I spent the first five years of my life in England thinking that I hated pubs. So it's been a real shock, ever since all the pubs (and restaurants) in England went smoke-free this summer, to learn that actually I really, really like pubs - it was only the density of smoke that used to fill the air of every pub I knew, clogging my lungs, tangling in my hair and clothes, and making me feel sick, that was what I really hated about them. Without the smoke, pubs are suddenly revealed to be cheerful places with big comfy seats, good alcoholic drinks of all description, admittedly mediocre Indian food, but really excellent fresh chips (English french fries), and you can hang out there for hours. Yesterday Patrick and I spent the late afternoon at our local pub, just down the street, where I drank strong sherry (no really!), Patrick drank (alcoholic) cider, we ate at least twice as many chips as we'd intended, and we played our own version of pub games. First we figured out the pseudonyms we'd taken on for various different genres (my high-lit-fic pen name is going to be: "Lawrence Kalamari"!), then we came up with ideal cast lists for the movies of our books. You can join in the game on Patrick's LJ by leaving a comment with your own answers to the questions! It's almost like joining us in the pub...which would be the one thing that would make it perfect for me! (Wiscon in an English pub...oh, yeah!)

With my perfect movie cast-list in (mental) hand, I finished Chapter Two of Kat by Starlight yesterday, and today I wrote the first 600 words of Chapter Three. Right now I'm still feeling my way into the plot, which means there's no point trying to force myself into strenuous daily wordcount goals like I did by the middle of the first book - I just don't know this book well enough for that yet. But I'm having a lot of fun so far. Afterwards, I rewarded myself by reading lots more of Emma Bull's Western historical fantasy novel, Territory (SOOOOOO good!!!! read it!!!!), and now I'm listening to Sophie Solomon's Poison Sweet Madeira, which is really fun (thank you, Alex!). It's shaping up to be a really nice day.