Musings on the shortfalls of being hobbit-sized

I’m a fan of short things. Short work weeks. Short speeches, hobbits, short stories, and shortcake!

My bias comes in part because I am a short person. Slightly bigger than hobbit-sized, but not by much. In my twenties, I worked in the records office of a police department and wore heels to work every day. Not for fashion reasons, or because it was in the dress code. No, I wore heels because it was the only way I could reach the "not even close to the top shelf" without the use of a ladder.

Last weekend I did some early spring cleaning. I lugged a stupidly heavy bag of garbage down to the condo garbage room, and then struggled for ten solid minutes to get the damned thing into the Dumpster.

The lip of the bin comes to about chin height, and I was trying to toss about forty-five lbs of garbage over the edge. Physics was not on my side. I eventually had to give up and go back up to my suite to get a stool. I should probably just give in and carry one with me everywhere.

**Warning, making short jokes can become hobbit-forming** 

So, to summarize - Short things, I'm generally a fan.

I'm not really fond of the shortest month of the year, however. February is a dark, gloomy, time where the damp weather chill settles into your bones and sunlight is a rare, fleeting gift quickly lost behind the ever-present grey clouds that shroud the sky.

It's a good month to nestle in with a good book, spend time with friends, and if you're lucky, take a vacation somewhere with longer days and more sunshine. To beat the February blahs, I'm packing my things and taking a short trip to San Antonio this month. Barbecue, cowboys, sunshine (hopefully) and a whole lot of fun. (definitely.) I'll be attending Wild Wicked Weekend February 23-25th, signing books and hanging out with some truly amazing authors. (and readers!) I love traveling, and this time of year it's wonderful to be making a break for southern climes. If you happen to be in the San Antonio area, I hope you come down and say hi!

In keeping with the "short" theme for this post, I'm happy to announce that my new book, Wild Card, will be releasing shortly! (see what I did there?)  In fact, it comes out February 21st, which, thanks to a short circuit in my planning process, is the day before I leave for San Antonio. I expect to be bouncing around like a hyper-caffeinated hobbit for that entire week as I prep, pack, and celebrate.
See you next month, and until then, be happy, chase your dreams and keep reading!

Susan

http://susanhayes.ca

Susan lives on Vancouver Island, off the Canadian west coast where the waters are patrolled by orcas and the sighting of snowflakes leads to citywide panic. She’s jumped out of perfectly good airplanes on purpose and accidently swum with sharks on the Great Barrier Reef.

If the world ends, she plans to survive as the spunky, comedic sidekick to the heroes of the new world, because she’s too short and out of shape to make it on her own for long.