On Saturday, I had one of those accidents where if X = the time you see it coming and Y = the time necessary to make it not happen, X ≠ Y. In fact, X was sadly < Y.

I was closing the garage door and realized I was about to close it on my fingers, just in time to actually close it on my fingers. It was possibly the first time in my life I’ve ever truly sworn like Fen, because for the next period of time — it felt long, but was probably no more than enough time to say the f-word 25 times or so — I couldn’t get enough leverage with my left hand to get the garage door open and the tips of my right fingers were trapped in the panels.

They got squashed. Badly enough that C’s first reaction upon the sight was to say, “You’re gonna need a ride to urgent care.” My first reaction, though, was ice. Ice, ice, ice, ice. And fortunately, that X and Y equation up above was so close — so really, truly, almost-in-time close — that my fingers are fine. They still hurt, and my fingernails have this odd feeling of fragility about them, like maybe they aren’t as well attached as they used to be, but the damage barely shows.

But today I got a flu shot and I don’t seem to be reacting very well to it. My whole arm hurts. Whine, whine, whine. It’s just that having painful fingers on one hand and a throbbing arm on the other has not been good for my productivity. There were so many things I intended to do over the past couple of days to get ready for the release of A Precarious Magic, and they just haven’t gotten done.

I did, however, do the more important things: I went Christmas tree shopping; helped decorate the tree; made a great Christmas music playlist; and went to the local holiday fair where I ate oysters on the half shell and listened to orchestral Christmas music while holding a stranger’s very adorable chihuahua. Also played cribbage, Song Pop Party, and A Ticket to Ride.

Yep, I’m a bad publisher. But I really am having a very nice life. Well, with the exception of the squashed fingers and the painful flu shot.

Release date: Wednesday. It’s the 8-year anniversary of the release of A Gift of Ghosts, and I think I’ll have more to say about that, but for now…