Stuff and Nonsense: This Is Why I'm Going To Purgatory

"Okay, we get it already! You had a tough year!! Move on!!!

The past year was fraught was drama, stress, and anxiety. Having to deal with the aforementioned drama, stress, and anxiety took up time which could have been devoted to other, less excruciating, pursuits. What made things worse was the fact that the vast majority of my ills were self-induced. Some of you out there know what I'm talking about. Some of you don't. In any case, I won't go into the whole story here. Blah, blah, blah, enough already, right?

You're welcome.

Even though my life was topsy-turvy over the past fifteen months, I managed to keep writing, albeit at a much slower rate. I cut back on Facebook, stopped writing my blog (Penwasser Place-some of you may have heard of it), but continued to slog away on the two books I was writing.

"And we appreciated it. Right, Joe?"

"Did I forget to put on pants again?

My legs feel cold."

However, as time went on and emotional wounds started to scar

"Eff."

over, I began to find my "funny" again and began ramping up the pace of reaching out to people like yourselves. I hit Facebook full-force, returned to Twitter, and, obviously, began another blog. I haven't gotten fully back to speed (especially here), but things are returning to normal.

I'm also happy to report that, after significant delays, I've published books number five and six.

Thank goodness someone wrote it with me.
Someone had to keep me under control

The first, I'll Make Christmas: A Love Story, is a little different than my usual scribblings. Written in collaboration with his widow, Joni, it's a collection of journal entries my stepfather, Ray, made as he struggled through the last year or so of his life before succumbing to cancer in 1996. Very rarely goofy (I told you it was different), I was overwhelmed with sadness as I wrote it. At the same time, my heart overflowed with love when I thought about how fortunate that I was that he was part of our family.

I'm pretty proud of it, but I had to return to the silly.

The second one, St. Stan's: Tales From the Penguin Academy, is

I'm proud to report that I was able

to afford page numbers this time.

And verbs.

a story that I've been ~~threatening~~ promising for several years. Set in a Catholic School in Stratford, Connecticut in 1969, it's the prequel to Shag Carpet Toilet, another story ignored by millions. I'm very happy with this, both in that I've kept my promise and that it's (what I hope) unbridled nonsense.

Of course, the only problem is that I've probably extended my stay in Purgatory for another couple hundred years.

Nuns never forget.