Nomads of Zyden

I've just published my eight novel, a swords-and-sorcery fantasy called "Nomads of Zyden." I'm particularly proud of this one, as it feels more like a mainstream novel, as opposed to the politics-heavy niche stories I usually write. I'm not even sure what I mean by that, I think I'm just trying to say that my leftist views come across really heavily in most of my work.

This one is more politically neutral, though it does feature multiple LGBT characters. I personally don't consider that political, but some people do. They can bite me. My gender identity and sexual orientation aren't political statements, they just are.

But I've gone off subject. Another difference is that most of my books are short story collections. Even the Bloodhunters series, which are presented as novels, are composed of serialized stories, many of which could be read in any order. Admittedly, this one still feels a bit like three novellas tied together (and I almost released it that way), but I think it's way more cohesive than the books I usually write.

A synopsis:

When a tribe of ghoulish monsters wipes out her mountain clan, a fierce warrior named Marta sets out on a mission of revenge. But while she grew up fighting giant beasts in the frigid wastelands, she isn’t prepared for the culture shock of meeting people from the lowlands.

During her epic journey she befriends a jester, a fairy, and a woman with whom she shares a magical bond. Together they take on a much larger quest in which they must explore ancient temples and fight ruthless monsters, all to retrieve a set of artifacts that will help them defeat an all-powerful evil. Their time is short and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

 You can find it, and all my other books, here:

Books by Xine Fury

 

I Hate Commerce

Two things bugging me today.

First, we've spent all day waiting for an electrician to show up. This was part of the deal when we bought the house - the inspection service suggested a few upgrades and fixes to our electrical system, and the seller gave us a check written to a specific company to do the work. Well, the company they picked is very small, and the recent snow has put them behind. 

They've had to reschedule this job a couple of times, and they were supposed to be here this morning. It's 3 PM as I write this, and they're saying they should be here in half an hour. This late, they might not have time to finish today, so they may have to come back next week.

It's not a biggie, except that we had to put an entire day aside when there's other things we could be doing. Still, it's a first-world problem.

My second issue is more irritating. When I moved out of the old house, the realtor told me not to cancel the utilities. She said that it's a pain to get them turned back on, and that it's easier for the buyer to call and have the services transferred into their name.

I logged back into both accounts two weeks later, and found that they were still in my name. So I e-mailed my realtor, and she got with the new owners, then got back to me with, "Don't worry about it, they're going to take care of it."

Then two weeks after that, I got the bills for the month we didn't live there. I called both utilities, and both told me the same thing: Even if I send them proof I didn't live there, I still have to pay the bills because they were in my name. Which is exactly what I would have assumed in the first place, if I hadn't been told by the realtor not to cancel the services.

Anyway, I've canceled them now, but I'm annoyed that I have to pay for an extra month. I'm going to try to get the new owners to pay me back, but it's only $150, so it's not really worth the effort getting lawyers involved.

But it's not even the money that annoys me, it's that I followed instructions to the letter and still got punished.

Keeper of the Keys

I really love this house, despite all its quirks. Actually the imperfections make me like it more. It's more than 100 years old, but it's been updated and expanded over the years, so there's a ton of things I haven't seen since going to my grandmother's as a kid. Some of the doors still have big keyholes, the air vents are antiquated, and half the power outlets are two-pronged.

We bought a set of four locks and four deadbolts that all use the same key, and changed all the locks in the house. The thing is, each lock and each deadbolt included three keys. So we now have 24 identical keys to this house. Seems a little excessive, but at least I can give some to close friends and family members.

We're Really, Really Here

Well... *huff huff* We're finally... *huff huff* ...completely out of Nashville. We've technically owned our new home since the beginning of the month, but we had a deal that allowed us to stay in the old house until the 18th. And boy did we need it. Between snow delays, unexpected expenses, and backbreaking work, it's been a hell of a month.

