A Good Start

January 4

Noon

Well. It's been a nice New Year so far. On Friday, I sold my story "Rowboats, Sacks of Gold" to Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (it should appear in June). First thing this morning, I found out I'd sold my story "Down with the Lizards and the Bees" to Realms of Fantasy.

!!!

So, a sale to the best small-press 'zine around, and another sale to a paper prozine that gives me beautiful full-page, full-color illustrations. Oh, my, what a pleasant week it's been.

I have two other stories that may turn into sales, too -- one a rewrite request, one a "strong maybe" that's being held for now -- but damn, it's already one of the best months I've ever had.

Not just because of the acceptances, either. New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. Scott picked us up, and we zoomed down to Santa Cruz (past the boulder that had earlier been blocking highway 17, and the bulldozer that pushed it out of the way!). I drank vanilla cossacks and, later, wine, and, still later, very good tequila -- but I didn't get irrevocably drunk, nor did I wake the next day with a hangover. It was a small party, and mostly Heather and I chilled in the living room, ate Scott's divine artichoke dip, and chatted with him and Lynne into the early hours of the morning.

On New Year's Day we went to a bagel shop and had breakfast, then to Pergolesi to play cards for a while. There was actually good art hanging in Pergolesi! And the mocha chais are always yummy.

In the afternoon we went down to the beach, where the surfers were out in force. None of us had ever seen the tide so low there -- parts of the beach that are almost always underwater were revealed, so we went down and hunted for shells and looked at the water and took lots and lots of pictures. So many pictures, in fact, that I've put them on a separate page -- so, if you're interested, follow the link to our Santa Cruz pictures.

Today we're going to Berkeley to see Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman at the Other Change of Hobbit (they're touring for their cool novel The Fall of the Kings), and later tonight we have a party to attend... should be a nice day!

6:05 p.m.

The reading was pleasant, and afterward we went to Au Coquelet and hung out with Jed and Kam for a while. Heather wasn't feeling well, though, so we came home around 4, with only a brief foray to the yuppie-grocery-store to buy some wine. We'll have dinner soon, then amble over to the party, la!

Not much else going on. I finished Silk by Kiernan last night, thought it was very good. Also read a good comic collection, Y: The Last Man -- I'll probably keep reading the series as the collections come out, it's fairly interesting.

I suppose I'll post this, now, and perhaps write again tomorrow...

Words written since February 1, 2002: 204,600

Words written since last entry:
Nope. Too busy dancing!

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