First with the cool news.  I have to say, I have a few writer friends who are totally and incredibly talented - and they're IN PRINT!!!  If only I, too, could have a book in print!  The cool thing is, they're coming out soon.  So check out Eric Wilson, and Xanga's very own JEFF MARKOWITZ.

In Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder, we once again visit Cassie O'Malley, a NJian who lives near the pine barrens and writes for a tabloid.  Now, I gotta tell you guys, I've been waiting forever for this book to come out, so this is a little bit like my own slice of Christmas cheer.  Jeff is an amazing person and he's been an amazing resource to me.  I am so incredibly glad I found him on Xanga.  This is a continuation of the other books he already has in print - A Minor Case of Murder & Who is Killing Doah's Deer.

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   Also coming out, ERIC WILSON's next book in the Jerusalem Undead trillogy, Haunt of the Jackals.  This is the sequel to Field of Blood, which came out last year.  (Oh, he also did the novelization for a little something called Fireproof.)

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OMG.  Is it true???  Can it be???

The first issue of INK MONKEY MAGAZINE is actually ready for purchase?!!!

YESSS!!!

Click the LuLu link to order it now!!! 

So, a week or two ago, I'm sitting in my computer room when I hear a loud crash.  I look out the window only to discover that the intersection two houses down from me is now almost completely blocked as the scene of the accident. 

I immediately called the police and it was 1 hour and 17 minutes before anybody showed up.

I'm not sure what part of "I don't know if there are injuries" confused them, but they sure took their own sweet time.

 Fast forward to the events of last night.

Around dinner time, two fire trucks and an ambulance went past my house and somewhere down the street.  Well, I shouldn't say that.  The AMBULANCE went past my road, turned around, and came back about a minute and a half later, then turned down my road.  Seriously.

They were down there for about 20 minutes, and then they left.  What in the world requires two fire trucks and an ambulance but only lasts 20 minutes?

Then, about 1 in the morning, we suddenly had what seemed like half the fire and rescue fleet went screaming down the road.  So we did what good gawkers did and drove down to see what was going on.

And saw this:

One house was entirely engulfed, and the siding on both neighboring houses was melting off.  By the time I got there, there were no good flame pictures, but the people who live down there said that they could see huge flames.  Fortunately for the family, they all got out okay.  By the looks of things, the fire started in the living room, because all the windows were broken/melted out on that side, but the other side was okay.  After the fire was out, the firemen actually went into the house and brought out a lot of their clothes and things like that. 

Ironically, the neighbors houses melted, but they were bringing out plastic drawer units from the kids' rooms that were perfectly fine.

Anyway, back to the saga... So firetrucks were missing the road, backing up, turning around, etc... AND ALMOST RAN INTO EACH OTHER.  WTF???

Don't they have GPS?  How fucking incompitent can they be?  It's amazing the house has anything standing.