My Christmas Tree and Black Friday

My Christmas tree was up the day before Thanksgiving. Yeah, I know, it was a bit early. I have an artificial tree, and have had one for years. When I was younger, we always had real. It was nice, but when I had a house of my own, I realized all the reasons I like artificial trees. Overall, they’re less expensive. I mean, sure, you spend $200 up front, but if you have it for 10 years, that’s $20 a year. Can’t beat that. There’s no holes in the branches to worry about, it always looks great, no watering, and NO NEEDLES to vacuum. My sister thinks it’s sacrilege to have a fake tree. But mine’s up and I get to enjoy it for then entire holiday season.

Yes I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put it up. But this year I needed to buy a new tree, and so I wanted to make sure all the lights worked before the holiday.  Because there was no way I was going to try and exchange it during Black Friday weekend.

I used to shop on Black Friday. Waking at 3 am, getting to one store by 4, shopping for an hour and then heading to the next store opening. It was fun. I never wanted any of the really crazy things people camp out for (and really, camping out for a week to save $100 on a TV? Nuts. But maybe they think that’s fun. I digress.) But I usually got good deals and lots of presents and enjoyed myself.

This year, and I’m sorry, but they’ve sucked all the fun right out of it. Opening on Thanksgiving?? That, to me, is ridiculous. There was a whole lot of hullaballoo about the workers having to work the day. Hey, you’re in retail. You work on holidays sometimes. Not my issue. MY issue is that now the focus of Thanksgiving is becoming just a speedbump on the way to holiday consumerism. We’re skimming over all that Thanksgiving is supposed to mean, and focusing more on buying ‘stuff’.

I am all for presents at Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus/Saturnalia. I enjoy the spirit of giving. But it seems to me that these greedy corporations are shoving the holiday down our throats earlier every year, and now ON THANKSGIVING.

I thought the holidays were supposed to be about peace on earth, good will toward men, being thankful.

Guess not.

 

 

Where to buy books (uh, that would be MY books).

I know, right? I don’t blog for two whole months, and then I hit you with a sales pitch. Well, sort of, but not really. Just being helpful.

So I noticed that on Amazon they have the trade paperback edition of The Crown of Zeus is listed at shipping in 5-7 weeks. Uh, that’s right through the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus buying season! This sometimes happens when Amazon runs out of copies (yay!), and I noticed it last week but it’s sticking around.

So…if you wanted to purchase a copy of this book, where else could you get it? Well, B&N, of course. But if you’re into buying things from small business owners, or buying direct, you could get the book from the publisher! Like HERE. That goes for the sequel, The Ankh of Isis. 

If you are interested in the other two books in the series, and want to skip Amazon or B&N, you can find them at Zumaya Publications. The Mirror of Yu-Huang and The Sword of Danu. 

You’ll also notice I have this nifty Authorgraph widget on the sidebar. That used to be called Kindlegraph, but now you can get an autograph for any type of e-book.

And I promise semi-regular posting will commence in the near future. I have a lot to tell you!