The movers came last week. They worked all day long, but had to stop when the semi was full. They managed to get all of our furniture, but only about two-thirds of our stuff. I swear we're not hoarders. We're collectors. It's not like we had stacks of old newspapers or used diapers in the corner.

For my part, I have a lot of hobbies - D&D, video games, writing, toys, and so on. I love my stuff and I'm glad I finally have a house big enough to display everything. As for my wife, she is creative and loves crafting, and she jumps from project to project such as painting, wood burning, crochet, jewelry making, and so on. She's also an avid reader and owns hundreds of books. Plus we have a large DVD collection.

These hobbies require a lot of space, and I'm surprised we fit all that stuff in our old, 1,024 square foot house. Nothing could have prepared me for how much time and space it took to move at all. There's an old saying about how the things you own end up owning you. I never believed that until now. Still, I like my stuff and want to keep as much of it as possible.

So, after spending an ungodly amount of money on the movers, we still had plenty to move. We spent several days driving up and down, almost three hours each way, loading up our Rogue with boxes. A friend in Nashville offered to let us store some stuff in his garage, so we rented a U-Haul van and put some of our things there.

But the final day was coming, and there was plenty left that had to go. We had to pick out what was important to us, and hired a junk guy to haul off the rest. That was yesterday.

We spent all day working yesterday, packing the Rogue, dropping more stuff off at my friend's garage, filling up both cars for the final load, and cleaning the house. We finished around 10 PM, and finally got home around 2 AM.

Today I'm going to take it easy. Every muscle is screaming at me, and I can't find the energy to do much. The last few weeks have been nothing but packing and moving boxes around, and now I can barely see straight. My wife, who suffers from chronic pain, will probably be in and out of consciousness all day.

The good news is, I found a few cool things I hadn't seen in years. We lived at our old house for 18 years, and some of the stuff in the attic had been there the entire time. I found an original X-Box as well as a PS1 (the cute little slim model they released later) with several games:

I haven't found a controller yet for the PS1, but it's still a nice find. I also found a ton of cool action figures I hadn't seen in a long time.

But we didn't have time to go through all the boxes, so the junk guys probably took away a few things we would have liked to have. We just ran out of time and energy. Oh well, if we didn't miss it in 18 years, it can't have been that important.

I'm going to go to sleep until Tuesday.

Dream: Space 'n' Vader

Last night I dreamed that I got a new job, working as a valet on the Death Star. I'm not exactly sure how one drives to the Death Star, but hey, I just park the cars, I don't ask questions. A couple of Autobots (specifically Springer and Kup from the 80's movie) worked in the parking garage, repairing cars. Sometimes they would convert people's ordinary cars into Transformers while they were parked.

While I was working, an ambassador came to visit. She was an evil witch queen, and she actually went by the name "Evil Witch Queen." She wore a red dress and her face was painted white, like an evil version of Queen Amidala. She floated through the halls with little crackles of electricity sparking around her, and she gave orders to the Stormtroopers like she was their boss. But the Stormtroopers just stood around looking confused, unsure if they should follow her orders.

At one point she went too far with her demands, and Darth Vader came out to see what was causing the commotion. Vader was in his normal outfit, but also wearing bunny slippers and carrying a coffee mug and a newspaper, like he'd just woken up. Barely giving the Evil Witch Queen more than a thought, he pointed at her and used the Force to slam her into the walls a few times, then turned around and left.

Looking a bit like Loki after his run-in with the Hulk, the Evil Witch Queen groaned and asked for her car keys. I handed them back, worried about what she'd do when she found out her car was now a Transformer. That's all I remember.

We’re Really Here

Things are simultaneously moving super-fast and super-slow. We haven't offically "moved" yet, but I have spent a night in my new house. I can’t believe how big it is compared to the old one. Our old house was a measly 1,024 square feet, and it was so cramped with all our hobbies. Our new house is nearly triple that size.

But even cooler, it actually feels like our own house. Our old house was a unit in a fourplex, and we shared our walls with other homeowners. One of the adjacent units was owned by a landlord who rented it out, so neighbors moved in and out a lot, and some of them were really loud.

