I had it planned, you see.
I was going to make scarves and shawls and cowls for EVERYBODY I knew and loved this year, and that was going to be that.
It totally was.
And then I got… well, an itch. I was going to make my friend Damon a sweater. I just sort of felt like that needed to happen, so I made him the jumper of many colors, and while he’s still puzzled at the gift, I am happy I sent it. And hey– that got sent out in late October! I had two shawls down! All I had to do was make a couple of scarves, one for a friend and one for swag, and I was good! I was GREAT! I had like six different shawls started–I was bound to finish three or four of them in two months.
Well, I did manage a cowl, and then came the mommy-mommy-please sweater. Chicken washed the sweater I made her in middle school. Poof. No more sweater. Cat bed instead. She was devastated, and while I recognize that part of that was stress from finals and work, I also know that she was seriously emotionally invested in that sweater. So, I pulled a sweater out of my ear.
This one was crocheted in chunky yarn, and it went rather quickly–I’m thinking four weeks total, but in the meantime, I printed out a pattern that everybody saw and really wanted and…
I sort of committed to making two octopus hats, one for Chicken and one for ZoomBoy.
And a scarf/hat/pockets combo for Squish.
And suddenly I”m down to the wire, saying things like, “Hey, I only have ten out of sixteen tentacles to make and then it’s just eyeballs and stuffing, and then I can start the second one.”
Yes. Two. I NEED TWO OCTOPUS HATS BY FRIDAY.
And so you can all see, can’t you?
Yes, yes. I did it again.
Christmas and the Time of Infinite Knitting. Once again, I haven’t learned a goddamned thing.
But, in other news, I had a release this week, and it’s a big one, and very fun–
So enjoy!
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Jackson Rivers has been learning how to take care of himself so he can be there for Ellery Cramer, but after eight weeks of healing, body and soul, he’s itching to get back to work. Finally Ellery gives him a simple task: pick up a file on a kid who probably didn’t commit murder but who refuses to participate in his own defense.
Nothing is ever that easy.
A horrifying game of connect-the-dots leads one case to another, to the mob, to the local high school… and a bottomless list of potential suspects and victims. The case has a lot of moving parts, and Jackson and Ellery have to work fast to make sure the machinery of the mob doesn’t mow down everyone they care about—or rip them apart.
After a year of living together, Ellery is learning to accept that Jackson can’t let an injustice stand. Together they fight to keep kids out of jail while the streets of Sacramento threaten to explode. They’d better hope they’ve learned enough about each other to keep it together, because for this case, school is the most dangerous place to be.
