Funny how holidays creep up on you when you’re in a foreign country.
We have Friday off here in Georgia, due to an Orthodox religious holiday. I’ll probably head east and check out the Stalin museum, maybe Mtskheta and Qazbegi depending on the weather. A friend of mine in Tbilisi said she’d get me a Svan hat, so if that works out, I’ll be sure to post pics.
In school today, we made the hand-traced turkeys from construction paper, with “I am thankful for…” on it. I got to tell the kids the thanksgiving story, too. I’m not sure how historically accurate it was, but they seemed to enjoy it. They also enjoyed all the stickers I gave them for their finished projects. The Nintendo stickers were the most popular.
So what am I thankful for this year? Let’s see…
- Delicious homemade Georgian food. Beans, cheese, bread, potatoes, peppers, chicken, borscht–almost all of it grown right here in the village where I live. It’s awesome.
- My students. Seriously, some of the awesomest kids I have ever known. Every day when I get to teach them, I feel like a rockstar. I’m going to miss them when the semester is over.
- My friends and family. Even though I’m literally on the other side of the world and hardly ever have internet, I’m glad that we still keep in touch.
- My readers. Seriously, it’s awesome that you guys are reading and enjoying my books. I just wish I could put them out faster.
- My first year of running a profitable business. That’s right–with last month’s sales reports, I’m on track to run a modest profit for 2012. Let’s hope that this growth continues well into the future!
- The changing face of publishing. Seriously, it is so awesome that for a very little upfront cost, a guy like me can sell his books across the world and find fans in places as far away as Singapore and the Czech Republic. There are so many choices, so much freedom, that it’s staggering to see how different things were just a couple of years ago. Kris Rusch said it much better than I did, so be sure to check out her most recent post on the subject.
There’s more, of course, but those are the big ones off the top of my head.
I know I missed Trope Tuesday again this week, but I wrote up a long post and then got dissatisfied with it just as I ran out of time. We’re on the magic flight stage of the hero’s journey, but I’m having trouble finding a page on tvtropes that really fits it. It’s not really a stage that I’m all that familiar with, either, so it’s going to be a bit of a challenge to figure it out. But I will, don’t worry–hopefully next week.
As far as Star Wanderers goes, I’m working on the final revisions for Homeworld (Part IV) right now. It’s going really well so far, so I expect to be finished in a week or two. After that, I just need to get it copy edited / proofread, and then it should be good to publish.
Just to tease you all, here’s the cover:
So yeah, definitely look out for that soon!
I’ve got to go, but I’ll post again when I get the chance. Happy Thanksgiving, and I’ll see you around!
