No rain today! And it's been a good day for other reasons, too. I spent about 2 hours handwriting and another hour typing up and finished a draft of my new short story, "Some Girlfriends Can." Better yet, I'm feeling good about it--which only happens with about 40% of the short stories I write. I'm much happier writing novels, usually, but I really enjoyed writing this story. It's a good feeling to have.

Also, when I came home, I found a new issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet waiting for me in the mail, packaged with a free (!) graphic comic of an extract from Sean Stewart's new novel, Perfect Circle and a bookmark for Jennifer Stevenson's Trash, Sex, Magic, which happen to be the two books I Most Want to Read at the moment. (Sadly, I can't afford to order them from America at the moment....ah, my trials are great indeed....) I enjoyed the comic, and the bookmark's very cool. Can't wait to read them both someday. Yes, I am a sucker for advertisements, but only with Small Beer Press! :) And the reviews in Locus have been fantastic. Has anyone else had a chance to read those two yet?

This weekend's shaping up to be really nice, with a barbeque/birthday party and also just some scheduled relaxation time. Patrick and I have been getting really good at Putzi (my favorite card game) over the past week, since we decided to go cold turkey on our habit of watching DVDs every night. And Nika is, of course (did I even have to say this?) adorable and always up for petting and walks.

But now I have to come up with another short story idea. Eeep. Definitely time to get back to the novels!