I've launched a new version of my website. About six months ago I designed a website for Steph, and my new site is a refined version of that one. I always thought that the one I'd made for Steph was better than the one I'd made myself, so ours are now pretty similar. Comments and suggestions welcome.

#
We've just come back from a nice, long, exhausting walk with Nika through the woods. The weather's been a bit grey today, but it's good for walking in, and the sun came out at the end.

Summer is definitely fading up here in Yorkshire; back down south we'd have a good few more weeks of summer, but here it's on its way out.

The blackberries are starting to ripen so we stopped frequently to pick and eat them. In another couple of days there'll probably be enough for us to do a blackberry picking expedition. As far as I'm concerned, that means it's nearly autumn. Blackberry and apple crumbles to follow.

#
Work on the new novel is going a little slowly. I've written about 4,600 words in total, but it seems to have taken forever. As this is a middle reader book, I'm aiming for 30-40,000 words. We'll see. There's a lot I need to get worked out before I can even think about getting really stuck into the novel, and I need to plot, at least loosely, the rest of the series. Like, how many books there are likely to be. Like how it all ends. Like what the hell is going on. That kind of stuff. Still, it's good fun to write a pure adventure rather than the more serious books I've done recently.

#
Theoretically, my story, Crab Apple, may be out in this month's Realms of Fantasy. I haven't had a contributor's copy, though, RoF is impossible to get in the UK, and the RoF site hasn't been updated for months, so I've no idea whether it is there or not. If anyone knows, let me know. It'd be nice to know.

#
Spent most of yesterday evening and a lot of today doing chores around the house. It's a little intimidating and tiring, but they've been needing doing for a long time. I just have to make sure I finish doing them rather than stopping part way through.

#
I've been reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley. It's an interesting book. I can't help but think about Buffy when I'm reading it, though, because it's got vampires and demons in it. Actually, it's a very different take on vampires on demons, but Buffy is so imprinted on my consciousness that I can't help it.

The book's very good though, at least so far. I think it's been released as an adult rather than YA book, although the voice seems very YA. Still, much recommended, so far.