They went through everything, dollar by dollar, detail by detail. So the budget is as tight as it can get.

The bulk of the increase is due to salaries and benefits. But utility costs have become a major factor. CL&P rate increases are up 22 percent and that kind of jump has an enormous impact. And coupled with heating fuel increases of 138 percent, it's astounding.

Because of the complexity and difficulty of snow plowing at the high school, the arrangement worked out with the town is we hire a private contractor to do the snow plowing at the high school. It frees up public works to concentrate on the roads and the other five schools.

The focus is on lobbying to get the formula (for reimbursement) fully funded.

What is good for you creatively is usually bad commercially. You thrive financially by sticking to a series and not fiddling about too much. You do yourself harm by moving away from the series and the genre. By trying things not based in that particular mode of writing, you will just lose readers.

I don't believe in angels, no. But I do have a wee parking angel. It's on my dashboard and you wind it up. The wings flap and it's supposed to give you a parking space. It's worked so far.