It was a real struggle to come up with new story ideas today, which was probably due to staying up far too late last night. I was so tired I didn't seem to be able to come up with much.

I was all set to go to bed last night when I noticed some of the Black Neon Tetras in our fish tank by the computer were looking ill. The two goldfish and the frogs seemed to be fine, but I was pretty sure I'd have some dead Tetras on my hands by morning if I didn't do anything. Those Tetras can be quite finicky about water quality! So I spent nearly an hour changing the water, vacuuming gravel and unclogging the filter. I suspect the main problem was the filter was so clogged it couldn't do its job, which in turn led to polluted water. I really should have done all of this during the day, but I was so caught up reading and trying to come up with story ideas that I didn't even notice! Everyone in the tank looks much happier now after the clean-up :)

Aside from trying to nut out some story ideas, I did some reading and made a few notes for the new story. I'm just starting to do research for this one and I'm hoping that'll help me clarify some of the pieces of the puzzle. This is actually a bit of a hassle because it means I can't just hammer the story out (like I sometimes do) - I have to churn it around in my head a bit and see if further research reveals anything interesting. Once I've got enough of an idea of where to take the story, I'm usually okay to actually start writing it.

I noticed a few new issues of Andromeda Spaceways have come out since I last checked, so I ordered those today (issues #7 and #8). Andromeda Spaceways is an Australian SF magazine with an emphasis on humour, which is quite apart from the serious tone often seen in most SF mags. It's well worth checking out if you like a little more humour with your SF :)
Since the SFBC is having a free shipping sale, I'm also ordering a couple of things from there - City by Clifford D. Simak, Dimensions of Sheckley by Robert Sheckley, and Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds. There's no chance of me running out of reading material in the near future!