When Rob and I woke up this morning, our health had taken a swing for the worse. Yes, indeed. My niece gave us the gift that keeps on giving.

So I called the friends that were supposed to come over and regretfully asked them to stay away. We’ve been huddled under the covers with a Veronica Mars marathon pretty much all day. I still made black-eyed peas and collards though because I’m just not willing to chance going into the New Year without them.

It’s funny, even in Portland, at the grocery store the black-eye peas and the collards were always prominently displayed and you could tell that there’d been a run on them. Here in NYC, not so much. People looked at me like I’m a crazy person for saying that you have to have them on New Year’s day.

So how about you? Do you have a New Year’s day tradition?

Okay… maybe there are better ways than Chaucer’d Dr. Seuss to start out the New Year, but not by much.

HorrorScope did a review of Horror in 2007

To see out the death of 2007, HorrorScope assembled a team of experts within the field of horror and dark fantasy to compile an experts’ choice recommended reading list.

If you click through and scroll down to “International authors to watch in 2008,” somehow, my name wound up on the list. This is funny because I don’t think of myself as a horror writer. I know I write it sometimes, but I have a different picture in my head of myself. One with less blood and pain.

Still, I’m awfully flattered and pleased.

Is there a better way to start off the New Year than listening to Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, Chaucer’d? I don’t think so.