Welp, I haven't heard a peep out of the BookLife Prize. They haven't updated their website with a new date for announcing the quarterfinalists, so I guess I'm waiting.


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Opened my sshg_giftfest story file on the bus today, refamiliarized myself with my outline, and threw a few words on the pile. It felt good! I like my idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing where my characters carry it. They may point and laugh, then dismantle it piece by piece and bury it in the desert, but honestly, that'd be fun, too ( Read more... )

I managed to make it home yesterday without falling asleep on the bus and missing my stop, though it was a near thing. Thankfully, I'm reading a pretty engrossing book (Stephen King's "On Writing") and my bone-cracking yawns and stretches resulted in successfully oxygenating my blood and making me feel just refreshed enough not to fall asleep until ( Read more... )

My brother is winging his way back to the midwest as we speak, after a brief but excellent visit. I don't know if I've convinced him to move to San Diego, but I let him know I was trying. And I got him to change his home zip code on LinkedIn to mine, so at least he'll get leads for potential new gigs here, where his skills are very much in demand. ( Read more... )

Welp. Christmas shopping last night was not a total bust, though stressed at the seams (i.e., I found one gift of the three or four I'd hoped to buy). But the gift I found is absolutely gorgeous and I really hope the recipient likes it (and that it fits!). Fortunately, I have half a gift for one of the other recipients (the other half is in ( Read more... )

I'm starting to feel like myself again having been laid low by the lurgy. After being nearly adopted by a miniature dachshund named Cocoa at Fiesta Island, I serenaded Mr. 42 and winter712 with selections from my Tom Lehrer songbook, including but not limited to "Fight Fiercely, Harvard!" and "The Masochism Tango" while corn roasted and short ribs ( Read more... )

Weekend Beer Week Activities:
Friday Night, Best of Beer Week at O'Brien's
Saturday Night, Bear Republic Night at O'Brien's, Sour Mini-Fest at the Blind Lady Ale House
Sunday Night, Lost Abbey Rare Bottle Tasting at O'Brien's

Weekend Football:Northwesetern v. Illinois, CATS WIN! We're bowl-eligible ( Read more... )

Today is Veteran's Day in the US, and in observance, I touched up the orange paint in the guest bathroom and painted the guest room purple. The purple looks super, though I'm not quite sold on the all-orange bathroom. Perhaps it'll lighten things up a bit if I paint the ceiling white. Either way, I'm reserving judgment until the paint is dry and ( Read more... )

I thought I'd take a stylistic break from "Of Human Bondage" by reading Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer," and while it is undoubtedly a stylistic break, I'm nearing my saturation point on vaguely-arty Bohemian types living in squalor in Paris and moaning about the women they can't have. I'm only about 30 pages in, but I'm also a bit annoyed by the ( Read more... )

I just finished "Of Human Bondage," and while I really enjoyed it, the protagonist's realization at the end that he only dreamed of extraordinary things because he didn't think he'd ever have the solid middle-class existence that his soul craved reminded me horribly of the Epilogue of Doom. So that started me thinking about the coming-of-age novel ( Read more... )