Dear Universe,

I would like to sell a story, please.

Love,
Heather

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My new goal is to work on writing at least a half an hour a night. Tim pointed out that I've been good about eating well and working out now for a few months, and that's got to be harder than sitting at the computer for a mere 30 minutes a night. And he's right, of course. I've been very good this week and worked on the novel on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and I intend to keep this up. The real test there is when I finish this editing/ rereading phase (which will be soon; I have only 12 pages left) and start into the writing phase again. I need to finish this novel. I have other novels I want to write. I have other stories that need serious rewriting. The good news is that I find myself mulling over my current novel characters as I fall asleep, and that I think I'll be able to do this thing. The bad news is that I'm sometimes scared I'll fail again.

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I ran into Cory Doctorow at the BART station last night and got to chat with him for a few stops. I got a gander at his new novel cover and it is soooo pretty that I experienced book cover envy. Not that I have even a bad book cover of my own, but I coveted Cory's. Very cool.

(Speaking of looking good, I hadn't seen Cory in about a year or so and he looks FANTASTIC. Damn.)

This is one of the very cool things about living in the SF Bay Area, running into cool people who are in town for only a few days and getting to chat for a bit. I really do love living around here for this and many other reasons.

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Now, I say that and then I'm about to say that part of me wants soooo badly to move into a little house just outside of town with Tim. I want to own a house so I can paint our bedroom green (much like this journal, actually), our living room something vibrant like dark read or purple, our bathroom blue (ok, so it's blue here, but I want it *my* blue,) our kitchen yellow/ orange... I want an office with a door so we don't have to wear headphones if the other is trying to watch TV or play video games in the other room. I want a porch that looks out over a garden, where we can write or have dinner or even sleep if we feel like it.

We took an online "find your spot" quiz (thanks, Jon!)and Portland, OR came up #1 for both of us. I've always liked that city, both the couple of times I visited (even the one time in January) and what I've read/ heard about it. We'll have to visit together, of course, but we're definitely leaning towards making it our home town here in a few years. We're hoping there's something nice a few miles outside of town, so we can get our quiet/ country fix without being too far away from it all...

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I have a headache today and yet I'm in a terrific mood. I attribute the mood to eating well and taking a walk last night. I attribute the headache to either allergies or a cold I'm catching from a coworker. It's weird to be in a good mood despite pain, especially since I was in a horrible mood most of the weekend without the pain.

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I guess that's it for now. Cheers!