The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Howdy, patrons!

Every year I swear not to let the holidays sneak up on me, and every year they do! It feels like all parts of my life are exploding at once, and it's all that I can do to keep up! That's not entirely true, between you and me -- but I'm definitely going to have to level up with time management in order to get everything done. Thanksgiving week was pretty intense because My Husband, the Dragon (™) and I hosted a dinner for the very first time. It went pretty well, all things considered! Husboo made the turkey (which was brined for three days and slow-roasted for like, six hours); garlic parmesan mashed potatoes; and string bean casserole. I made lemon-ginger snap cookies (for the good folks at my day job); butterscotch-crumb apple pie; and a rather large carrot cake with home-made cream cheese icing. Folks liked pretty much everything, and we loved making everything! But boy howdy, it ate up a lot of time.

Right after Thanksgiving was Black Friday, and since my day job is season-sensitive I spent a bit of time handling things there. I'm definitely getting comfortable at work, and I got a peer review the week after the holiday that basically said "You're warm and positive and definitely an asset to team morale; but you have GOT to start pulling your weight with the workload." We're expected to handle a certain number of tickets per week, and I haven't ramped up nearly as quickly as they'd like. Fair cop! I tend to be thorough, and that can make me slow. This month I'll need to take a look at where I'm spending my time and looking at ways to streamline my process. It's already starting to pay off, and when I get up to speed THEN I get to play around with special projects -- which is one of the big reasons I took the job in the first place! So that's my professional goal for Q1 2019.

I had to ditch my colleagues with a short week of work, though -- Midwest Fur Fest 2018 was calling! My friend Kyell Gold was a Guest of Honor this year (not to mention the amazing JD Laclede being another), so we thought we'd visit to offer our support. It turns out I only got to see him maybe three times the whole weekend; being GOH of a 10,000-member convention is pretty busy work! Even still, the convention was a blast. I had forgotten how much fun it is to meet the folks you've only known online, and how important that is to deepen your friendship. I really cherished the time I got to spend with folks, and my writing panels didn't come off too badly either!

The convention as a whole was quite inspiring, and in its wake I'm filled with a new energy to finish stories and send them out for submission. I'm also quite keen to read a lot more; there are a ton of great writers in the fandom, and it's about time I got better acquainted with the scene out there. Picked up a couple of anthologies and a novel written by a good friend of mine (am I being TOO name-droppy? TOO BAD.) named Invisiblewolf. If you're looking for a good techno-mystery, check him out at the Fur Planet website!

Now that the convention is over and we've settled into a holiday rhythm at work, it's time to turn my attention to getting my own house in order. That means a new episode of "Crushing The Competition" tomorrow and really pushing to move ahead with a second serial for the Captains Crunch and Lucky Charms. I'm trying not to bite off more than I can chew, but I also really want to push myself to be more productive and consistent. That's only going to happen if I work harder.

So that's what life is like for me, patrons! I've had two weeks to tend to other areas of life, and now I'm back in the saddle here; I hope you like the serial this month, I'm pretty happy to push Ralph into truly new territory -- and hopefully spice things up a little.

I'll see you lovely folks tomorrow for episode nine! Until then, patrons, I hope you're enjoying your holiday season!

Sincerely,

Jakebe