Only the birds can handle this bitter cold. Sales very much needed now; subscribers and shares, a more hours in the day, too.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

One of the flickers is back, sharing space on the feeders with its more traditionally "woodpecker" cousin. The birds were the only creatures out and about yesterday in a brutal north wind that howled from before dawn well into the dark hours. I seem to be battling a cold or some other bug now, and I'm still putting in 16-hour days, with no reprieve in sight before the 25th, at this rate. I'm exhausted, and I have to keep going.

No, no lights on the tree yet, either. A week, and I haven't been able to carve out an hour to decorate it. As I keep saying, I also have to spend today (EVERY day) on work that brings in actual scratch, sales or subscribers or otherwise. Ordinarily, the sales and commissions we get this time of year are what see us through six long hard months of winter (but that has not the been the case the last couple of years); on top of ordinary winter cost of living and now this construction mess, I have more tests upcoming soon on top of the tens of thousands of dollars' worth of medical debt already trying to drive me into an early grave. Time is short for the holidays, so if you have special orders, get them in to me now so he has time to create them for you. For now, though, I'm so far behind on this day (and on the week as a whole) that I'll never catch up, so most of the rest is cut-and-paste.

Most of my attention has to be focused on bringing in money, through sales or subscribers or any other means, because the bills don't pay themselves, either, and the heavy burden I'm carrying on that score is inhibiting my ability to heal in a not-insignificant way. Please share these routinely:

• My new Patreon, The Interstices (Writing Between Worlds) (and if you subscribe today you won't be billed until January 1st for December);
• Wings's site, for sales, with new items posted;
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to all of our medical bills, which continue to mount);
• Amazon wishlist, which mostly consists of animal and household stuff;
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. There are new kitchen-y things on it now, stuff that I didn't realize we'd need to replace (either because the RV ruined it or because we gave it away when we had to downsize).

Please share the links. We're now officially into holiday order season, because commissions take time, so if you're planning on holiday gifts, please keep Wings's work in mind. And given what we're up against, we won't turn away donations, either, because we simply can't afford it.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.