I had yesterday off, so that's pretty much used up the extra leave I had. The long weekends were nice while they lasted :)

The story I'd planned for Polyphony 6 isn't coming together as quickly as I'd hoped, so I decided to do some last minute polishing on Craddock's Cow and sent that instead. Let's hope they like it!

I also spent some time reviewing YA (young adult / kid) markets and found a great list on Eugie Foster's site. This seems to have more than are currently listed on Ralan's, so if you've got some YA pieces you're trying to market, give that page a look. Thanks to Lon for pointing that out :)

Once I'd picked a few appropriate YA markets, I sent Trilo-Bites to the first on the list. I think that's the first story I've written that I'd classify as YA, and I'm sure it won't be the last....

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We started a new Teaching Company DVD course last night and it seems like it'll be a good one. This one is called A History of European Art. On Thursday we finished American Ideals: Founding a "Republic of Virtue", which was the first course I ordered from them (from a catalogue in the mail). My knowledge of American history is better than it was before this, and it should help me on the road to citizenship. I was quite impressed with the course and lecturer, although it did require a lot of attention. It's what you'd expect from a college-level course. On the strength of that, I decided to order some others that were on sale (A History of European Art, From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism, and Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance). Their normal prices are sky-high, but the sales happen a few times a year for different courses. So far I've been buying the DVD versions, although they also have CD and VHS available, depending on the course.

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I just realized I haven't posted new writing stats this year, so here they are. If nothing else, I find they're a good motivational tool :)

2006 Stats:

2006 Word count:	8,376
Stories written:	2
Total submissions:	5
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	3
Waiting for response:	9
Books read:	2
Fiction Mags/Chapbooks read:	0
Audiobooks:	3

What I'm Reading:
Polyphony 4, Various (anthology)
Cell, Stephen King