Never buy a unit in a multi-house dwelling. Just don’t. You end up with all the disadvantages of renting, only now you’re responsible for all the maintenance. Plus you have all the questions – when the shared driveway needs repaving, who pays for it? If your neighbors play loud music, who do you complain to?

Honestly, it’s weird to me that I can “own” a piece of a building. I mean, who owns the wall between me and my neighbor’s unit? What if I decided to knock down the wall that leads to my neighbor’s bedroom? I mean, I own the wall, I paid for it. But she did too, which is the confusing part.

But now… I have a house. My own house. With a little fenced-in backyard, a garage, a basement… and I don’t have to share my walls with anyone.

Now I just have to make sure I can afford the damn thing. I have a severance package to live on, so getting a new job isn’t an emergency. But it would still be nice to make double paychecks for a few months, so I’m not going to rest on my laurels, either. My goal is to have a job by the end of January, and use the extra income to pay off some debts and furnish the new place.

With a little luck, I’ll get something I actually enjoy.

Kroger

I admit it, I don't always understand social situations. I don't always understand what's going on around me. There's a good chance I'm autistic, but I don't want to self-diagnose. My hearing could be better, too.

This morning I went to Kroger for some groceries. I don't like parking near other cars, and I don't mind doing a little extra walking. So I parked near Little Caesars, which is a few stores down but in the same parking lot.

I went in, got a cart, got my groceries, paid, and took the cart back out to my car. I was almost to my car when the wheels seized up. I thought I'd hit some gum or maybe gotten some string caught in the wheel, but I was a little confused because it seemed like more than one wheel wasn't working. I dragged the cart the rest of the way to the car and started unloading.

A Kroger employee shouted something at me, but he was too far away for me to understand what he was saying. He came running up to me as I unloaded the groceries.

The man was screaming at me. "IT LOCKED BECAUSE YOU TOOK IT OUT OF THE KROGER PARKING LOT!"

I knew that some grocery stores do that, but I didn't know this was one of them. I apologized and kept unloading my groceries. But he just kept on yelling. I don't remember the entire "conversation," but no matter what I said, he screamed back. 

I stayed polite and breezy with my answers. I said things like, "Wow, the new technology is neat." He responded with, "IT'S NOT NEW TECHNOLOGY, WE'VE HAD IT FOR YEARS, EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT!" I'd say, "Well, I didn't know," and he'd come back with, "THERE'S SIGNS EVERYWHERE!"

Note that I've never noticed these signs, and I looked around for them as I was leaving the parking lot and still didn't see any. I'm not saying they aren't there, just that I haven't seen them. My parking space was only two lanes beyond what would be considered in front of Kroger. There was a Kroger cart return less than 50 feet away.

I have no problem with their rules. I have no problem with them enforcing the rules. But this guy was just plain rude. He just wouldn't let it go. We went back and forth for several minutes, and like I said, I was polite the entire time. He wouldn't take apologies, he wouldn't allow me to deescalate the situation, he just kept yelling at me until I finished unpacking and left. I really wanted to call him an asshole as I got in my car, but I didn't.

There were multiple points in the interaction where he could have just said, "Well, now you know," and laughed it off. But no, he just kept on yelling and yelling and yelling. Maybe he'd had a bad day. Maybe he'd had to chase down carts before, from people who were actually stealing them. You know what? I DON'T FUCKING CARE. I have bad days all the time, and I promise you my customers never know the difference.

I am not a violent person, and I'm usually not vindictive, but I want bad things to happen to this man. I got home and filed a complaint online, but I don't feel like it's enough. It happened three hours ago, and I still see him yelling at me whenever I close my eyes. I'm so angry I've given myself a headache. I want this man fired. Out of a cannon. Into a wall.

I will not go back to that location. I can't stand the thought of running into that man again, and I'm worried that if I did, I would do something I'd regret later.