Ugghhhh, I've been in such a pissy mood lately, and have no idea why. I chalk it mostly up to pre-pms, if such a thing exists. Although I've been working long weeks as of late, which is great on one hand (money!) but on the other... I do not want to spend thirty-six hours a week in a grocery store. That is NOT what I want to do. But I shouldn't really complain about that.

I've been psyched for Christmas; I have practically all my shopping done, but at this point I just want it over and done with. I want to stop hearing Christmas songs everywhere, I want the wrapping paper to be off the living room floor. I just kind of want it done with. Hugs and kisses and mistletoe and presents, great. But just sooner than later, yeah? I'm so tired.

/scrooge

Not to mention my (I guess you could call them?) lucid dreams are seriously driving me insane. I've had this sort of thing for quite a while- where I will halfway wake up in the middle of the night and think I'm doing whatever it was before I went to sleep. For example, back when lunaticcrow and I would talk really late on the phone, and I'd be really sleepy, I'd halfway wake up in the middle of the night, thinking she was still on the line, and I was being a douchebag for falling asleep on the phone.

Now, ever since I started working at Hannaford, pretty much whenever I work a closing shift I have a similar thing, where I halfway wake up and think I'm checking people through at the register. I literally sit up in bed, reaching for people's groceries to scan through. Which is obnoxious enough, since sometimes I keep doing that for the better part of an hour off and on (how unrestful), but now! Now "someone" will put their "groceries" down, and I'll reach for them to scan them, and they're gone, fallen into the folds of my blankets. So I grope around my blankets, searching for their lip balm or what have you, tearing my bed apart, throwing my blankets on the floor in some cases. Sometimes I actually apologize out loud for the inconvenience. Until I look up and see that no one is there, and I realize it's just me dreaming. There is no customer, there is no groceries. Ugh, how obnoxious. But then! That isn't even enough! I can't deny that some of this part isn't my own fault, though. I've been reading mind control stories lately (It's kind of hot; don't judge me). But because of this, at the part where I look up and the "customer" is gone, instead of realizing that it's a dream, I think that they hypnotized me into thinking their item was lost, when they were actually taking it and running away without paying.

Dear brain- I don't want to have a crazy second life while I'm asleep, thanks.

Sigh.

So I fail at daily update posts - work got the better of me. So here is today's gift! Seven back issues of Sirenia Digest. The seven were picked at random from what I had on file on the computer which sadly isn't much since I just started to use this one.
 
Download Link :

http://www.4shared.com/file/174758862/9b02996c/Gift.html

Sirenia is a monthly e-digest that caters to the odder side of the erotica market. If anyone is familiar with Kiernan's other work I don't imagine this comes as much of a surprise but for the uninitiated it can seem a bit bizarre at times to be reading Jack the Ripper reincarnation porn. And yet Kiernan some how makes it work. For anyone who enjoys these I highly recommend taking the final step and subscribing to her website. It costs less than your usual Netflix subscription and, in my opinion, is a bit more fun.

The issues enclosed in the file are as follows :

Vol. 4, No. 4

Flotsam Explores the relation between Sirens and Vampires.

Concerning Attrition and Severance What is possibly one of the single most brutal pieces ever written for this journal. Highly recommended if you can stomach it.

Vol. 4, No. 5

Rappicini's Dragon ~ Murder Balled No 5 After his twin is brutally murdered the surviving brother sets up a date between he and the couple responsible for his death. Atropa Belladonna, renal failure, and History Repeating It's Self In Nasty Ways follow.

The Mirror of Venus (guest Fiction) An alternate history of the world in which the Edict of Milan was never signed, set in modern times.

Vol. 4, No. 6

Unter den Augen des Monds A she wolf is imprisoned in a man's basement, the moon becomes an absent and fickle protector and revenge is plotted.

The Melusne (1898) A steampunk story following a lone female engineer as she decides to explore a traveling side show that boasts a rather unusual piece in its cabinet of wonders.

Vol. 4, No. 7

Derma Sutra Probably my least favorite piece but here you go - an incompetent exorcist finds herself in the possession of a mysterious creature in a rural town before the turn of the last century.

The Woman Who Was Wife to the Husband of the Sea (guest fiction) Not all sailors wives are content to stay at home and weep for husband lost at sea.

Vol. 4, No. 8

The Z Word  What a funny little bit this is. I'm not sure how to describe it - zombies, Abba, the end of the world, farming humans, and the loss of will in the face of adversity all come to mind. Some how stands on that delicate line between cute and "sweet jesus!".

Also contains an unpublished excerpt of her novel Daughter of Hounds.

Vol. 4, No. 10 I am the Abyss, I am the Light I . . . I'm kind of at a loss as how to describe the plot on this one. All of Kiernan's writings should come with a warning but this one . . . there's no way to properly warn a body without spoiling it. Proceed with caution?

Also contains the first chapter to her upcoming novel Joey Lafaye.

Vol. 4, No. 11 Dancing With the Eight of Swords A serial killer is imprisoned in an alternate dimension with a Harpy who torments her on her death bed for details of her crimes. Sticky subject, but Kiernan mentions in her foreword for this issue that its more of an exercise in a lack of inhibition than it is for condoning any particular course of action.

Also contains previews of unpublished novels.