A new "Nuala" ebook

If you enjoyed Katharine Eliska Kimbriel's FIRES OF NUALA, here's another "Nuala-fix" from Book View Cafe.

HIDDEN FIRES (Chronicles of Nuala 2)
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
December 1, 2010          $4.99
ISBN: 978 1 61138 031 6

Nuala ... planet of deadly radiation levels, humans who heal by touch, and the rarest platinum group metal in the known galaxy.

Tribal leaders "Silver" Darame and her husband Sheel Atare have brought an uneasy peace to a world racked by sterility, intrigue, and unimaginable wealth. But two con artists ripe for mischief (and maybe murder) tangle with two misplaced quests, and political intrigue explodes into a conspiracy of death, treason, and abduction.

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Kimbriel-Hidden-Fires

A sequence of gifts

The end of this year and most likely most of next will be very lean for us, financially. This poses a particular challenge for me because I tend to exaggerate and dramatize my own fears when it comes to money. In my saner moments, I know they're not rational. I've never been homeless, I've always had food and clothing and medical care. I also know that unexpected expenses -- one way of managing these fears is to Make A Plan -- can throw me for a loop.

So when Dave misplaced the electronic key fob to my Prius, I went nuts. I even had nightmares about searching for it (and not finding it). These things are pricey to replace -- the dealer has to program the new one, so the cost can be upwards of $200. And if you lose both, they have to replace the hybrid computer, about $1000. In my demented mind, we had suddenly become vulnerable to financial disaster, one key fob away from ruin. (I told you it wasn't rational.)

Just as I had made my peace with going even deeper into credit card debt, Dave's fob reappeared. Just where he usually puts it, in a jewelry box on top of the dresser. (Yes, both of us had checked there many times.) Our closest guess is that he'd put it in a pocket of something he rarely wears, forgotten about it, then wore the pants again and put the fob back in its usual place without thinking about it.

Relief doesn't even come close.

Yesterday I put a load of towels in the washing machine. Dave came home to find smoke emerging from the machine. Experiments revealed that it would spin but not agitate. Further research online convinced us that for a machine this old, it probably wasn't worth it to call a repair person (and neither of us is handy with such things).

A new machine is worth 3 or 4 key fobs. I went off in a corner and quietly freaked.

That evening, Dave went off to practice with a group of clarinetists and mentioned that we had to go washing-machine shopping today. "We've got a perfectly good second machine we've been wanting to get rid of," they said. "Won't you please take it away?"

Please take it away???

I think the universe wants me to stop worrying about money.