All I Got for Xmas

December 25

Merry Xmas! Except by the time you read this, it'll be post-Xmas. So it goes...

Nice nice day, and not just because of the preponderance of presents! But, because of the lateness of the hour, and the likely long-ness of any comprehensive entry, I will for the moment content myself with the purely material!

Heather and I rose around 10 to find the house already a-bustling, and shortly thereafter we got coffee and tore into our presents. Here's what I got:

From Patrick, Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles de Lint, which I'm so so happy about, I've wanted it desperately, his stories always inspire me to write, and to live, and to have hope no matter what.

From Heather: Optic Nerves 7 and 8, both of which were marvelous (yeah, I read them already); Silk by Caitlín R. Kiernan (can't wait to read it!); a dead duck (you know, like a yellow bathtub duckie, only black with x'ed-out eyes); a strange toy from a Japanese vending machine, which might have been a mummified water-imp, or Owlman, or a decayed long-neck dragon, but which turned out to be Vimana's plane (a sort of small model of a ziggurat, held up by four elephants);Clive Barker: Being Music, which is essentially the music Clive Barker listens to while painting -- it's lavishly illustrated by Barker, which is nice; a gothic plush Cthulhu (the black and silver one! whoo!); and, best of all, a three-eyed frabbit! Knowing how much I like Wendy Lewis's mutant bunnies, Heather made me a marvelous frog-rabbit hybrid with three eyes! It's so cool! Yay yay yay!

From Holly: Werewolves in Their Youth, by Michael Chabon, in a beautiful oversized-hardcover edition!

From Linda: Letters to a Young Novelist, and The Kindly Ones, and the new Aimee Mann, and bookmarks!

From Justin: Science Fiction of the 20th Century, one of Frank Robinson's lavish coffee-table books.

From Dad: Abarat! and Summerland! And the collected works of Poe (which I already have, but in a rather crappy paperback edition on pulpy cheap paper; the one Dad sent is better, more substantial). And some clothes.

From Mom: Some clothes. And... da dum... wowza... we were stunned... a digital camera! Totally unexpected. We've wanted one for ages, of course, but we didn't expect to get one! And now, of course, I needs must post some pictures. (Forgive me if they're overlarge; I'm not sure what I'm doing.)

Words written since February 1, 2002: 195,300

Words written since last entry:
0 (well, maybe like 60, but nothing worth counting)

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