Headed home. I’m in Seattle—new city! but it doesn’t really count since I’m not leaving the airport. New airport, at least. I want to come here and see the city someday, too.

Sunday workshop went well. A reasonable number of people seemed to like my story. Denise indicated it would be a rewrite story as well, so it didn’t entirely suck. If the anthos sell, she’ll be e-mailing us with rewrite requests. I may work on the prophecy story before then, while the comments are fresh in my mind, or I may wait until I hear from her, when I can look at the story with fresh eyes.

Most of us got together with lunch, and then we reluctantly disbanded. I got a ride with one of the Dans in his fancy sportscar, which had a wonderful rumble-purr. We got stuck in horrendous traffic (5 miles in 45 minutes), but at least it was in an evergreen-lined corridor. We stopped at his farm and I got to meet his horses and his many wonderful cats. I got to Lev and Gayle’s at about 8:30. They had picked up lamb curry for me when they went out to dinner, what lovely people. Hung out with them, and Morgana and Brian, until late. We looked at pictures from Pirate Tourney, and Lev’s most recent Morris dancing gig (he plays concertina for a Morris troupe), and Matrix Pingpong (look it up on Google. Trust me. It’s worth it.).

I slept reasonably well, although I woke up a couple of times, one time with a headache. Advil and more sleep chased that away. This morning Lev, Brian, and I played Yarrr!, a pirate game Lev and Gayle are developing. We helped tweak some of the rules (wonder if we’ll be listed as beta testers in the small print?). Much fun. We all ate lunch and then everyone piled in the van to see me off to the airport. I have to say, it was just so wonderful to hang out with friends and decompress. The workshop wasn’t stressful, but it was a lot of work, effort, and energy.

I started a new story whilst waiting at PDX. It’s one for which I’ve had the basic idea for awhile, but I couldn’t figure out who the protagonist was. Her voice came to me today. It’s sort of in the form of a letter—an anti-suicide note (a letter she’s writing to explain that she’s not committing suicide, even though it will look that way). 800 words so far.

My neck hurts. Grumble. It’ll be good to be back in my own bed tonight (and snuggling with my beloved!). I called Ken while I was eating supper (tuna salad, cucumber, and tomato on an onion bagel) but the line was busy. I hung up, and a moment later I had a message from him! Hee.

I picked up the latest Sword & Sorceress in the Powells at the airport, too. I contemplated the latest Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, but in the end decided against it for now. I’ve spent a lot of money this weekend. Better that I work on paying it off by writing more. I’ll pick up the book eventually. Actually, what I ought to do is ask my mom to get it for me every year for my birthday or Yule…