Snow makes them go into concrete poles, you know. Er, or so I hear…
7. Salt. Take a step outside after the first winter rain and you’ll understand why. “Boy the ground sure is shiny to—hell!”
8. A heater. In your home if nowhere else. Don’t got one? Ignore all aforementioned then, cause you’re probably as stiff as Frosty the bloody snow man by now anyway.
9. Purple fingers. Because hell, even with all the above, you’re still going to get them after any real time outside. It’s a real Michigan color.
Just came back from a 2 and a half hour jaunt through a frozen Michigan State University and a snowy Lansing River Trail. Cocoa now firmly in hand, I have begun the appropriate after-ritual of sitting in a corner with a space heated on and a sweat shirt pulled snug until the feeling returns to hands and feet. Fingers crossed that it’ll be soon.
We've been spending a lot of time together, these books and I.
Productive day though – a good end to an equally productive week. Poems have been sent to four publishers now, with two more publishers picked out with poetry waiting to be sent to them as soon as they begin receiving again come February. Two more publishers will be getting the e-mails tomorrow, and then, it’s time to move on to short stories. Keep an eye out, you may see some on here soon as well (and yes, I know I’ve said that before. I mean it this time…I’ve got dozens).
The last of my editors just sent in their notes about my novel, so I’m all but ready to go on that as well. One last look through, comparing notes and checking final edits…and then it’s off to another, more intricate publisher hunt, and all the stress that’ll bring. But I look forward to it, anxiously.
As for the job front…well…Michigan is Michigan.
Photos will come tomorrow, along with next week’s quotes of the week (no, I haven’t forgotten. I know you’re all watching and waiting for me to so you can say I told you so).
The Waking Den 