Starting the New Year Off Right (Calendar Giveaway)

I don't know about you, but I'm already behind on 2019...

Which is why this calendar giveaway is going up today, instead of on the 1st of the month. Snort.

One of the things I like about starting a new year is picking out new calendars. I usually get some kind of cat calendars for my main one (all the birthdays, important appointments and convention dates, etc.) and for the small calendar that goes on the wall by my desk. This year it was a black cat calendar, just because, and cute kittens for the small one. I also get the Llewellyn Witches Calendar every year, to keep track of magical things, and whichever almanacs I happen to have articles in, because they send each contributor two free copies. (The spare copy of each one is usually given to a friend as a Yule gift.)

This year I spotted something fun on one of my friend's pages on Facebook and couldn't resist ordering myself one. It is a calendar with hunky Australian firefighters with cute animals. Hey, it's for charity! (Don't judge me.) In fact, it was so cool, I got an extra one, figuring I could give it away. I also have one copy of the 2019 Llewellyn Magical Almanac (with my article on Magic and Cats). So, ta da, GIVEAWAY TIME!

(I love that the colors on the covers just happen to match. It's like I was MEANT to give them both away.)

I'm trying to build my newsletter list, in part because my new publisher, St. Martin's Press, asked me how many people were signed up for it, and I'd kind of like to impress them. It only goes out about four or five times a year, usually with important announcements, and I would never sell or give away anyone's information. So please sign up, okay? Pretty please? You can either use this LINK 
or you can fill in the form at the top left of this blog. Then use the Rafflecopter form to say you did it. Ta da! (Note: If you already get my newsletter, that counts too.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Besides getting new calendars, I'm also trying another cool thing I found on Facebook (YES, I spend too much time on Facebook). This is a simple way to focus on the positive in your life, which after last year I really needed. Plus simple, which is about all I can handle. Just take a jar and a bunch of pieces of paper, as colorful as you want to make them. Then every week, write down something good that happened, or something that made you happy, and put it in the jar. At the end of the year, pull out all the slips and read them, to remind yourself of how much good there is in your life.

Pal Ellen and I started our jars on New Year's Day (the slip of paper already in there says, "Spent New Year's Day with Ellen--Chinese food, Doctor Who, and Scrabble") but everyone in Blue Moon Circle is going to do one. We're hoping to get together for a girl's night in sometime in January to decorate the jars. If not, we'll probably do it as part of our Imbolc ritual.

One last things I'm doing to get the new year started off right is to do something a little different over at my Patreon. The folks who follow me there at the $25 level have as one of their rewards the chance to attend my monthly live online classes, or watch a recording of them later if they can't make it to the live one. I usually do a witchcraft class and/or ritual, but sometimes I talk about writing, or just do an open chat. They're a lot of fun. So this month I'm going to throw it open to everyone, even if they aren't one of my patrons. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do it on Monday the 21st for the full moon and lunar eclipse, or on Tuesday the 22nd for just a general chat. If you have a preference, say so in the comments! And be sure to check out my PATREON PAGE to find out when the open class is going to take place. I'd love to have you join me!

Tell me, what are you doing to start your 2019 off right?

Minerva

You might have noticed that I haven't put up a new post since last Monday's celebration of Magic the Cat and her brother Mystic's birthday, even though I have a novella coming out Tuesday 19th and a novel February 2nd. Normally I would have been doing all sorts of promo and giveaways, as anyone who is here on a regular basis knows.

Instead, my week pretty much got swallowed up by an unexpected cat crisis.

Last Sunday, Magic and Mystic's mom, Minerva, stopped eating. If you have cats, you know this is a Bad Sign. She nibbled on breakfast, threw up a couple of times, and refused dinner altogether. At around 15 (we don't know her exact age because her previous owners dumped her at the shelter when she got pregnant, but since the kittens just turned 14, we can guess she is either 14 or 15 herself, depending on how old she was when she got knocked up), she is the oldest of my cats, and while 15 isn't elderly for an indoor cat, it ain't young either.

Minerva curled up with her kittens in happier times. She's on the right.

So Monday we went to the vet's and hung around until her vet, the lovely Doctor Baker, could see her. Blood tests and temp were fine, but an X-ray showed a severe constipation blockage. They gave her fluids and some stool softener and we went home. But the next day she still wasn't eating, so we went back and she had to have a kitty enema, fluids, and other fun stuff. (Ugh. Sorry. TMI) Plus more tests, of course. I picked her up after work and we went home again. But by Wednesday morning, she still wasn't eating or drinking, so we had to go back, and this time she was hospitalized so they could put her on an IV and give her appetite stimulants and run MORE tests. Older kitties just don't bounce back from things as well as young ones do, and her system was shutting down. It was pretty scary.

I don't feel well. Lemme alone.

 I stopped by after work on Thursday and they unhooked her from the IV so we could visit. She'd eaten a little in the morning, and then ate more for me. She also purred a lot (I'm pretty sure she was happy to see me).

By Friday afternoon, she was finally well enough to come home, with even more medicine (and a bill the size of the national debt). She spent most of the rest of the day following me around and sitting on my lap. Definitely happy to be home. Thankfully, she's been eating well ever since. Whew.

So that's what happened to MY week. I'm just happy she's home and doing okay, and I promise I'll be back to yelling about the new books as of tomorrow. (And I'm already doing it on Facebook and Twitter, at least a little bit.) I've got all sorts of fun stuff planned, so be sure to pop in and see. There are going to be giveaways here and on other blogs, and all sorts of good stuff.

In the meanwhile I'm going to do a quickie cat calendar themed giveaway to celebrate starting a new year, and throw in a copy of the new Llewellyn's Witches' Datebook (which I have some fun contributions in) just for the heck of it. Hopefully the rest of the year will be a LOT better than the last week was. Nothing but good times ahead.

To be entered, leave a comment here and I will pick a random winner Monday at midnight.

And a big thanks to all who sent their good wishes and healing energy on Facebook during this difficult time. It meant a lot to me.