A. McBride, Author

While I love George C Scott and the Muppet Christmas Carol movies, I have a soft spot for a TV episode. Not sure if anyone else here is familiar with the Doctor Who episode "A Christmas Carol." Michael Gambon plays the Scrooge figure and Matt Smith is the Doctor.

We have so much to be thankful for if we just take the time to consider how much worse everything could actually be. 🙏

#HappyThanksgiving2025_Everyone 💖

I got a beautiful AI email asking me to attend a conference and talk about my new book.
Difficulty: The book in question was published in 1870.
If I could have published a book before I was even born, I believe that would have been a story, itself.

I'm watching Star Trek: The Animated Series. It used the voices of the original actors and was a Saturday morning cartoon around 1973.

a black and white photo of a man standing on a bridge over a river ALT: a black and white photo of a man standing on a bridge over a river

Name a film with a forest

and, 4/
The entire letter looked like it was written using ChatGPT, and my spider-sense told me it might be a phishing attempt.
I may be dead wrong, but I'm going to go with my gut here.
Has anyone else had something like this happen? Some long and well-meaning letter that came from out of nowhere?

The email promised a get-together for November, with date and time conspicuously absent.
All I needed to do to learn more was click on an informational link.
No, I don't think that's going to happen. And I don't think I'm going to reply to this email, either.

They got a few things surprisingly close to correct, which surprised me since the work in progress is unpublished, unfinished, and unseen outside of my corner of the Cloud (memo to self: save all work to physical media, like now.).
2/

I just got my first invitation to a conference in the UK. I'd be flattered except for a few details.
First, they got my name wrong. Second, they mentioned a Facebook page of mine as the title of my book. Then they were convinced that the novel was relevant, even though it was written in 1870.
1/

Well, outside of a couple of short stories, it looks like I won't be publishing anything this year.
But the silver lining is that I've been writing up a frenzy. Next year ought to be busy.

Would this be a bad time to admit that I don't show up on film?

In tonight's episode of "Mental Contradictions Theater": I am surprisingly spontaneous in my writing and my real-life encounters with my readers.
But I'll do ten drafts of the same email to them before I hit 'send' and then agonize over whether I could have done a better job.

This is all absolutely true.

Almost there. At least with the first draft.

I agree wholeheartedly. Fresh roasted coffee is nirvana in a mug.

Every year I grow more convinced that we should shave two weeks off January and give them to October. We need more time for Halloween.

Strange as it may sound, I'm comfort writing tonight. I've met some charming characters in my latest short story and we're all getting together, chasing after an adventure.

a nightmare before christmas scene with pumpkins and ghosts and the words happy halloween Alt: a nightmare before christmas scene with pumpkins and ghosts and the words happy halloween

HAPPY HALLOWE’EN!!! 🎃👻💀

Oil painting of the Halloween tree by Ray Bradbury

Happy Halloween 🎃

Wishing a happy Halloween to one and all!

I'm with Myles on this one. An edit function would be sublime. It would be a gift to be able to go back and correct our typos.

Chaucer Doth Speake Truth

Just about done with a small collection of short stories themed for the winter holidays.
Looks like I won't make my deadline for this year.
But I am way ahead of the curve for next year!

I don't know how brillig it was today,
but the toves were damn slithy.
And don't get me started on the borogoves.

I love that movie. That one and Trick r Treat are on my annual Halloween list of moves to watch.

Halfway through a quartet of short stories I didn't realize I was writing two weeks ago. Just got permission to use the final story in the bunch and I'm aiming for a holiday release, knock wood.
Sleep, who needs it?

I think we can make exceptions for Stephen King and maybe Burger King.😉

Had a chance to move around and make some new connections today. Met some fantastic indie authors, and made plans for next year as well as the end of this year.

Halfway through writing a short holiday-themed short story collection. If all goes well, it should be released own time for the holidays.