I have to start getting ready for work in less than five minutes, so this is the least practical moment possible for writing a journal entry...but Nika is alternately whining and shivering on the couch in reaction to the pain from having just lost another toenail (this is about the 5th that's just cracked off, because they're all crumbling - the vets don't know if it's related to the skin problems or not), and I need a little bit of distraction from worry.

We got the call from the vet last night, and the worry increased. I don't want to get too detailed here, because the diagnosis hasn't been confirmed yet - they'll have to run more tests first to make sure it really is what they're afraid it might be - but it wasn't a good tentative diagnosis. So there's been a lot of stress and worry in the household since last night.

So. That's the bad news.

The good stuff that's been getting me through it has been (finally!) reading the stories in the April issue of Realms of Fantasy. I loved Greg van Eekhout's "Anywhere There's a Game" (Dad, have you read this one yet? You really should!), and, not surprisingly, SarahP's "Jane: A Story of Manners, Magic, and Romance" turned out to be my single favorite short story I've read in a long, long time - just so much fun, and so exactly what I needed to read yesterday, in the midst of all that stress and worry.

And for a cool article on getting through your inner writing critic, check out Gail Godwin's The Watcher at the Gate, posted by Ellen Kushner. So true!