This one is bouncing.

First, up, I sold my story "The Land of Reeds" to Realms of Fantasy! It's a story about revenge and ghosts, set in ancient Egypt. Look out for it sometime next year. I now only have one story left out there in circulation. Yep, just one. This is getting a little desperate! Anyone remember how to write short stories?

Second, down, my Uncle died this week. These last few weeks haven't been good for my family. Spare a prayer or a thought for my aunt, Lindsey, who has lost her mother and her husband in the space of about two weeks, and my cousins, Lucy and Abigail, who've lost their father and their grandmother. Something like this breaks you, and you take a long time to mend.

Third, up, it's a beautiful day outside. Yesterday and today have felt like the first days of Autumn. The air is cold and the sun is bright. The transition from Summer to Autumn in Britain is a slow one. We'll have at least a month where the weather oscillates between the seasons, from cold to warm and back again. Eventually, Autumn will draw in closer and closer. Spring and Autumn often feel like the longest seasons in Britain. Summer is only a couple of months, and Winter too, but Spring and Autumn last forever.

Fourth, down, Steph is off to America next week. Which I guess is an up for her family in the US, but it's a down for me. She's going to a friend's wedding. I wish I could have gone too, but even one flight was way more than we could afford.

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This year I decided to let my membership of SFWA fade gracefully away. Joining SFWA was a fun; it's one of those milestones in your writing career when SFWA considers you to be a professional writer and lets you in. But, to be honest, other than that little thrill, it didn't actually do anything for me. I tried to think of any benefits I'd actually gained, and I couldn't. Perhaps if I was trying to sell adult novels in America there would be some benefit. But I'm trying to sell YA novels in the UK. I enjoyed nominating and voting for the Nebulas, but my taste was never shared by enough people for the things that I thought should get through to make it.

Maybe I'll rejoin again sometime in the future. But for now, it was fun, but too expensive.