BUT HEY,, they said the economy is getting better!!! in china

and the Philippines it seems ...

At least you had the foresight to put some cash away in case of an event such as this. Alotta folks out there cant say that. So good for you.
If i may ask what was your job?

phone tech support for att's 'uverse', they kept adding BS that 'needed' to be done - but didn't have anything to do with helping the poor caller on the phone - oh, and do it all 'quicker' while you're at it. seems I was no longer 'fast' or 'good' enough for them.

looking at it from another angle, it's just as well, I was burning out and it was time for a break/vacation of longer than a week.

Yeah, i can feel your pain, despite what the safety regulations at my job are, my supervisors always seem to think im too "Slow." I work For FedEx Ground as a yard switcher, and have NEVER had an accident. Go figure when someone at the main Hub runs over and kills a co-worker, they suddenly are very friendly to me. :P

forgot to add, that's a heck of a tail you has there - be ye one of them there longtails?

Naw i be one of them freaks of nature. Shis only 24 but hir tail has always been damn near twice as long as hir body. I still havent quite figured out the exact length of it yet. But 175% of hir total body lenght seems to be a good fit. Any longer and its just weird. :P

ah, but chakitten tails keep growing! by 50 you'll have to wrap it around your lower torso a dozen times before letting the end wag in the wind!

Oh yes, im in for quite the experiance when i get to "LongTail" age. :3

50 is still a cub in chakat years, maybe 120-140, then you're getting longtailish

good luck finding a new job

as in the title, it's all on the wheel. it may take some time, but I've been fired from better jobs and there's another one out there ...

Sorry to hear... but also kinda happy that there may be more writing done.

those clouds and their silver linings

Well, for the record I'm a very, very avid reader... and incredibly picky about what stories I'll follow online. You've had me hooked from the start, I just hadn't thought to look you up anywhere until well into your 'Folly', I just hit Chakat's Den every week or two looking for anything new, and rereading everything on occasion... which is even more unusual for me.

So... Thank you for all the hours of entertainment. Makes me wish I could hitch a ride with a certain freighter, it'd certainly never be boring :D

I'd like to catch a ride with him too - and to beg him/Tess/the deities to be processed. Youth is wasted on the young as they say, and I wouldn'y mind taking another crack at it!

lol... Well, admittedly I'd probably still count as young, especially to Neal, but I learn fast and have taken a few lumps on the way. What I'd be envying badly right now is how easily chakats give birth, I'm less then two weeks from being due and suffering a bit for it. Although really, I doubt it'd be advisable to get processed in my current state...

Anyway, looking forward to more stories as always. Sorry if I'm acting a bit giddy or excitable, I really am enough of a bookworm that any sort of conversation with an author I respect tends to cause that... But then, that's the beauty of the internet and folks who write because they enjoy it, they're more talkative then most of the published authors! :D

I know I'm still really just a 'wannabe' writer, heck, I cringe every time I look at the first couple chapters ... so getting someone like you to say you like it is always a pleasant surprise to someone like me.

"Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for the love of it, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for the money." Moliere ```

I have to say, that's an amusing quote, although it made me think of one by Heinlein: "Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." Leave it to a bibliophile to remember something silly like that :)

And sure, the first couple of chapters were a little rough maybe, but you smoothed things out really quickly, and even the earlier stuff was still quite well written. Besides, I think all artists of ANY type feel the same way when they look back at their work: The older it is, the worse they cringe at the site of it. Case in point, in the last couple of days I have had *several* new watches and faves (I think people reading comments here checking my page? I dunno, but mostly chakat nicknames!), most of the faves being for a sculpture of a chakat... that I think turned out utterly horrible. But, apparently several somebodies like it, and someone liked it enough to buy it, so... yeah. I guess both of us will just have to have a little faith, no?

Besides, though, of course I like your writing. You've created characters with depth, and a plot that has both grandiose ideas and subtle details. Besides, where else am I going to find a series with a human that can scare Rakshani, rabbit Stew that isn't what one would think, and ships and deities both that have a sense of humor? If Hollywood could come up with anything HALF as interesting, I might actually bother watching tv sometime!

I know the feeling there man. Good thing you had the fore site to put some money away in case. Hope the wheel moves faster getting you into a good job you like to do.

thank you, we'll see what coming around this turn

Good luck Allen.

Maybe you should try publishing? You certainly have the fan base.

thank you for the luck, I can always use more of that.

as for publishing? not until I've done some major rewrites and cleaned up more goofs than you can shake a stick at. (we both know that Goldie is much better at this than I am and has a much larger fan base, yet even with all shi does have published shi still needs that full time job to make the ends meet.)

it could be another string for my bow, but publishing won't be heavy enough to bring down the big game I need to bag (like rent, food, gas money - and all those hidden expenses. )

i feel your pain, been unemployed a month and still nothing

Keep looking, its not easy I know, but there are jobs out there - though some don't pay as well as they 'should'.

Sorry to hear about your job loss, but happy to know you aren't hurting because of it.

I think I've spent more time unemployed than otherwise in the last ten years. It's not much fun, I know.

Looking forward to reading your continuing adventures.

Thanks, one of my brothers was hunting for a couple years - and had house payments to somehow keep up with (he's working now, but deep debt is a slow hole to climb out of.)

As to the stories, my muse is giving me a couple 'bits' - but not the parts that go in between!

I have had two stretches of more than 2 years, one was nearly three. At least I had unemployment coming in, although Tennessee has some of the lowest paying.

I can't really help with the muse, but I can try to assist with 'filling in the gaps'. Send me an email if you need to.

My last big one was three years as well, though the first year was: 'I'm burned out - I don't care - I've still got some money - turned into a hermit hiding in his man-cave ...'

Heh, coming out of that was also the start of my tale of folly (and why the first five or six chapters came out so fast!)