"Welcome to the Party, Pal!"

WOW, major rush this time! Don't want to go back to whining about my job like I used to, but let's just say I've been getting home around 9:00pm every night for the past three weeks or so, and this week coming up is going to be quite a bit WORSE! Argh!! But in this day and age? Happy to HAVE a job. This keeps me from getting too self-pitying. Seems like half my relatives have been laid off in the last couple of months. My folks have no work coming after the end of January unless something comes up. Rough time for all. And a good time to do a little gutcheck and think about bad your life is NOT in comparison. Gratitude is my attitude.

I was going to talk about the big Vegas trip, but feel free to check out that news on this issue's Times News page. I'm 40, Tim's 40...and Tim's engaged! Woo hoo! And that all happened in Vegas (except for Tim turning 40, which happened a couple weeks before Vegas, but the other stuff went down on the strip). Check out the page for the trip, following that link in News. Really glad I made that trip. Well worth the WAY too much money I spent on it.

And how did I ever LIVE without an iPhone?! This is my favorite puchase in forEVer! Lovin' it! It's become an irreplaceable part of my life. I'm going to sit down and write a blog about it soon, but not until after putting all this 'Times stuff to bed! Keep an eye out for that. iPhone GOOD.

Other than that, had a great Thanksgiving with the folks up in Lakeport, and have ZERO idea what's going on for Christmas. My sister's not going to be able to make it out, and there's all kinds of weirdness going on in my stepfather's family (don't ask), so it may just be my folks coming down to Sac and hanging out in my apartment, which sounds like a swell and MUCH less stressful way to spend the holiday, so I hope it works out that way. Thinking of making them watch "Hot Fuzz" if we're watching movies. Wonder if it'll be too British for them?

This Time Around

Got a little Windjammer art for ya, both pieces holiday-themed. First, you already saw the Windjammer/Delilght Christmas shot on the 'Times cover. Wow. Nice work. I was thinking of what I wanted for a Christmas cover, and kept running through ideas, but when it came down to it, I thought about Windjammer and Delight, still stuck in Christmas in the middle of my Hollywood story, and wished I had time to get that chapter done (got a lot of it done, just to let you know! But it's something I really don't want to rush. I figure if it's taken all this time, I'd better do it right). But at least I figured we'd take a look in on them. Nice work as always for Sean. And I got a holiday surprise a little while back when I got a Thanksgiving gift from K.C. - in the form of a Windjammer Thanksgiving shot that he had commissioned for me from Eric Gravel. What a great shot! Not only is it fun for the obvious holiday reasons, but even WITHOUT the gag, that's one of my favorite shots of the old 'Jammer. Thanks again, K.C.! What do you know? Turkeys CAN fly. With a little help from their friends...

And in the Forte department, no new art to share (again, Vegas killed any mad money I'll have for a while...), but I did manage to (just barely) get a holiday story done for you. It's over in the Forte 2000 Adventures section, and it's called "A Midnight Clear". I really don't want to talk about it much, because there are a couple of surprises involved, and I don't want to give any spoilers. Rather just have you read it and see what you think. When I was thinking of this issue, I went through a list of Christmas-themed Forte stories that are in my head, and none of them were quite working for me. Then I thought, how about I come up with something totally unexpected, from its location to its characters to the fact that these characters even met? I decided to go for a flashback story set in 1990, and to tell an untold piece of Forte history. I hope you enjoy it.

Next Time...On "The 'F' Word"...

Boy, I sure hope to get some more Forte ART done, for one thing! Hate to not have any new updates on the big gallery. We'll see where the muse takes me and see where in the Forte world we'll be landing next time. Until then, a very Merry Christmas to everyone, and I'll see you in 2009!

Michael O’Connell
Who Gives the Gift of Forte